Two new condo projects – the Aura and One Bloor – have the city abuzz with talk of urban renewal

By Martin Slofstra – Toronto Sun

When the builder of Aura officially broke ground during a special ceremony recently, it was hard not to focus on the obvious. The tower, when complete, will be a monumental addition to Toronto’s urban landscape, and at 75 storeys, will officially become Canada’s tallest condo.

The site’s developer, however, seemed less focused on the building’s immense size than with goings-on in the immediate neighbourhood.

“The real story is what is going to happen to Yonge St.,” Michael La Brier, president of Canderel Stoneridge Equity Group, developer of the project, said at the ground-breaking event. At present, with its strip joints and tattoo parlours, the area “is a bit of a disaster.”

But with its 931 condominium suites totalling over 1.3 million square feet, Aura will provide a much-needed boost to the area, La Brier believes.

Being built at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard St., Aura will include world-class retail stores at its base and a sky lobby with a two-storey glass-enclosed public gallery filled with light overlooking a three-acre green space at historic College Park. The message being sent is clear. Yonge St. is undergoing a revival, and it can’t happen fast enough.

Already, the building is 98% sold. (A luxurious 75th-floor, 11,370-sq.-ft. penthouse suite selling for $17.5 million is still on the market.)

While it remains to be seen what effect the Aura project will have on the Yonge St. revitalization effort, the mood among the developer and politicians is upbeat.

Mayor David Miller, who spoke at the opening event, sees the Aura development as not only integral to the area’s revitalization, but part of “a building boom the likes of which the city has never seen before.”

And the kick-off of Aura comes right on the heels of the relaunch of another major development, Great Gulf’s prestigious One Bloor high-rise on the southwest corner of Bloor and Yonge.

At 58 storeys and with 690 suites, One Bloor promises close access to world-class shopping at Yorkville, two storeys of prime retail at the building’s base and 27,000 sq. ft. of resort-inspired amenities, its developer says.

At the re-opening of One Bloor in late March, there was a similar strong sense that this condo project could do much to improve the livability of the area.

David Pontarini of Hariri Pontarini Architects said he literally spent months scanning the world, looking at projects in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Paris, before deciding how he could “add to the Toronto skyline at such a significant address.” Indeed a big selling feature of One Bloor is its design, described as “respecting the urban fabric of the area with its simple silhouette that is sensuously sculpted with piano curves to evoke a warm modernism.”

The hype not withstanding, what the two buildings have done at minimum is spawn a budding sense of optimism, say observers, especially given that both projects are selling well despite being launched in 2008, when the condominium market was dealt a big blow by the global economic recession and financial meltdown.

The initial developer of One Bloor faced receivership before Great Gulf came along to rescue the project.

That’s all in the past now.

The two projects in question can best be described as “signature” buildings that will define their locations for a very, very long time to come, says Stephen Dupuis, CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

Dupuis expects the benefits will go well beyond the immediate Yonge St. area.

“As tall, beautiful and well located as these buildings are, they are only part of the urban revival that is sweeping across the city – north, south, east and west – revitalizing the city, creating jobs and enhancing the city’s tax base,” he says.

There is no question, says Dupuis, “these buildings will spur further redevelopment along Yonge St., as will all the other new condo buildings in all the other parts of the city.”

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