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Penthouse International: how rich foreign buyers are fuelling the condo explosion

The rumours are true: wealthy buyers from Russia, China and the Middle East all want a piece of Toronto. A story about smuggled cash, speculating flippers and empty towers

By Denise Balkissoon | Photography by Norman Wong

The Ghulmiyyah family is the definition of jet set. Originally from Lebanon, Hala and Majed had their first son in the United States before settling in the United Arab Emirates, where they oversee the Ghulmiyyah construction business. There, they had two more sons. The family’s base is a four-bedroom house in their company compound in Abu Dhabi. They also own a ski chalet and a beach house in Lebanon.

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The Goods

Stores

October 29, 2012 | 4:29 pm

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Holt Renfrew enters the off-price fray with hr2

Holt Renfrew isn’t taking the American retail invasion lightly. The luxury retailer has announced plans to open an off-price offshoot called hr2 that will carry lower-priced styles and excess inventory from all but one of Holt Renfrew’s top 50 designer brands. The first hr2 stores will open in Brossard, Quebec, and a mystery Ontario location in March 2013, sending a clear message to incoming retailers Target and Nordstrom (arriving in 2013 and 2014, respectively) that it intends to remain competitive in a more crowded market. (In fact, the new format mimics Nordstrom’s moves south of the border with its discount arm, Rack.) Holt’s will also convert its Last Call outlet into an hr2, switching the focus to new merchandise rather than last season’s clearance items—though reportedly there will still be a few bargain racks to sift through. [Globe and Mail]

The Dish

Deathwatch

October 26, 2012 | 10:52 am

27 Comments

Leslieville Cheese Market closes its Queen West location, blaming Loblaws

The sign currently in the window at the Queen West Leslieville Cheese Market (Image: Matthew Fox)

The west end Leslieville Cheese Market has shut its doors after a three-year run at the corner of Queen Street West and Augusta Avenue. A small handwritten sign posted in the window unabashedly points the finger at the agent of its destruction—local grocery giant Loblaws. The story follows a familiar refrain: a small, independently owned business is summarily ousted from the neighbourhood when a big-box super-chain moves in next door. Leslieville Cheese Market owner Michael Simpson tells us that after a successful two-and-a-half years, revenues rapidly declined with the introduction of a Loblaws location one block away. Given high operating costs, Simpson had no choice but to close. Those in need of cheese have two options: travel across town to Simpson’s other two locations—in Leslieville and Donlands—or check out the giant (but evil!) wall of cheese at the local Loblaws.

The Informer

Features

October 22, 2012 | 3:00 pm

12 Comments

What Toronto Needs Now: Richard Florida offers a manifesto for a new model of leadership

The city’s great period of growth won’t continue if we don’t enlist the best and brightest minds from Bay Street, the universities and the public sector

By Richard Florida | Photograph by Markian Lozowchuk

Richard Florida believes Toronto should take a cue from innovative city-building strategies in Silicon Valley and Chicago

In 2007, when my wife and I moved here from Washington, D.C., Toronto was ascendant. I’d been offered a job at the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank investigating the competitiveness of cities. Toronto, it seemed to us, was an open, tolerant place offering a superb quality of life for its wide range of citizens. It was a destination of choice because of its thriving, stable economy, world-class banks, medical centres and cultural institutions, safety and livability, and diverse neighborhoods. It appeared a model of social cohesion, where people from across the globe were attracted to the prospect of a better future. Toronto’s best days were ahead.

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The Informer

Features

October 22, 2012 | 1:52 pm

2 Comments

Editor’s Letter (November 2012): Toronto’s glossy new global appeal

Sarah Fulford The U.S. presidential race has been depressing to watch. The portrait of America that has emerged from the conventions and the debates and the attack ads is grim: a country plagued by vast unemployment and a shrinking middle class, where many average citizens can’t pay the bills. For the first time in generations, Americans anticipate their kids will never make as much money as they do. Even the flow of illegal immigrants to the U.S. is slowing; since the economy crashed in 2008, the number of Mexicans sneaking across the border has declined.

