Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation sells Annex coworking space, one office remains
Why It Matters
Interest rates and economic volatility have created challenges for the non-profit sector. However, some mission-driven organizations, like the Centre for Social Innovation, are finding creative solutions. Could community-led financing assist other social purpose organizations?
The Centre for Social Innovation has sold its co-working space in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood after two years on the market.
The centre listed the 36,000 square foot office space, located at 720 Bathurst Street, after rising costs became untenable for the non-profit, according to CEO Tonya Surman.
“It’s just a very old building and it needs a lot more love than what we can afford to offer it as a non-profit,” she said.
The centre purchased the property in 2010, which offered shared coworking spaces for social innovators.
When the non-profit’s mortgage was renewed last year, interest rates doubled, increasing annual payments by $600,000.
The centre quickly raised $10 million through community bonds, a social finance tool that offers investors a financial return while supporting a social purpose organization, and combined that with sale proceeds to pay off its debts.
“Taking a look at some of the other stuff that’s happened in the social purpose real estate world over the last two years, it’s just been heartbreaking,” Surman said.
Surman said they received six purchase offers, but decided to sell the space to a social-purpose organization that wishes to remain anonymous at this time.
Surman said paying off the centre’s mortgage will help the organization focus on its last remaining coworking space in Toronto.
“We do have our community bond investors. So we will be officially 100 per cent community financed,” she said.
This property is the third closed by the organization in recent years.
In 2020, its offices in New York and Toronto’s east-end Regent Park neighbourhood were closed due to dramatic revenue losses stemming from pandemic lockdowns.
“We lost 55 per cent of our members during that time, and it was a rocky comeback,” Surman said.
While the change is good for the non-profit, she knows it will disappoint many remote workers who used the Annex’s space.
“It’s so bittersweet. I love this place so much.”
The non-profit’s next step is to host member consultations exploring ways to engage Toronto residents in “co-creating a better Toronto with amazing social infrastructure.”
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