A second tower crane is up at Daniels Waterfront, and VP Don Pugh tells us delivery of the 1.32M SF mixed-use community’s commercial space is slated for spring 2018, on schedule thanks to a cooperative winter.

We snapped Don with Daniels lead broker Dominic Tompa at the project presentation centre, with a model showing the office block at Daniels Waterfront. The first building to launch, the 10-storey east tower at 130 Queens Quay E, has 51 office-condo units, the only ones on the waterfront, some with private terraces (there’ll be a second tower beside this). Dominic says several office-condo purchasers have also bought units at the first of Daniels Waterfront’s two condo buildings, Lighthouse Tower. “They want to live and work in the same community.”

Dubbed City of the Arts, the community's commercial complex will house creative groups, including Artscape Toronto's new HQ and Artscape Launchpad, an incubator space. Daniels is also moving its offices here. OCAD University will have a satellite campus at Daniels Waterfront, and Don says they're in talks with George Brown College. On the office block’s western side, at Jarvis Street and Queens Quay, will be an extension of Sugar Beach, with a restaurant/patio. Also coming in 2018 is The Yard, a promenade and events area lined with shops and eateries, a big chunk of the project’s 25k SF of retail.

A rendering of The Yard, the heart of Daniels Waterfront. “This is a sophisticated, integrated community with many moving parts,” Don stresses, noting that his company was a mixed-use pioneer in Toronto, with arts-centered developments such as TIFF Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower, and the ongoing and extensive revitalization of Regent Park, which includes the Daniels Spectrum cultural facility. City of the Arts, built on the first privately owned plot in East Bayfront, represents the culmination of those past experiences, says Don.

Across town, things are moving along at Daniels Erin Mills, a mixed-use development at Eglinton Avenue West and Erin Mills Parkway. The community's purpose-built rental tower—Mississauga’s first in decades, developed in partnership with Sun Life Financial—occupies March 1, and the first condo is nearing completion, with a second (pictured) launching this summer that’ll include a sizable retail and office component. And on a plot it owns kitty-corner to this site, Daniels is planning a third wave of development. Company founder John Daniels helped create Erin Mills in the '70s. “Now” says Don, ”we’re shaping its future.”