The Canadian flag flutters in the afternoon breeze in the Toronto-Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto on Sept 13 2013.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Toronto-Dominion Bank is hunting for potential new office space in Toronto.
The bank has hired brokerage CBRE to look for two different sites, according to sources.
Its first request is 150,000 square feet of space on a subway line, which the bank would potentially move into in the near term.
It is also seeking 400,000 square feet for 2017, according to sources.
That's a significant chunk of space. To put it in context, Sun Life Financial recently disclosed that it will be moving its headquarters to a new Toronto location where it will take 300,000 square feet of space.
"We manage our real estate with a view to employee experience, environmental leadership, and best-in-class facilities management," TD spokeswoman Barbara Timmins said.
She said the company takes a long term view in its planning and, at this stage, is just exploring all the options it has on a preliminary basis. Some of its leases are coming up for renewal in the next few years and those are the spaces the bank is considering vacating. Ms. Timmins did not say which buildings those leases were in, but said they represent a "relatively small portion" of the downtown real estate that the bank occupies.
One real estate industry source noted that companies sometimes explore their options as a bargaining tactic, just so that their landlord knows they are looking for the best rent they can get when the lease comes up for renewal.
TD's head office is in the Toronto-Dominion Centre, which is owned by Cadillac Fairview, the real estate arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre was conceived in the 1960s when the bank wanted a new head office. The project was bigger in scope than anything in the country at the time. It now has six towers with 4-million square feet in total, housing a large roster of tenants in addition to TD.