Category Archives: Luxury Real Estate
Sutton Place tenants stand in way of plans to turn landmark hotel into condos
Susan Pigg – Toronto Star
It used to be that there was just one door through which both the rich and regular folk could enter the lobby of Toronto’s iconic Sutton Place Hotel.
Now there are two.
The one on the right takes potential condo buyers to the former lobby which was shut down last summer, dressed up with a boatload of marble and turned into the sparkling showroom for The Britt condo development planned for the landmark site.
The door to the left leads to elevators used by 23 long-time tenants who’ve rented apartments at the hotel for decades. They remain holed up in the old Bay and Wellesley St. tower, pondering whether to launch legal action against their new landlord, Lanterra Developments, in a last-ditch effort to hang onto their homes.
The veteran among them, 102-year-old Sydney Bacon — who’s lived on the 23rd floor for 40 years — will move to a retirement home by April 1, armed with a six-figure buyout from Lanterra.
Others, like Lorraine Lewis, 66, are holding out as long as they can, knowing they’re powerless to push back forever against all the condos rising outside their windows.
Later this week, Lanterra will announce plans for another condo tower in the Bay-Wellesley area after reaching a $65 million deal with the province for a sprawling 2.14-acre site, once slated for an opera house, adjacent to the former Sutton Place.
“It’s a tragedy what the city has allowed to happen here,” says Lewis, looking down at the empty lot where locals have been lobbying for a park.
“I try not to think too much about what’s happening. I just want to enjoy every single day here that I have left.”
Lanterra and City of Toronto officials have been negotiating for months now with the tenants who remain scattered over 18 empty floors although the hotel shut down last summer.
As required by law when reducing or renovating rental stock, Lanterra has offered the tenants financial compensation — thousands of dollars based on their years of tenancy — six months’ notice and temporary new homes in much smaller condo units it owns nearby.
Lanterra hopes to get city approval later this year to gut the 33-storey tower, add a bigger base and nine more storeys which would add 200 units to the current 400 hotel rooms.
It’s proposed building an eight-storey, 78-unit rental wing off The Britt and eventually move everyone back into what long-term tenant Robert Langevin calls “a barrack” of much smaller units and a fraction of the 161 apartments that once graced Sutton Place.
Lanterra’s offer, which includes discounted rents for existing tenants for 20 years, is “considerably above and beyond” what’s required under the provincial Residential Tenancies Act as well as the city’s Official Plan and rental housing protection bylaw aimed at protecting rental stock, says city planner Deanna Chorney.
Lanterra chairman Mark Mandelbaum says his company is working closely with the city to meet its legal obligations to tenants like Lewis who has been there 23 years. Lanterra only made “special arrangements” for Sydney Bacon because, at 102, he was in need of nursing care.
“The city has a very, very well-defined process. But a tenant’s tenure is not the same as ownership. They did not put down money to buy or have the responsibility of ownership so the rights of tenants are defined (by law),” said Mandelbaum.
“I think they are very well aware of what their legitimate legal rights are.”
Langevin is concerned the tenants “could be sacrificed” as Lanterra seeks approvals for the Wellesley site where community associations and city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam have been vocal in trying to get parkland.
The two projects will be treated separately, she stresses, adding that Lanterra has proven itself to be responsive to community concerns.
“I’d like to see more parkland and community amenities before we add more density to the neighbourhood,” says Wong-Tam. “But I think Lanterra is becoming more and more community minded and knows how important it is for area residents to have parks and daycare and other amenities.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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New in Toronto real estate: Imperial Plaza
Sarah Ratchford – blogTO
The Imperial Plaza is basically a fabulous modern “castle” at Yonge and St.Clair. As such, it is reserved for those who have been blessed several times over by Pluto, god of dollas. This building, once destined to be Toronto’s new City Hall, is building its personality on a foundation of exclusivity, but perhaps taking it a little too far. Oddly, the development is keeping the number of units on the D.L., but you can check Imperial Plaza out in detail here.
SPECS
Address: 111 Saint Clair Ave. West
Floors: 23
Total number of units: N/A
Elevators: Multiple; some suites have private access
Types of units: One bedroom, one bedroom plus den, two bedroom, two bedroom plus den, loft spaces
Unit sizes (in square feet): 565 – 7,225
Ceiling heights: 10 to 20 feet
Prices from (available units): $459,900
Maintenance fees: $0.44 to $0.66
Developer: Camrost-Felcorp
Amenities/building features: Fitness centre, pool complex, his and hers steam rooms, aerobics studio, yoga studio, two screening rooms, two squash courts, sound studios, golf simulator.
Imperial Plaza – 111 St. Clair West
THE GOOD
Imperial’s amenities leave little to be desired. The fitness facility alone is 10,000 square feet and features specialty studios for aerobics (how do you make enough money to live here if you’re still technically living in the eighties? I don’t know), yoga, and pilates. There is a pool, a hot tub running into a lap pool, a golf simulator. Basically, all of the special things to make those with more money than brains feel warm and fuzzy.
