GTA vs. Downtown: The Better Choice for Your Office Space Relocation

Posted on June 10, 2013 Updated on June 5, 2013

Planning to move into a new office space in either Downtown Toronto or the outskirts of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)?

Moving into either location is a crucial decision that will not only affect your pool of customers or the clients that you will attract, but also the employees that will be working for you. In recent years, several developments have taken place that you should factor in when weighing your decision.

Toronto Downtown

According to a recent report by TD Bank, Toronto downtown’s population has more than tripled in the last five years. Echo Boomers, those who were born between 1972 and 1992, are largely responsible for this. The Echo Boomers comprise the new young generation—aspiring, energetic, and highly educated. If you are looking for a labor pool with talented and skilled people, downtown seems like an easy answer.

But take note: this will not necessarily be the trend in the next decade or so. After all, the Echo Boomers are a product of their parents who chose to leave downtown back in the 70s to buy homes in the suburbs.  It’s too early to say that the Echo Boomers will stay once they hit late adulthood or old age.

Toronto downtown is quickly turning into a world-class city, and the development in its infrastructure, public facilities, and other services has never been this fast.

Greater Toronto Area

While Toronto Downtown is on its way to establishing its status as a booming industrial location, GTA has well established itself as such. Currently, it holds over 200 million square feet of office space—much more office space than Toronto Downtown, although of course most of this has already been filled by offices.

The population in GTA is much larger and more diverse.  It is growing by more than one million each decade, and promises more jobs in the next few years as office development is one of the major thrusts of the area.

If there’s any problem, perhaps it is the public transportation system. Employees have been grumbling about poor transportation and twisted highways.

Verdict

Either area has its highlights. If you want a more stable area that will more or less retain its demographics in the next few years, GTA seems like the smarter choice. But you shouldn’t dismiss the clear advantage of Toronto Downtown. Big companies like Google Inc and Coca-cola are relocating offices into the area for a reason, and the brightest young minds are moving into the area. Can you afford to stay away from the place everyone is clearly talking about?