Tag Archives: condominium developers
Sky-high boot camp
Suzanne Wintrob – National Post
Mark Stables learned a valuable lesson in Grade 10. His teacher had plastered the room with a selection of inspirational quotes and one seemed to speak directly to the teenager: If you do as you’ve always done, expect what you’ve always achieved.
“It taught me that unless you make a concerted effort to change, you’ll be the same person tomorrow that you are today,” Mr. Stables recalls. “That propelled me into doing something differently.”
Twenty-five years later, Mr. Stables still lives by those words and encourages everyone he meets to take them to heart. As a personal trainer and certified wellness coach, it’s the line he uses to push his clients to go the extra mile, whether working out or adopting healthier behaviours. And lately it has become his mantra when sitting around boardroom tables as he guides condominium developers to better outfit their fitness spaces. They should be creating “bespoke experiences,” he tells them, whether they’re catering to twentysomethings looking to bulk up or boomers striving for extra energy so they can keep up with their grandchildren.
“As a purchaser, the fitness amenity is the most used amenity in any building, bar none,” Mr. Stables says.
Over the past year, the 36-year-old founder of Benchmark Group and Movement Haus (“It’s a fancy name for a gym,” he quips) has held court with many of the city’s big-name builders, including Minto, Cityzen, Pemberton Group and Tridel to talk up everything from layout and decor to equipment, services and staffing. High on his wish list are TRX suspension training, spinning and gravity classes, Technogym’s Kinesis stations and Internet-enabled cardio machines so users can watch videos on their iPods while exercising. He’s also keen on online portals so residents can book and pay for classes or training sessions from their laptops and smartphones.
Sometimes, Mr. Stables is hired to consult on equipment and perhaps run orientation sessions, fitness classes and personal training. But he much prefers to be in from the get-go to help build and run the space from start to finish. That way, he says, the architecture and decor is sure to mesh with the activity.
“You can put equipment into a poorly designed room and it will be good equipment,” Mr. Stables explains. “But if you’ve got seven-foot ceilings with bulkheads, you’re running into all kinds of problems regardless of the kind of equipment you put in there. You can’t change that. It’s like taking a condo that’s 500 square feet with low ceilings and putting European appliances in it. The appliances will be nice, but that’s not going to change the fact that you have a low ceiling.”
Alessandro Munge agrees. The managing partner of Toronto interior design studio Munge Leung works out at 5 a.m. every morning to pump up for his busy workday, so it’s no surprise he urges his luxury condominium clients to think seriously about the look and feel of their fitness spaces.
“We’re trying to make sure that fitness centres are no longer at the parking levels of buildings, if you will,” says Mr. Munge, who has noticed a surge in fitness space usage over the past decade. “They require natural light. The programming and variety in them is very important.”
With condominium suites getting smaller, developers appear to be putting more emphasis on their amenity space so residents can spread out and entertain in style. From gourmet kitchens catering to parties of 12 through to game rooms, rooftop bars and indoor-outdoor lounges, the amenity space is as much a selling feature as the units themselves. And with folks such as Mr. Stables and Mr. Munge offering inspiration, the fitness component will get a makeover, too. Gone are gyms of old comprising an all-in-one weight machine, some barbells and a couple of treadmills. Rather, condo towers today promise bright and invigorating “wellness centres” combining the very latest in workout gear with tempting spa services.
Build it right, Mr. Munge says, and purchasers will lap it up.
Take the case of The Madison, a two-tower, 644-unit condo project being built by Madison Homes near Yonge and Eglinton that Mr. Munge’s team is working on. The fourth-floor indoor amenity area — which Mr. Munge describes as “prime real estate space” — features a two-level gym, indoor saltwater lap-style pool, co-ed sauna and steam room off the pool deck, a hot tub integrated with the pool deck overlooking the outdoor amenity area, a yoga room with outdoor terrace and an area for spinning classes. The decor will have “the sophistication and the elegance of the building itself and the interiors we’ve created,” he says, with raw metal stairs and floor-to-ceiling metal rods “for a hard-core feel but still keeping it very elegant.”
Mr. Munge is also excited about working on Empire Communities’ Eau du Soleil condominium in Etobicoke that promises an indoor track plus a mixed martial arts room with the requisite punching bags and training gear.