Also, recycling is cool, and that’s what is happening here. The Imperial Oil building opened its doors in 1957, and much of its interior will remain intact. Some of the features that will live on include bronzed window casements and a marble and granite lobby with gold mosaic inlay tiles. Combine stunning details like these with floor-to-ceiling windows and layer the amenities on top, and there’s not much to complain about. There’s also a wide variety of choice when it comes to the type of suite on offer: floors 8 and 9 feature only loft spaces, there are private residences on the top floors, and the rest of the building is comprised of more “regular” condos.
THE BAD
Don’t look now, but there’s talk of some other impending developments possibly obstructing some of Imperial’s gorgeous views. Imperial Plaza 2 on the south west side and the re-development of the church on the south east side, to be exact. While this could be a real concern for some, others say the views will remain unclouded.
More problematically, in some suites there are bedrooms, washrooms and dens without windows. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a lack of windows tends to make a space feel more like a cell than an apartment with a price tag of at least half a million dollars.
THE VERDICT
If you’re a fan of Midtown’s vibe and can snag a suite whose bedrooms have windows, this property doesn’t seem like a horrible choice, all things considered.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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- A last look at the Imperial Oil Building (pre-condos) Workmen have already begun gutting the office floors of the…
- Imperial Lofts — 80 and 90 Sherbourne Street The Imperial Lofts is the rebirth of the old Imperial…
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Canadian luxury real estate set for a boost from the newly rich
Richard Blackwell – The Globe and Mail
Dramatically growing numbers of mobile, wealthy individuals around the world promise to push up demand for luxury real estate, making high-end properties in Canada’s biggest cities increasingly valuable.
In 10 years, there will be 50% more people on the planet with more than $30-million (U.S.) in net assets – or about 286,000 – according to a new report from British-based real estate consultancy Knight Frank. Emerging markets in Asia and Latin America will see the most dramatic growth, with China’s wealthy population expected to more than double by 2022.
In Canada, the numbers in that category will rise by about 35% over the decade to roughly 6,640, the study says. The largest concentration in Canada will be in Toronto, which currently ranks 20th among global cities for the number of high-net-worth individuals.
One of the consequences of the growing number of wealthy people is that there will be an increasing demand for high-end real estate, even though the supply of luxury properties will remain virtually static, the report suggests. That means the most popular cities for the wealthy – New York and London are at the top of the list – will see increasing upward pressure on prices.
For Canada’s key luxury markets, particularly Vancouver, that will mean a long-term jump in prices for high-end real estate, despite recent softness.
The Vancouver region’s premium real estate market took a breather last year, although sales of properties valued at $3-million or higher remained well above levels of a decade ago.
The current weakness in Vancouver’s luxury market “is probably a temporary thing,” Andrew Hay, head of global residential property at Knight Frank, said in an interview from London.
The amount of money pouring into high-end real estate in any specific location shifts as wealthy people look for new places to put their funds, currency rates fluctuate, and governments put in place measures to cool overheated real estate markets, he said. “There is an increasing amount of money waiting to be spent, but it is better informed and changes direction quicker than ever before.”
While Vancouver is clearly on the radar screen for wealthy Chinese investors, they will assess other options such as Sydney, London or New York, depending on the situation at any particular time, he said.
Still, over the long term, Vancouver’s attractive attributes will draw even more international wealth and put upward pressure on prices of luxury properties, Mr. Hay said. Over all, he predicted, Canada will become increasingly popular as a destination for international wealth along with New Zealand and Australia. That’s because of “the rule of law, strong domestic balance sheets, political stability, and [the fact that] they are lovely places to live.”
Vancouver is definitely the most favoured Canadian location for the newly wealthy, he said, outstripping Toronto or Montreal.
Dan Scarrow, vice-president of corporate strategy at Macdonald Realty in Vancouver, said some of the high-end market in that city is being driven by immigrant investors, including many originally from China. “It’s not like there’s a group of investors who are sitting in China and are playing around with the Vancouver real estate market. That is not happening, but there are many Chinese buyers who are already here or will eventually become Canadian citizens,” he said.
Don Campbell, a senior analyst at Real Estate Investment Network in Vancouver, noted that the pattern of home price growth in Vancouver closely tracks the movements of Chinese GDP – an indication that Chinese investors have a considerable influence on the Vancouver market .
Mr. Campbell said the overall increase in the number of wealthy individuals in Canada will also be good for premium real estate markets outside the biggest cities. There is new wealth being created by the oil business and other industries, and many of the newly rich aren’t in Toronto or Vancouver. “You are starting to see the wealthy not being concentrated in the heart of old Toronto and [Vancouver's] West Van and British Properties,” he said, but also in Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and even in Atlantic Canada. There is now demand for luxury accommodation in all those places, he said.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
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- Canadian real estate market a tale of two cities Andy Hoffman and Nicolas Johnson – Globe and Mail t’s a title...
- Luxury sales rising in major Canadian markets (Canada News Wire) - Consistent return on investment has prompted...
- Newly muddled world of real estate Knowing when to buy or sell not so clear cut...
- Luxury homes sales through the roof as buyers seek stable investment The country's richest residents – as well as millionaires from...