Both presidential candidates think they know how to fix the country. Obama believes in sharing the wealth, and Romney believes in the power of the free market. The only thing they agree on is that the American dream is in tatters.

Or maybe it just got displaced. Maybe it moved to Canada. We have our share of economic challenges, as anyone in Stephen Harper’s office could tell you. But compared with many troubled spots on the globe, Canada is paradise. Our middle class is relatively stable, and people from all over the world are desperate to move here. This country, of course, has always attracted immigrants in search of a better life. But Canada wasn’t necessarily a first-choice destination. Now, as Europe experiences extreme economic volatility and the U.S. becomes a place where people are working three minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet, Canada’s status abroad has greatly improved.

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The Informer

Business

October 18, 2012 | 2:52 pm

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Hudson’s Bay Company’s U.S.-based owners are taking the company public

(Image: JamesZ_Flickr)

After months of rumours, the American owners of Hudson’s Bay Company have officially announced that they’re going public with Canada’s oldest company. NRDC Equity Partners, the New York–based private group that has owned HBC since 2008, has filed for an initial public offering of shares of HBC, Home Outfitters and U.S. chain Lord and Taylor. According to the pundits, the timing is good: the Bay’s sales have jumped in the past two years (the department store was reportedly breaking even or losing money for 20 years prior), and selling shares now will ensure NRDC cashes in before revenues are undercut by incoming American giants Nordstrom and Target. All of which means patriotic Canadians eager to bring the iconic stripes home will finally be able to do so (well, one share at a time). [Toronto Star]

The Informer

Business

October 18, 2012 | 1:57 pm

1 Comment

Are BlackBerrys embarrassing? The debate continues

Do you keep your BlackBerry hidden? Barack Obama does (Image: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty)

The New York Times started an online furor earlier this week with an article on the social shame of carrying a BlackBerry in a market dominated by Android phones and iPhones (even corporate clients are making the switch). In a manner akin to confessing their transgressions at an A.A. meeting, BlackBerry users are quoted describing the scornful looks they receive, and the indignity of relying on others to pull up maps, make reservations or search for restaurants:

“I’m ashamed of it,” said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.

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The Hype

From the Print Edition

October 17, 2012 | 3:30 pm

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The Collector: How Ash Prakash became the preeminent art dealer for the country’s wealthiest families

A look at the reclusive art collector renowned for his connections, his discretion, and his secret stash of multi-million-dollar masterpieces

By Leah McLaren | Photograph by Daniel Ehrenworth

The Collector: How Ash Prakash became the preeminent art collector for the country’s wealthiest families

One evening last November, at the Sotheby’s auction in the ROM’s Currelly Gallery, Ash Prakash entered into a heated bidding war with David Loch, a Winnipeg-based art dealer. The coveted object was a dreamy, impressionistic early-20th-century canvas by the Quebec artist James Wilson Morrice entitled Evening Stroll, Venice, which depicts a moody twilight scene of women bustling past the gondolas on the lagoon. Prakash wanted the painting for his personal collection, and put in several bids. He paused as the price soared over a million—he hadn’t expected the piece to be so dear. He knew through the grapevine that Loch was bidding on behalf of a client, which only hardened his resolve: he was spending his own money, and he was determined to win.

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The Informer

Features

October 5, 2012 | 1:30 pm

2 Comments

The (New) Four Seasons: How Issy Sharp and his flush friends plan to reclaim the haute hotel crown

By Veronica Maddocks

Behind the Scenes at the New Four Seasons

As if competing in Toronto’s suddenly crowded luxury hotel business weren’t stressful enough, the new Four Seasons condo-hotel—which opens October 5 at Bay and Yorkville—has another burden to bear: it’s designed to be the flagship outpost of the 88-location brand. As the last light bulb was being screwed in, we dropped by to find out how the bosses plan to out-luxe the competition. Herewith, a numerical odyssey into the heart of the new Four Seasons.

