Bay Street is dubbed as the Financial District of downtown Toronto, which is also the ground zero of investment banks, law firms, shopping malls as well as top Canadian real estates. It is comparable to Wall Street in New York but not in a grand scale. As Toronto’s major thoroughfare, Bay Street is where you can find four out of the top five banks in Canada, namely Scotiabank, CIBC, Bank of Montreal, and Toronto-Dominion Bank. These four banks have their head office towers at the Bay and King Street intersection which is considered as the vortex of banking and finance in the country.

Originally referred as Bear Street, aside from being known as the center of Canada’s financial industry, in the legal profession, Bay Street is a colloquial term used to refer big, full-scale, large and top-tier law firms in Toronto. The street’s name was coined in 1797, which came into being because of the simple fact that it connects Toronto Harbour Bay to Lot Street, which is known as Queen Street West at the present day. Before 1797, Bear Street was the prior name used to refer to Bay Street, mainly because there were plenty of bear sightings in the area during that time.

Considered as the center of Canada’s banking and finance making it the heart of the country’s economy, Bay and King Street intersection was historically known as the MINT Corner which stands for Montreal, Imperial, Nova Scotia, and Toronto-Dominion. However, when the Imperial Bank became a part of the Nova Scotia Bank and the CIBC, they rebranded themselves and this nickname (MINT Corner) was not used anymore.

Around the 19th century, Bay Street was once home to the major newspapers in Toronto, which include the Old Toronto Star Building, The Mail Builidng, and the Old Globe and Mail Building. Today, the street is home not only to the top investment banks in Toronto but also to the best law firms and real estates in the country.

By the 1990s, condiminium development boomed at the north side of Bay Street. As more and more condominiums are being constructed, the area has become a full-fledged residential neighborhood which is all thanks to the continuous upsurge in condominium construction. Although majority of the residents in the area is composed of singles and young couples, more Canadian families are now trading suburban life to multi-unit living in Toronto’s bustling district.

Deciding to live in the Bay Street Corridor will allow you access to almost everything, from the top law firms, biggest banks, luxurious condo units, and high-end shopping areas. Since this is the case, you should anticipate that living in such kind of neighborhood will not come cheap, therefore, you have to closely assess if you are really capable of living here.