Would you please not post unsubstantive comments to HN?

this is not software though, when its up and running you can't just go there and shut it down, so somebody else would probably take Googles place IF that happens. This is an independent company financed by Google and this would probably be their most important project, so it's not like Google shutting down Wave/Reader/whatever.

Wouldn't almost all the cost be front loaded making their ongoing involvement nice but not required?

They can't just flip a switch and make it happen. If I were Toronto I'd make them put a decent amount of money in an escrow account so the project is finished no matter what.

But then this is Google's tech, so if they leave not sure how it works.

So your concern isn't the ongoing operation but that they start working with waterfront TO on these 12 blocks and leave before their ideas are implemented?

Why would the city require more of them than any other developer? Any development has a chance of falling before completion.

I don't have a "concern," I merely stated what most people think of anything Google. I don't know enough about this project (the article didn't either) and I don't have a dog in this race. However, I do remember my grandma saying to never put any eggs in Google's baskets. She always said that she heard that from her grandma.

Google will look after it's own interests, all the time. That's every quarter.

Every developer will look after their own interests every quarter.

Artificially planned mixed use "downtowns" (for lack of a better term) require some sort of anchoring force: location, food and shopping, employment, etc. If that force here is based on google doing something--and they fail or just stop--then the development will fail.

America is littered with these kind of developments. In growing markets with strong demand, worst case, you just turn the retail/office space into lofts and rent them. But in areas where demand isn't high, you get empty strip malls.

And if all google is doing is building apartment/condo buildings in a hot real estate market, this isn't some digital moonshot vision of the future. They are just building apartments in a can't lose environment. Anyone can do that.

In this case the anchoring force is provided by WaterfrontTO and it is close enough(walkable) to the financial district and the new south core district that even if it was just apartments it would fill out quickly. I think the Google stuff is just a bonus.

I don't even think they are building the apartments from how I read it they are just providing a layer of services on top for the new project.

Well there would obviously be contractual agreements put in place for something like this.