Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

Luxury for less… dramatically less

From the Condo Guide

A new star is rising in the east end and it’s called The Star of Downtown. Located on Wellesley between Parliament and Sherbourne, Willowfield Homes, one of the Norstar Group of Companies, has just released these condo sky suites. This new condo features spectacular architectural detailing designed by the internationally renown firm Kirkor Architects.

Stellar neighbourhood

This downtown address offers incredible convenience, with all the urban amenities surrounding your home. There are great restaurants and bistros, lots of entertainment options and shopping galore – from the nearby Eaton Centre to the streets lined with storefronts.

Summer strolls through Riverdale Park and winter spins on the Ryerson skating rink are all part of the fun. The TTC runs past your front door, there’s the library, the community centre and, for students, there’s easy access to school. Ryerson, George Brown and the University of Toronto are all close by, making this an ideal investment for students intending to stay in the city to pursue a career.

Stellar building

The Art Deco-styled building has the look and feel of 1930’s Hollywood. Entry is controlled, offering you a secure and private environment. Access through the parking garage and all common areas of the building are also controlled, and an enter phone system allows you to oversee the entry of your guests.

The Star of Downtown has a wonderful selection of amenities that further enhances the lifestyle offered in this wonderful urban location. There is a private Karaoke dinner theatre for a great night out without ever leaving home. The Star Lounge, with an inviting library, is the perfect spot to steal away for a quiet moment with a good book. Aside from a reading area, it also offers wireless capability, Internet stations and the opportunity to cozy up to the fireplace when the weather grows cold.

The state-of-the-art roof-top terrace is a great place to relax and catch some rays or hang out with friends and neighbours. The breathtaking views of cityscape and the lake beyond will make every sunset a show not to be missed. A private barbecue area gives you the opportunity to grill up dinner, a feature often sacrificed in condos.

The spa features change rooms with showers and steam room, a welcome respite after a long day or a hard workout in the well-equipped fitness centre. Here you can maintain your fitness regime, enjoying the multi-station audio-visual system while working out with cardio machines and weights.

Stellar suites

Designer-inspired suites are complete with a great selection of finishes and appointments. Spacious suites all offer a bit of the outdoors, large windows as well as a French or traditional balcony, allowing you to take in the view. You’re able to set your ideal environment, as each suite has individual heating and air conditioning as well as hydro metering.

The flooring in these skysuites features hardwood-look laminate in the foyer, hallway, kitchen, den and living/dining rooms, as per plan. Imported ceramic tiles are used in the powder rooms and bathrooms, as per plan, as well as laundry and storage areas. Broadloom is soft underfoot in the bedrooms.

Kitchens feature chic, Euro-style cabinetry, granite countertops and the choice of imported ceramic tile or mirror backsplash, with designer-selected Halogen track lighting which is great for working under, and also creates great ambient lighting in the contemporary, open-concept designs. During the grand opening celebration, kitchens come furnished with a stainless steel appliance package including a refrigerator, self-cleaning oven, built-in dishwasher and hood fan above the stove.

Most suites feature the luxury of an ensuite and four-piece bathrooms, some with a separate shower. Suites are designed for comfort without compromising on style and are also designed to accommodate your modern, high-tech lifestyle, prewired for your convenience.

Stellar deal

The Star of Downtown offers luxury for less… dramatically less. Location, convenience and style make this condo not just a home, but a lifestyle. Including the limited time offer of stainless steel kitchen appliances, a storage locker and parking – worth over $25,000 – it also offers great value, a two-bedroom two-bathroom corner suite, (windows, windows, windows), carries from $1,328 P&I.

“Willowfield Homes is backing this offer by making the guarantee that this is the best new condo value in downtown Toronto,” explains Mitch Markowitz, director of sales and marketing, Willowfield Homes. It’s an offer you won’t want to miss.

The Condo Guide Magazine is an excellent source of housing information for those looking for information on new condos in Ontario, Canada. We offer the most up-to-date information on new condominiums across the greater Toronto area.

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By Danny Gallagher - The Globe and Mail

The forlorn southeast corner of Toronto’s busiest downtown intersection is poised for a makeover, with news the developer that had planned to build a 60-storey condo complex at 1 Bloor Street East has sold the property.

