Property firm Morguard revealed plans in May for Canada’s tallest condo tower, an 83-story, 600-unit giant on Bloor West’s Mink Mile. Recently, Urbanation took a closer look at the preliminary designs, and discovered a very intriguing feature: a half-acre rooftop park that would go above Holt Renfrew. In addition to landscaped gardens, the terrace would include a running track, a tennis court, and a seasonal skating rink, all privately maintained but open to the public. The project is still in re-zoning limbo, and concerns remain about the behemoth condominium’s impact on the Bloor-Yonge neighbourhood. Still, recovering from a shopping spree in a leafy rooftop oasis sounds awfully nice. [Urban Toronto]
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A developer is proposing a public park for the rooftop of Holt Renfrew
Real estate cheat sheet: demand for offices, condo bidding wars and the echo boom’s influence
The sale of the TD Canada Trust Tower was one of the largest office property deals in 2012 (Image: Nhl4hamilton)
For the past six months, local real estate chatter revolved around Toronto’s cooling housing market. This week presented a refreshing change: three separate stories on how and why the city’s real estate sector is still alive and, in the case of commercial property, in hot demand. Below, we break down what the latest numbers mean.
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Aging apartment buildings are becoming more and more like condos
Toronto’s forest of condo towers is now influencing decor schemes at decades-old apartment buildings across the GTA, according to a recent Toronto Star article. In an effort to attract young professionals and downsizing boomers, large-scale landlords like Timbercreek Asset Management, CAPREIT and Shiplake Management are adding condo-style features like spacious lobbies, gyms, party rooms and updated, amenity-stocked suites (stainless steel appliances, anyone?). Unfortunately, the rents are also more condo than apartment: a one-bedroom suite in a renovated building at Dufferin and King costs $1,450 per month,which is $447 more than the average one-bedroom apartment and just six dollars less than the average one-bedroom condo. [Moneyville.ca]
The Trump Tower may be in trouble with the Ontario Securities Commission
(Image: Facebook)
Already embroiled in a legal skirmish with buyers hoping to get their deposits back, Talon International, the developer of Toronto’s Trump Tower, has also caught the unwanted attention of the Ontario Securities Commission. In 2004, the commission excused Talon from some of the more onerous conditions (such as filing a prospectus) normally imposed on companies taking investment offerings public. The exemption came with instructions: Talon was to market the condo-hotel units as spaces to stay in or visit, rather than lucrative investment opportunities, and it couldn’t provide buyers with revenue or cost projections. The now more than 50 investors seeking to renege on their contracts have come forward to claim Talon did exactly that, flashing spreadsheets that touted the revenue-generating potential of the units—projections that haven’t been realized, since the hotel’s occupancy is hovering below 50 per cent. The commission says it’s investigating, leaving the door open for regulatory action. Whoever thought the tower’s falling glass days would be the easy ones? [Toronto Star]
The Trump Tower’s developer tries to subdue angry buyers—by suing them
Trouble keeps cropping up for Talon International, the developer of Toronto’s Trump International Hotel and Tower. First, sales of luxury units were slower than expected, and then there were a couple of pesky issues with falling glass; now, the company has launched lawsuits against buyers of condo-hotel units to force them to close their deals. Since February, dozens of investors have tried to renege on final payments and get back their deposits. They say their agreements shouldn’t stand because costs like maintenance fees and property taxes are far higher than Talon’s projections (one pegged the hike at 40 per cent) because the hotel, whose revenues were supposed to offset those costs, is underperforming. Talon is hoping the court will rule that buyers were responsible for assessing the risks of the purchase before signing up. The bigger question remains, though: Will Donald find a way to turn this controversy into a reality TV show? [Toronto Star]
Editor’s Letter (December 2012): under the influence
David Mirvish’s plan to tear down the Princess of Wales Theatre and build three 80-plus-storey Frank Gehry–designed condo towers on King Street isn’t very popular. When he announced his intentions, the city’s pessimists were quick to complain: the towers were too tall, too garish, too dominating, and would add way too many new people to a downtown core already straining from rapid expansion. I’m not sure the project’s critics are right. Global cities have giant, imposing towers that seem vaguely threatening. They have unusual skylines. They are impossibly dense. Skyscrapers can be exciting and dramatic, which is what the Gehry towers promise to be. At the very least, I admire the ambition of the project. David Mirvish, who already wields influence in Toronto as both a theatre impresario and an important collector of 20th-century art, is about to make an indelible mark on the cityscape. His father, Ed, occupied a significant role in the city, and now Mirvish is using the money and the position he inherited on his own terms.
The Trump Tower rains glass from the sky (again)
Another day, another pane of glass falling from the sky, this time from the Trump Tower at Bay and Adelaide. Yesterday around 4 p.m., a panel fell from the building’s 34th floor, marking the second time the tower has rained glass on the world below (“That kind of thing just happens,” according to Donald Trump Jr.). The latest episode is reportedly due to a worker with slippery fingers, who lost hold of the pane while it was being installed. No injuries were reported, though a few vehicles—and the Trump Tower’s reputation—suffered some damage. [Toronto Star]
(Images: Chicken Little, dbgg1979; Skyline, Ian Muttoo)
A look at the best and worst of Frank Gehry’s past mega-projects
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When David Mirvish and Frank Gehry announced their major King West redevelopment plans earlier this month, Mirvish said the pair weren’t building three condo towers—they were creating “sculptures for people to live in.” However, the poetics didn’t quash concerns about whether the Theatre District’s infrastructure can sustain the 2,600 new condo units or whether anyone will buy the apartments in an already saturated market. For Gehry, though, those issues aren’t new. Over the past decade, the Harvard-educated architect has proposed similarly grand designs in New York, his hometown of L.A., and overseas—all of which have been met with a certain degree of trepidation. Some ultimately lived up to their promise, becoming iconic, landmark buildings, while a tough economy and high costs have delayed others (a track record that has raised questions about whether his Toronto project will ever even happen). Here, we examine five of the starchitect’s past residential projects, and see how his Mirvish plans compare.