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The Informer

Business

September 28, 2012 | 3:15 pm

7 Comments

Five things we learned about Kevin O’Leary from Report on Business’s scathing feature

(Image: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment)

Although Kevin O’Leary undoubtedly enjoys the spotlight, there are things the businessman and professional pot-stirrer would probably prefer to keep quiet. This morning, Report on Business published a lengthy investigative profile by Bruce Livesey and Tim Kiladze that skewers his carefully wrought image as a savvy and successful business leader. Below, the five juiciest tidbits about the media personality, including the inside scoop on a failed Dragons’ Den deal, and why some investment advisors are wary of O’Leary’s investment fund.

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The Goods

Stores

September 25, 2012 | 4:52 pm

2 Comments

Celebrity stylist Brad Goreski wants women to start wearing Mark’s Work Wearhouse

Brad Goreski at New York Fashion Week earlier this month (Image: Angela Weiss/Getty Images Entertainment)

Mark’s Work Wearhouse has brought in It’s a Brad Brad World’s Brad Goreski in an effort to rebrand itself as a purveyor of casual wear for women as well as working gear for men—an effort that also involves losing the “Work Wearhouse” part of its name and offering yoga gear. Mark’s, as it is now known, has tasked Goreski with speaking about the retailer’s efforts and styling looks—actual looks!—from its fall/winter line. So far, the new concept seems to be working: Sales are up seven per cent in Calgary, where the concept was introduced last year, largely driven by the new women’s wear. Mark’s is now directing its efforts toward the GTA (or, as far as key markets go, “ground zero,” as COO Harry Taylor puts it). [Toronto Star]

The Informer

Real Estate

September 19, 2012 | 4:03 pm

6 Comments

Real estate cheat sheet: the average house price in Toronto is now over $800,000

(Image: Jeremy Burgin)

In most of Canada, home prices are starting to stagnate (or even fall), suggesting that the country’s real estate market is finally starting to cool (the stricter mortgage regulations enacted by Jim Flaherty at the start of the summer seem to be taking effect). However, in Toronto, single-family detached homes continue to be the holy grail of real estate. This week, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported that the average price of a detached house has again moved north of $800,000 for the first time after dipping over the summer. So what gives? We break down the numbers, and what they mean.

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The Informer

Business

September 18, 2012 | 3:10 pm

5 Comments

The three biggest corporate cash hoarders in Toronto (and what we imagine they’re doing with the dough)

Last month, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney accused corporate Canada of hoarding hundreds of billions of dollars of “dead money,” kicking off a heated debate over whether companies are being tight-fisted at a time when the economy could use a little stimulation. (Carney says companies should invest in Canada by spending the money or pay dividends to shareholders, while others say having large cash holdings is just prudent, considering that the global economic outlook is still far from certain.) The Toronto Star’s list of Canada’s top corporate hoarders includes three local (or semi-local) companies: George Weston Limited, Research in Motion and Magna International. Below, the answers they gave the paper—along with our own, speculative answers—to the question: What does one do with more than a billion dollars?

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The Informer

Business

September 17, 2012 | 3:24 pm

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“BBM” is now a real word, according to the Collins English Dictionary

Word nerds, take note: ”BBM,” the abbreviation, noun and verb encompassing every facet of BlackBerry Messenger, is officially part of the English lexicon. Anyone who forgets how to spell it can now find the word in the Collins English Dictionary, in between BBL and BBQ (quite a nice spot, we’d say). That’s a happy bit of news for Research in Motion, but we can’t help thinking that Collins’s timing is a little odd—considering RIM’s future is looking bleaker and bleaker, the word may go out of use before too long.

The Informer

Business

September 13, 2012 | 5:13 pm

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BlackBerrys are disappearing from U.S. retail shelves

Research in Motion is struggling according to nearly every conventional measure of business success: its stock price has plummeted, its market share is waning and its earnings are dismal. Now, BlackBerrys are losing space on retail shelves. According to James Faucette, an analyst at tech investment firm Pacific Crest, U.S. wireless carriers are downsizing their BlackBerry inventories and displaying fewer of the smart phones in their stores (the snazzy new iPhone 5 and upcoming Windows 8 phone will likely only exacerbate the problem). Faucette also noted, “We found a meaningful number of carrier retail locations which had not sold a single BlackBerry in over a month.” Though it’s unclear whether that’s the cause or an effect of being squeezed off the shelves. [All Things D]

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