George Brown College (GBC) is expanding its footprint with a major real estate acquisition – and its students will enjoy no shortage of breezy lake views.
Today, GBC announced the purchase of 25 Dockside Drive – also known as Corus Quay – to create (over the long-term) a consolidated waterfront campus. The massive 480,000-sq.-ft state-of-the-art building sits next to Sugar Beach and backs onto a waterfront pedestrian promenade. It is currently home to Corus Entertainment, Irene Restaurant, and Ecobee.
The $232.5M acquisition will create an expanded waterfront campus for the college, offering more spaces for students to gather and learn.
According to GBC, the acquisition was made possible thanks to an innovative joint acquisition with equity partner Halmont Properties. The transaction was conducted with H & R REIT which has owned the building since 2012, and is expected to close in the Spring of 2024.
“The joint acquisition of 25 Dockside is a vital long-term investment and asset for George Brown College and partners in support of our students and their success in Ontario’s labour market, and in the economy of today and tomorrow,” said Dr. Gervan Fearon, President of GBC. “It will enable us to expand our academic offerings and fulfill our commitment to the development and education of our future leaders.”
GBC has been busy expanding its footprint throughout the city in the past decade.
In 2012, the college opened the Daphne Cockwell Centre for Health Sciences (288 Church Street) to provide leading-edge education and training in the health sciences. In 2019, the college relocated its School of Design south to the Daniels City of the Arts complex (130 Queens Quay East) establishing a hub for design, innovation and technical skills training in the East Bayfront community – not far from the Chorus Quay building.
In 2025, George Brown will open Limberlost Place, Ontario’s largest institutional mass timber building, at 185 Queens Quay East. Limberlost Place will be home to the School of Architectural Technology and the School of Computer Technology.
The expansion of GBC’s waterfront campus to include 25 Dockside supports Waterfront Toronto and all three orders of Governments’ ongoing efforts to revitalize the eastern waterfront. This includes the recently approved $64M investment by the City of Toronto to advance the Waterfront East LRT design to a shovel-ready 60% design threshold.
"Toronto's east waterfront has grown dramatically over the past decade and it's just getting started,” says former city councillor Joe Cressy, who is now the Senior Vice President of External Relations, Communications, and Real Estate Development at GBC. “By 2040, there will be an estimated 130,000 new residents and 50,000 new jobs along the waterfront. With our unique position on the waterfront, George Brown College is poised to be a foundational part of that growth, and a partner in addressing the long-term economic and social prosperity of Toronto, and Ontario.”
The Province of Ontario approved GBC taking on the head lease for 25 Dockside Drive, as is required for Crown agencies, under Section 28 of the Financial Administration Act, according to George Brown. Corus Entertainment will continue to maintain its long-term lease of the building.
“George Brown College’s joint acquisition of 25 Dockside is an investment that will help to provide leading-edge training and education to Ontario’s next generation of skilled workers and entrepreneurs,” said Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities. “This is the type of leadership and innovation in postsecondary education that will help to lay the foundation for a strong economic future for Ontario.”
Of course, with an expanding campus comes the need for more student housing. "George Brown College's acquisition of 25 Dockside is a part of our larger 2050 campus master plan to better support our students, and the focus here is on providing future academic space,” says said Michelle McCollum, Vice-President of Facilities and Sustainability at George Brown College. “We are also continuing to work hard to create more student housing spaces through our housing task force.”
As for the famous indoor slide that currently greets visitors of the Corus Quay building, we can only hope it remains intact.
