Olivia Stren, National Post

“Just wait to see what Toronto will be in the next 10 years. It’ll blow your mind,” real estate developer and king of King Street Peter Freed tells me in his typically mellow way. For a man who seems to acquire land and throw up design-conscious buildings the way others brush their teeth (a global economic crisis did nothing to slow his pace) he speaks with the sort of drowsy, mid-nap calm you’d expect from someone reclined on a massage table. (Instead, we’re sitting at his boardroom table of Freed HQ.)

“This is finally Toronto’s time,” he announces tranquilly. It’s also, evidently, Freed’s time: His 550 Wellington condo project is nearing completion, while its adjunct Thompson Hotel (the first international Thompson property) is slated to open in May. To go along with the hotel – and eventually command two square acres of land – is the latest jewel in the Freed crown: the Thompson Residences.

“In terms of major design-driven projects, Toronto has basically been ignored on the global stage. And that’s one of my favourite things about Toronto: There’s so much opportunity here,” Mr. Freed says. “It’s so hard to stand out in New York or London or Los Angeles. Here, it’s not that hard.”

But Mr. Freed himself doesn’t seem inclined to do the standing out; he leaves the business of head-turning to his buildings. His choice to join forces with Thompson – a brand specializing in things attention thieving (i.e. its celebrity guests) – has already proven savvy. “With the Thompson Hotel component, 550 Wellington has been our most successful project ever,” Mr. Freed says.

The Thompson Residences (the U.S. hotel brand’s inaugural foray into real estate), with 310 suites ranging in price from $219,900 to $2-million, is set to command the former Travelodge Hotel’s choice King West locale. It was Mr. Freed’s fantasy site. “It was the dream. But every developer in the world wanted to buy that site. The Travelodge’s owners were getting calls every day, but when the owners decided to sell, they called me directly and gave me first dibs,” says Mr. Freed, with a Cheshire cat’s contentment. “With it, we want to build our most spectacular building yet,” he says with uncharacteristic hyperbole.

Like the Thompson’s first hotel, Manhattan’s 60 Thompson (on SoHo’s Thompson Street), the Toronto Residences will be fashioned to set a new bar in urban swank. Designed by Thomas O’Brien, 60 Thompson opened in 2001 to be the final word on hip hostelries. If now hardly avant-garde, the boutique property’s neutral-toned suites, faux-suede headboards and velour pillows, and its slick, animal-hide-clad bar served up a winsome formula. “Every time I called 60 Thompson, I couldn’t get a room,” Mr. Freed says. (The hotel remains perpetually booked and celebrity packed; on a recent visit, I spotted a unitard-sporting Fergie mid photo-shoot in the Thom bar.)

The Residences’ most spectacular feature will be its rooftop pool and cabanas, courtesy of Diego Burdi and Paul Filek, principles of top Toronto design firm Burdifilek. “It’s going to be a rooftop Shangri La,” Mr. Burdi says. “From the street, all you’ll get is a glimpse of a tree canopy. It’ll be a secret world. But as soon as you step out of the elevator capsule and on to the pool deck, you’ll be completely transported. It’ll feel very global, like you could be anywhere in the world.” At 140 feet, it will be the longest rooftop pool in North America, stealing the apparently coveted title (who knew?) from Miami’s Gansevoort Hotel (which claims a 110-foot pool). But, unlike that South Beach leisure ground, this pool, Mr. Burdi insists, will be an “adult space.”

“I’m sick of walking into places and feeling too old,” Mr. Burdi says. “It should be fun and flirty, but it’ll also be elegant and comfortable. It’ll be like a hotel lobby, but on the roof!” It will also – let’s be honest, Toronto is not Miami – be a very seasonal space. But after bikini season, as brief as the suits themselves, residents will have plenty of options in the way of indulgence: the Residences will claim a screening room, a health club, private dining rooms. And residents will also be privy to all of Thompson Hotel’s amenities: a yoga studio, 30,000 square feet of retail space, a 24-hour diner and chef Scott Conant’s haute-rustic Italian restaurant (and New York import) Scarpetta. (Save yourself the airfare to Rome and try Mr. Conant’s signature tomato-basil spaghetti. Trust me.)

“I remember this neighbourhood when it was so desolate at night, you could shoot a cannon through the streets,” says Mr. Freed, unfurling renderings for the Thompson Residences, like a sovereign studying a map of soon-to-be-charted territories, “I knew it could change. And it has.”

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information  -  416-388-1960

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olivia stren national post

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