theScore is earning points in the office digs department.
The Canadian digital media and sports betting company announced it would lease an 80,000 square foot office space in downtown Toronto -- right next to the Muskoka chair-filled Sugar Beach on the waterfront.
The company said it would occupy more than 85% of the space in The Exchange, one of the two Menkes Developments Ltd. and BentallGreenOak buildings that are part of the shiny new 475,000-square-foot Waterfront Innovation Centre office and retail development property.
Designed by Toronto’s Sweeny & Co Architects Inc., the Waterfront Innovation Centre's two buildings feature three interconnected components: The Exchange, The Hive, and The Nexus. Connecting the two buildings, the Nexus will act as a public square.
The state-of-the-art Exchange building will house theScore’s rapidly growing workforce and accommodate the company’s long-awaited rollout of sports betting in Canada.
The design of the building will allow theScore to create an open and collaborative office environment tailored to its business. In particular, theScore will benefit from the Waterfront's ultra-high-speed broadband fibre-optic network, which will deliver internet connection speeds faster than the North American average, as well as sophisticated audio-visual and video conferencing tools.
“As our technology-driven business has grown across North America so too has theScore family, particularly in product development and engineering, with new team members joining every week. We are committed to supporting our strong Toronto roots, continuing to grow our operations and workforce, and are thrilled to do so in a new, state-of-the-art waterfront office space,” said theScore Chairman and CEO, John Levy.
“Moving into this newly constructed building affords us the opportunity to design our ideal work environment and provides ample space for our rapidly expanding team. The Waterfront is fast becoming a hub for some of Ontario’s most innovative and forward-thinking companies, and we are excited that it will be our home for many years to come,” he added.
In December, Menkes announced that another nearby property Sugar Wharf (100 Queens Quay East), will be the new home of Richardson Wealth (formerly Richardson GMP Limited). At the time, the transaction marked the first significant lease in the downtown core since the onset of COVID-19.
The recent commercial real estate activity on Toronto's rapidly changing waterfront signifies an expected return to the office in the not too distant future. And if the back-from-the-dead Toronto rental market is any indication, the return – or anticipated return – to the office is drawing people back to the downtown core, as bidding wars for rentals become part of the game.