Close to four years after Nastapoka Holdings proposed an ambitious residential and retail complex for that neglected corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets, the construction cranes will apparently crank up soon.

What has renewed this new hope is that five weeks ago Kolter Property Co. sold 1 Bloor Street East to Bazis International of Thornhill for an undisclosed price. Nastapoka had been a joint venture consisting of Kolter and Simkesla Group, but Kolter bought out Simkesla three months ago.

The city’s assessment value of the property for 2007 is $33.66-million.

“We’ve wanted to build at the site for a long time but our interests had become diversified in the U.S. and that property had become a non-core asset for us,” Kolter vice-president Scott Webb said yesterday, speaking on behalf of Kolter president Robert Julien, a Torontonian who is a principal shareholder in the company.

“My assumption and understanding is that is the intent of Bazis to commence the project and develop the property based on the density rights of 60 storeys that they purchased. I believe that they will go ahead.”

Calls to the Bazis International offices in Concord, Ont., were not returned.

The proposal approved by city council in 2002 was a landmark skyscraper containing retail space, a cinema, a small amount of offices and condominiums, and was to have involved parts of Yonge and Bloor and nearby Hayden Street, where the Naval Club is located.

Famous Players Theatres was to build a 2,900-seat, 8,554-square-metre multiplex on the fourth and fifth storeys of the podium. The 1,161-square-metre Naval Club would have been rebuilt as part of the development. The 205-metre-high residential tower was to have contained 525 condos and would have been enclosed in glass and metal with an average floor plate of 775 square metres.

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By Patrick Metzger - Torontoist.com

Previously, we covered the Ontario Municipal Board’s approval of a plan to build several condo buildings in the area of the Queen West Triangle. The plan has been controversial from the beginning, and has been strongly opposed by a residents group called Active 18.

One point that has some particularly saddened is the teardown of the structure at 48 Abell, a one time industrial building converted to lofts which are used as live-work spaces by artists and others. Now, there are a variety of issues around this development that bear discussion – whether the city’s planning process works, how to manage intensification vs. nimbyism, and the proper role and authority of the OMB, to name a few. That said, the Abell building is almost certainly not the right poster child for this particular cause.

Even a cursory look at the Abell reveals that it has serious problems. Ceilings and walls are cracked, floors have a funhouse slant to them, and any visible heritage the building ever had has long since seeped away. It looks like the place could collapse before the wreckers even get there, and according to a structural assessment undertaken last year, that’s not far from the truth.

The reason that the Abell building did not receive heritage status was because of the following assessment of the building,

“Planning staff recommended that the staff report recommending designation of the property (as a heritage building) be withdrawn, because the cultural heritage value of the property did not justify the costs that would be involved in incorporating the structure into the development scheme.”

The language of the actual study is even less diplomatic, noting that “Both options that attempt to retain the existing structure or the existing façade are not viable due to the risk of damage to the existing building elements.” In other words, if you try to build around the Abell building, it will probably fall down.

Both of the above documents are available on the Active 18 website, so it’s not as though the anti-condo forces aren’t aware of them.

It looks like the Abell building is being used as a visual symbol to rally the troops, an excuse to throw poor old Jane Jacobs’ corpse on the “save the artists” bandwagon and march triumphantly to City Hall. The whole thing has a mock-epic, comic book quality — SculptorMan and PainterGirl have to rescue the Legion of Super Artists from the evil Condo Cranes, or Toronto will be powerless against the spectre of Big Money! Is the Abell building really the key issue, or is this just ego-theatre?

There’s also a tacit suggestion that the demolition of the building will deal Toronto’s creative community a crushing blow – come on, surely there are a few artists who don’t live in the Queen West Triangle? If not, maybe there should be.

The irony is that of the sub-projects that make up the proposed development, it’s this one that’s actually planning to guarantee units for families and low income renters, as well as affordable studio and living space for displaced artists. For whatever reason, this fact rarely finds its way into the “Save the Abell” rhetoric; perhaps a new building would lack the requisite squalor that ensures artistic integrity.

There’s definitely a need to look at reform for the OMB, and the way it interacts with the city planners. We need to find a more effective way of balancing the needs of neighbourhoods against the inevitable growth of the city, and to avoid having solutions imposed by an external group without input from those most affected. However, the Abell building is more of a red herring than a focal point to bring these issues into the spotlight.

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