Still, the goal isn’t merely to entice residents to get fit and de-stress. It’s also about upping the social vibe. Elaine Cecconi, principal of Toronto interior design consulting firm Cecconi Simone, says the wellness aspect is what has condo dwellers enthused. Co-ed saunas are popular for socializing, as are treatment areas that are equipped with towels, candles and audio equipment to make it easy for residents to hire their own massage therapists, acupuncturists or other relaxation experts. She cites one of her team’s latest projects, Chaz on Charles near Yonge and Bloor, as a perfect example where calming warm tones, wood floors, simple lines and natural light all contribute to the serene yet social wellness scene.
“[The fitness space] is not just a place where you go hop on a treadmill for 30 minutes and go back up to your unit,” she says. “There are places to lounge and relax after a workout — the treatment rooms, the hydro-bed therapy — it becomes more of a social aspect of the building.”
But are developers ready to go that extra mile? Not always, it seems. When Mr. Stables launched Movement Haus a year ago, going bespoke was a tough sell. As he recalls, developers didn’t quite understand the importance of tying exercise to architecture and many couldn’t get past the cost of the fitness equipment alone, which Mr. Stables says could run anywhere from $40,000 to $120,000 for a 350-unit project.
“A lot of developers are used to tradition,” he explains. “They’re doing what has worked for them for the last 10 years and they haven’t seen the value yet in switching that mindset to creating something truly bespoke and custom tailored that’s different. It’s challenging sometimes because they’re not used to what we’re presenting — yet. “
But slowly, after spending 2011 spreading his gospel, Mr. Stables is noticing a change. To his delight, they’re heeding the advice he learned in Grade 10 and he hopes the wave will follow.
“[Purchasers] want to look good and feel good,” he says. “It’s now part of a lifestyle, whereas 10 or 15 years ago, it was more of an afterthought,” he says. “And that’s how developers were creating their fitness amenities. They were taking leftover space, dropping in that multi-gym, treadmill, elliptical, exercise bike and calling it a five-star fitness amenity. Now, they’re putting it on the top floor with a huge expansive view of downtown.”
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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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Preliminary results indicate best year yet
Lisa Van de Ven – National Post
If their New Year’s resolutions involved selling more suites, Toronto’s condominium developers got that and more in 2011. While the final sales numbers for the year are still to be determined, the Greater Toronto Area’s condo market has already reached record highs this year, beating out 2007′s former record of approximately 22,500 condo sales.
Ben Myers, executive vice-president and editor of market research firm Urbanation, the Toronto CMA should see high-rise sales of about 26,000 to 27,000 units by year’s end.
But what’s the story behind the numbers? What were the biggest trends that kept the Toronto condo market hopping through 2011?
1. The expansion of the 905
“The pricing of low-rise housing in those markets is really shooting up,” Mr. Myers says. The answer? More condo growth, with larger developments. They’re the types of projects the 905 has been short on before: large sites with great amenities and top-rate features. In other words, they’re what Mr. Myers calls “sexy” — and they’re certainly getting attention from buyers.
2. Less low-rise
When the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) released its latest sales numbers (supplied by RealNet Canada), the discrepancy was clear. From January to October, there had been 15,056 low-rise sales throughout the GTA, compared with 23,747 high-rise purchases. “The numbers speak for themselves. There’s a shortage of low-rise inventory,” says Joe Vaccaro, acting president of BILD. Municipalities are encouraging intensification, and the result is less new-build low-rise and more new condominium units. “All of these greenbelt legislations are putting a hold on supply in that market,” says Mr. Myers. “And obviously when there’s less supply, pricing goes up even quicker, too.”
3. Smaller suites
Sometimes it’s just a numbers game. With the price-per-square foot increasing in condos throughout the GTA, especially downtown, developers are opting to offer smaller suites to keep prices affordable for first-time buyers. “The more small suites, the more units you can fit into some of these buildings,” says Mr. Myers. “That translates into more sales as well.”
4. Investor action
Investors are coming out to the sales centres in droves; in fact, some buildings have been 90% to 100% investor purchased. “It really reflects Toronto’s place in the global economy,” says Mr. Vaccaro. “It has been recognized as a safe place to invest, and we’re seeing that internationally — money is making its way into Toronto. And real estate is a hard asset that foreign investors support and have an appreciation for.”
So what can we expect from 2012? At press time, Mr. Vaccaro expected anywhere between 40 and 80 new condo projects to be released through the new year. Mr. Myers was still working on his final forecast, but offered his best estimate so far. “I don’t think we’re going to get another record next year but I certainly expect that things will continue on a fairly rapid pace,” he says. “Off the top of my head, I’m expecting probably around 20,000 sales.”
