Condo TV show aims to educate
Also promoting consumer show
Excerpt of an article by Ellen Moorhouse – Toronto Star
Toronto condominium lawyer Denise Lash is taking on a few new roles, including safecracker.
It’s all part of Lash’s recent initiatives aimed at educating consumers about life in the condo world.
Through her new company, MondoCondo Media Group Inc., Lash has launched a television show, MondoCondo, which began airing last fall, and the Toronto Condo Show, which ran Nov. 10 to 12 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
During a Mission Impossible-inspired caper in her first TV episode, safecracker Lash joins forces with “the Seducer” in a dangerously low, red, strapless gown and 12-inch, clear plastic heels to break into the bank vault in developer Harry Stinson’s One King West condo-hotel project in downtown Toronto.
But no intrigue is necessary. Stinson, uncharacteristically attired in a tuxedo, is ready to usher Lash into the two-storey safe, which he has converted into a 40-seat lounge for condo residents.
As talkative and enthusiastic as always, he discusses the history of the former Dominion Bank of Canada head office, built in 1914, and describes the difficulties of transforming the impressive building with its huge vault into a condo-hotel complex.
As television host and condo show promoter, Lash is aiming to crack one big challenge she has seen in her 16 years as a condo lawyer: the need for education.
“Because we’ve acted for developers, and I’ve acted for numerous purchasers and started practising condominium corporation law, I see all sides,” says Lash, who works with the firm Miller Thomson LLP.
There will be visits to luxury condos, such as the downtown penthouse owned by developer Howard Cohen, of Context Developments, in a project he built in Toronto’s entertainment district.Or there’s the far more modest loft in the second episode of a bikini model, who launched her career as a Hooters’ calendar girl. She also runs her own business out of the two-level condo, booking models for parties and events.
The idea of sponsoring the condo show grew from a party Lash held last year to announce the idea for the TV program. The event attracted 600 people, more than she had expected.