In announcing their plan to build Maple Leaf Square in downtown Toronto, a consortium of developers signalled their intention to pull a Gretzky - racing not to where the puck is now, but to where it is headed.

In other words, the $350-million multi-use complex to be developed just west of the Air Canada Centre by 2009 is designed for a future in which the cutting-edge trend of creating "people places" - by combining sports and entertainment with restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, condominiums and public squares - adds up to an urban mecca that will generate big bucks for all concerned.

This is the model that is proving to be successful in similar projects such as the popular ESPN Zone in New York City's Times Square and L.A. Live in the Staples Center, now being developed in Los Angeles, says Ian Clarke, executive vice-president and CFO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).

MLSE owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Raptors, as well as the Leafs TV and Raptors TV specialty channels. Its partners in the Maple Leaf Square (MLS) project are Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. and Lanterra Developments.

Courtesy Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.
Artist's renderings of the proposed Maple Leaf Square, above, and MLS Plaza, see below, which will take a "dead piece of land" and turn it into a "catalyst for city-building" in Toronto.

"As a company, you're always looking forward to where you should be going," Clarke says. "This is a very strategic and important growth initiative for the city, and it's going to create a lot of exciting opportunities."

Joe Pantalone, Toronto's deputy mayor, agrees and says that MLS will be an "absolute win" for the city because "it essentially takes a dead piece of land, which is now a parking lot and an unneeded section of the old railway corridor, and turns it into a catalyst for city-building, much the same way the Eaton Centre did.

"(The complex) will also complement the city's plan for revitalizing the waterfront by extending downtown much closer to the lake," Pantalone adds. "So, together with all the activity at the Air Canada Centre, that area will perform much better for residents and visitors when Maple Leaf Square is completed."

Three million Torontonians and tourists per year already visit the ACC for games, concerts and other events, Clarke says. "Our plan is to draw more people down there and keep them longer, pre- and post-game."

Considering all that Maple Leaf Square will have going for it, if events occur according to the ambitious plan, that goal sounds realistic. The complex will have three parts.

Its heart will be a half-acre public square between Bay and York streets linked to Union Station via an underground passage and to the ACC by a glass-covered walkway.

The square will include 2,400 sq. m of upscale restaurant space along with what MLSE calls a "high-tech" sports bar overlooking a broadcast studio. Instead of buying tickets, 600 bar patrons will be able to watch games live on huge, high-definition screens, one of which will be on the wall of the ACC.

The screens also will be visible to the 2,000 people who can be accommodated in a music club with a dance floor and seating on three levels, where MLSE also plans to book live music acts.

There has been speculation that MLSE is unlikely to allow so many people to watch its televised games free of charge, but Clarke says that will not be the case. "It will be just like the sports bars we have today, where all people pay for is their food and drinks."

Surrounding the public square will be a 37,000-sq.-m, eight-storey mall.

Courtesy Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.
MLS Plaza

The mall will include a 7,000-seat theatre, 1,200-room convention hotel, 171-room sports-themed boutique hotel and 900 condos in two towers, one with 44 storeys and other with 40. Both will include commercial and office space.

Added to that will be nearly 16,000 sq. m of retail space, including an 840-sq.-m store dedicated to MLSE's sports properties, which include the Maple Leafs St. John's minor team, which will relocate to Toronto next season. The shopping complex will consist of four stores - Leafsport, Raptorsport, Her Team and Lil'Team.

Signing on to take this vision to reality are architects Bruce Kuwabara and Shirley Blumberg, of Kuwabara, Payne, McKenna and Blumberg; Sol Wasermuhl and Vlad Losner of Page + Steele; and landscape architect Greg Smallenberg.

Clark says ground for MLS will be broken some time next year and that the project will create more than 1,700 construction jobs, plus about 500 full- and part-time positions when the complex is completed.

That is another good thing from the city's point of view, says Pantalone, who points out that Maple Leaf Square is the fourth major development project slated for Toronto's downtown core.

The others include the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.'s plan to build a 53-storey luxury hotel and condominium, the Sapphire Tower, and the Trump Hotel and Tower, all of which are due for completion in 2009.

Clarke says the new square will turn "a wasteland eyesore" into "a catalyst" in attracting more tourism, conventions and other events to Toronto, as well as more residents to the waterfront district.

Clarke says he does not anticipate any difficulty in raising the $350 million for the project. "We think that with the partners that are involved, as well as what this project will mean for the city in the way we're structuring it - as a unique Toronto tourist destination and a place to be seen and to live - there will be a lot of interest from potential financiers," he says.

(Terry Poulton can be reached at poulton@businessedge.ca)