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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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Art of the build
By Garry Marr, Financial Post
It was heralded as another perk for condominium owners, but when the City of Toronto created a new rule this year that required developers to provide 12 months of free transit to buyers, Monarch Corp. saw another cost.
“It will be added on [to the price]. It’s like the cost of lumber or concrete,” says Brian Johnston, president of Monarch, whose 25-storey tower The Legacy includes a one-year Toronto Metropass for all 330 owners.
Transit passes and green roofs, which require condominium developers plant a certain amount of vegetation on their buildings, are just the latest wrinkles that cities are adding to the cost of building.
While politicians see these levies as the cost of increasing density in their urban areas, builders see them as development charges by another name.
“You add them all up and at some point a high-rise condominium unit becomes uneconomical,” Mr. Johnston says.
Then there’s public art. Publicly, developers are for it and get involved in a process that, in Toronto, means they could end up contributing 1% of their construction costs if looking for rezoning on a project.
In Vancouver, private developers requesting rezonings greater than 100,000 square feet were required in 2009 to contribute $1.81 per buildable foot to a public art process approved by the city.
And in Halifax, developers are “encouraged” to allocate 1% of capital costs to art projects for developments more than 25,000 square feet. They get their zoning if they come up with the cash.
Karen Mills is a public art consultant in Toronto and works on behalf of Monarch Corp. She has been in the field for 25 years. She says developers have a history of adding some type of art to their projects.
“It started in the late 1980s in Toronto, encouraging developers to contribute 1% of the their costs to art. But it really started in the U.S. in the 1960s. There was a reaction against stripped-down modernist buildings. The public started saying they didn’t like these empty barren plazas in front of office towers,” Ms. Mills says.
While developers are happy to participate in such programs, Ms. Mills agrees all of them see it as a cost of doing business. But there is a payback, she argues.
“Developers who have done multiple projects and been successful know if you want to increase density you have to come through some type of negotiation to get this opportunity to make more money on your development. You have to pay one way or another,” she says.
“Anything that makes a building more distinctive gives it higher recognition value,” she adds. “Public art can be a positive from that perspective, unless of course you hate the art and then it’s a negative.”
Certainly, the condo boom has been a boom for artists. On a $50-million project, 1% of construction costs would amount to an art installation worth about $500,000.
“It’s employment and it’s employment in my area of expertise. Isn’t that great?” says Barbara Astman, the artist behind a project at The Murano, a development on Bay Street, just north of Toronto’s financial district. Her project incorporates colour photographic imagery on 217 exterior windows surrounding the building.
She notes the architect told her at the condo’s opening that she had made the building even better. “That’s what you want to do, add value. You don’t want to be someone who just decorates a building. It will now be a signature for people who live in that building,” Ms. Astman says.
Jane Perdue, public art co-ordinator with the City of Toronto, says public art only affects a small percentage of rezoning applications, but the big projects are targeted. “It’s a minority of buildings, but probably the ones that have the biggest impact,” Ms. Perdue says. “Ultimately, it’s about density exchange,” she says, adding, “if the public art is interesting, the building probably is too.”
Public art may not be required on every project, but that doesn’t mean the developer seeking rezoning is off the hook. Sometimes the developer will be asked to contribute that 1% to another project in the ward where they are building.
For the condominium buyer, the public projects are not supposed to add to their long-term maintenance fees. In the case of Toronto, developers are encouraged to include a maintenance endowment as part of the 1% levy.
Mark Mandelbaum, chairman of Lanterra Developments, says Toronto developers typically want input into the art projects being added to their buildings, but probably wouldn’t participate in such projects if they were not required.
“When you have 1% of your hard costs, that’s a lot of money,” Mr. Mandelbaum says. “A developer typically looks at public art as another development charge, like cash in lieu for parks. It is a municipal charge, but at the very least if you use it wisely, you can make the building more valuable with [the money].”
Developers point to other charges — land transfer taxes, the July 1 harmonized sales tax in British Columbia and Ontario — as all contributing to rising condo prices.
“Ultimately, what prices are to the end consumer is a combination of all the costs of bringing a product to market and whatever reasonable profit expectation that developer wants, given the risk of a project,” Mr. Mandelbaum says.
Peter Simpson, chief executive of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, likens some of the negotiations between cities and developers to “creative arm twisting.”
“Of course it raises prices. A builder is not like any other manufacturer of a product. If there’s a cost associated with the manufacturing process, it gets added on and the user ends up paying the bill. Art is just another thing in a long list of charges. It’s a way to extract money from an easy target. But the target is really the homebuyer.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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