Introducing: Toronto’s new Shangri-La Hotel
The Shangri-La Hotel at University and Adelaide opened its doors on Friday, ready just in time for TIFF (well, nearly in time—there are still a few finishing touches to come on the health and wellness areas and guest rooms). And, after watching the tower’s progress, admiring the $5-million sculpture by Chinese artist Zhang Huan and scrounging for details on the adjacent Momofuku restaurants, we were gratified to find that the 66-storey building is as luxurious as expected. There are walls covered in raw silk, a Fazioli grand piano from Italy and several subtle Asian touches, including a Japanese garden and two large tea libraries to hold dozens of hand-picked looseleaf teas.
Crafty Americans are trying to woo corporate headquarters away from Toronto
Office space in Toronto is in high demand—and is therefore expensive—which means some companies may succumb to the pull of cheaper digs in the U.S., according to a study by a New Jersey–based consulting firm. Boyd Company says U.S. governors are spending more time in Toronto, trying to woo Canadian companies to move their headquarters to the hard-hit U.S. office market, where the prices of office space are at historic lows. (It may be working: Hot Brands moved to Florida in March, and Direct Energy relocated to Houston last January.) Still, local real estate watchers say they’re not worried about an exodus. “Costs are high but we’re actually seeing a shift more back to the downtown as the residential condos are built and people want to work near where they live,” Scott Addison of Colliers International told the Toronto Star. Plus, a boom in office construction in the core should help ease the vacancy rate, which is down around 4.5 per cent (compared to eight per cent nationwide). [Toronto Star]
Condo gossip: three towers could be coming to the Toronto Star’s parking lot
Up to three condo towers could soon sprout from the parking lot of the Toronto Star building at Yonge and Queens Quay, according to a number of unnamed sources quoted in the Financial Post. Rumour has it that the Vancouver-based Pinnacle International Realty Group will soon close a deal to build a major project next to the office tower (the paper has a long-term lease for its space so it won’t be turfed out for at least 20 years). Back in 2000, Torstar Corporation sold the building to a holding company controlled by the Thomson family for $40 million, saying it was an opportune time because the real estate market was strong. The market is quite a bit stronger now (though talk of cooling has begun), and the price will be “far north” of $40 million this time, according to a source close to the deal. [Financial Post]
Faulty towers: who’s to blame for condoland’s falling glass, leaky walls and multi-million-dollar lawsuits
Jan Gandhi and Omar Jabri share a love of big-city life: the people, the architecture, the fashion, the logarithmic bustle of human energy that comes from high-density, high-rise living. They first met as articling students with different Bay Street law firms, introduced by mutual friends. Together they moved to New York, where Gandhi worked as in-house counsel for MTV and Jabri as an intellectual property lawyer, and they lived in an apartment in Chelsea. Gandhi became addicted to flash-sale websites, filling her wardrobe with deeply discounted designer fashions. Flash sales are enormously popular in New York. She saw an underserved market in Toronto, so she hatched a plan to return and launch her own site.
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Office tower gossip: another mega-building could be coming to the financial district
With Toronto’s commercial real estate market on a serious roll, there are whispers about another tower planned for the downtown core. Oxford Properties Group (the company behind the TD Canada Trust tower, among other local skyscrapers) recently gave termination notices to tenants at 100 Adelaide West—potentially a sign the company will go ahead with plans for a giant 900,000-square-foot building there. Oxford is already working on RBC WaterPark Place, a 930,000-square-foot development in the waterfront office zone, but real estate watchers say the company wouldn’t be poaching tenants from itself because the lakefront and the financial district are, in essence, two sub markets. If Oxford can sign a lead tenant (OMERS is reportedly interested), then this development is likely a go. [Financial Post]
A few wealthy Torontonians will soon be able to live in a bridge in the sky
Given the ubiquity of condo construction in Toronto, a new development is generally nothing to gawk at. That is, unless it involves two luxury suites suspended in mid-air. In a 14-hour feat that took place late last month, Concord Adex hoisted a 40-foot-long, two-storey steel, glass and aluminum structure up 28 floors to connect the two Parade towers in CityPlace. By next February, the first floor of the SkyBridge will serve as a bar and lounge area for tower residents, complete with adrenaline-inducing glass floor cut-outs that offer views of cars and pedestrians below (like a glass-bottom boat, only with more visions of plunging to your death). The second floor of the bridge will be split into two residences of around 4,000 square feet each, overlooking the Toronto skyline and Lake Ontario. [Globe and Mail]
Police find three crystal meth labs in a Scarborough condo tower
Add meth-producing neighbours to the list of condo owners’ worries—police discovered three crystal meth labs in a Scarborough high-rise this week after residents complained of weird smells and suspicious leaks. On Monday morning, police found the first lab on the 30th floor of 190 Borough Drive, a tower near Ellesmere Road and McCowan Avenue. Yesterday morning, they found an additional two labs in the building, taped off the area and brought out the hazmat truck to clear out the toxic materials. No arrests have been made, but neighbours told police they saw a man make a daring escape by shimmying down to the balcony below. Given that Toronto’s condos are also alleged to harbour brothels, those shiny towers are starting to seem less like yuppie havens and more like dens of iniquity. [Toronto Star]
