Cadillac Fairview and the Ontario Pension Board (OPB) recently broke ground on a $479 million office tower project in Toronto, helping to spur the growth of urban development in the area.

The official groundbreaking, which took place May 17, was for a 32-storey office tower site at 16 York St., south of Bremner Boulevard. John Sullivan, Cadillac Fairview’s president and CEO; Wayne Barwise, executive vice president of development at Cadillac Fairview; and Mark Fuller, Ontario Pension Board CEO, were among those who attended the event.

The new 879,000-square-foot office tower will include underground parking levels, 289 parking stalls and retail space on the ground level. The tower is slated to be finished in June 2020.

Cadillac Fairview, whose portfolio is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is one of the biggest operators, owners and developers of office retail and mixed-use properties in North America, according to an announcement.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan administers over 300,000 current and retired school teacher’s pensions. The real estate holdings include retail, mixed-use and industrial property investments in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The Canadian investments are valued at over $28 billion, which makes it one of the nation’s largest pension plans and includes 38 million leasable square feet at 67 properties in Canada.