Shahin Alizadeh
Shahin Alizadeh’s dream of developing the first North American multi-use Autoplex featuring residential, commercial and automotive components under the Downtown Auto Group (DAG) banner is expected to be completed sometime in 2026, but there will be the addition of a new car brand in the next few weeks.
Lexus will join Toyota, Ford, Lincoln, Hyundai, Nissan, Infiniti and Genesis in the Autoplex, which borders the southern part of the Don Valley Expressway. DAG President and CEO Shahin Alizadeh told Canadian auto dealer he is relocating the downtown Lexus dealership from its current location near the Autoplex and has been operating for nearly 15 years.
“I think it will be one of the most powerful combinations in the city, I do believe that, because of the fact Toyota has had a tremendous presence on this site,” said Alizadeh.
He had moved his downtown Chrysler store to the Autoplex five years ago, but still had a 10-year lease on the other property. He said the cost of paying the two rents was too prohibitive and it made no sense to continue doing that, so the old building was refurbished for the move back. He also said Toyota and Lexus supported the idea of combining the two at the Autoplex.
“We’ve increased our business by almost 50 per cent since we moved in here. It would be fairly safe to assume the same thing will happen with Lexus,” said Alizadeh. “The exposure on the Parkway is incredible, 200,000 cars go past it every day. The current Lexus building is fine, but it doesn’t have great visibility, so people have to look for it to know where it is. With it here, you can’t miss it. That’s where my decision was based on.”
Alizadeh said the condominium, which has almost 900 units that sold out fairly quickly, already has tenants. There is a Wendy’s franchise opening in a couple of months and plans for a shopping centre. Alizadeh said there is still room for another 35,000-square feet (3,251 square metres) of commercial space that he and his partner are marketing.
From an automotive standpoint, he said the project has been fantastic. But from a real condominium perspective, it has been underwhelming.
“Although we didn’t get caught with the woes of all the other developers that are facing massive decline in market value, the cost overruns and COVID and everything else that came along made it a bit of a backwards financial model for us,” said Alizadeh. “I’d never been involved in anything like this and I think it’s fair to say I won’t do it again.”
