Ryan Starr – Yourhome​.ca

When it comes to condo sales cen­tres, Anna Simone believes what buy­ers see is what they should ulti­mately get.

Simone, a prin­ci­pal with inte­rior design firm Cec­coni Simone, stressed this one recent after­noon dur­ing a sneak pre­view of the $1.2-million pre­sen­ta­tion cen­tre she helped design for DNA3, the third and final phase in Can­derel Stoneridge’s condo clus­ter on King West.

Located at the cor­ner of King and Shaw St. — for­merly the site of a Chrysler deal­er­ship — the third phase of Downtown’s Next Address is a two-tower, mixed-use devel­op­ment with 600 units that range from 340-square-foot stu­dios to 900-square-foot loft town­homes. Prices go from $180,000 to just over $400,000.

“Toronto is a sophis­ti­cated mar­ket and there can’t be smoke and mir­rors with buy­ers,” Simone says. “When they walk into a sales cen­tre, they want to get a sense of what their future home is going to be like. They want to see the real deal.”

With that in mind, DNA3′s 7,000-square-foot sales office takes the pre­sen­ta­tion cen­tre con­cept to a whole new level.

Sales cen­tres these days have cer­tain stan­dard fea­tures: a model of the project, ren­der­ings and suite lay­outs, and floor­ing and colour sam­ples. They often include a full model suite, as well. Touch­screen TVs have become a pop­u­lar gad­get, enabling would-be buy­ers to go on a vir­tual tour.

DNA3′s pre­sen­ta­tion cen­tre goes a step fur­ther, giv­ing prospec­tive pur­chasers a chance to expe­ri­ence most ele­ments of the condo in real, life-size form.

Essen­tially, vis­i­tors to the DNA3 sales cen­tre can go on a condo test drive. Upon arrival, they pass through an indoor ver­sion of the King West streetscape, com­plete with trees and images of fash­ion mod­els and pho­tos of trendy local shops lin­ing the walls. Buy­ers then walk into a replica of the condo’s lobby area and board a faux ele­va­tor meant to resem­ble the one that will be in the condo tower.

Once vis­i­tors exit this “ele­va­tor,” they stroll down a hall­way dec­o­rated the way the cor­ri­dor will look in the build­ing — car­pet­ing, paint, light­ing fix­tures and all. They can then walk up to the front door and enter the 630-square-foot model suite, just like they’re enter­ing their future home.

Once inside they’ll see what’s on offer at DNA3, includ­ing nine-foot ceil­ings, hard­wood floor­ing and an open-concept lay­out. The kitchens will have Cae­sar­Stone coun­ter­tops, an island, glass back­splashes and stain­less steel appli­ances. Bath­rooms will have porce­lain tile, framed-glass show­ers, soaker tubs and cus­tom Corian sinks.

The DNA3 pre­sen­ta­tion cen­tre also allows vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence what life will be like on the third-floor rooftop ter­race, with exact repli­cas of the lounges, pri­vate din­ing spots and bar­be­cue areas.

“It gives buy­ers a level of com­fort,” Simone says. “You’re see­ing not only what your future home will look like, but also what the feel­ing of your pub­lic and com­mon areas will be. So there’s no ele­ment of sur­prise here.”

The way Simone sees it, Can­derel Stoneridge’s will­ing­ness to show buy­ers every­thing under­scores the company’s cred­i­bil­ity. “If a devel­oper is con­fi­dent about who they are and what they’re deliv­er­ing,” she says, “they’re not going to hesitate.”

Riz Dhanji is quite con­fi­dent about what Can­derel Stoner­idge is deliv­er­ing with DNA3. Dhanji, the firm’s vice pres­i­dent of sales and mar­ket­ing, notes that DNA1 and DNA2 — across the street from DNA3 — helped spur a revi­tal­iza­tion of the once indus­trial King West neigh­bour­hood. What’s more, by offer­ing as stan­dard fin­ishes that were con­sid­ered upgrades at the time — stain­less steel appli­ances, gran­ite coun­ter­tops — “we set the bar for qual­ity and fin­ishes. We were pio­neer­ing in what we did.”

“DNA 1 and 2 are get­ting the “high­est resale val­ues of any other build­ings in that pocket of King West,” Dhanji says.

With DNA3, Can­derel has sought to improve on its for­mula. The devel­oper gath­ered feed­back and sug­ges­tions from exist­ing clients and incor­po­rated those ideas into plans for DNA3.

More retail, they told the devel­oper. Accord­ingly, DNA3 will have 20,000 square feet of space in its podium for shops and ser­vices. (DNA 2 had 8,000 square feet of retail.) Increased amenity space was another com­monly heard sug­ges­tion. So DNA3 will have 6,000 square feet of it, ver­sus 1,500 square feet total at the other two build­ings. In addi­tion to the rooftop ter­race, DNA3 will have three party rooms, a games room and the­atre room. There will also be a fit­ness cen­tre, aerobics/yoga room and, in lieu of con­ven­tional show­ers, a rain room.

If things get too hot up on the ter­race, DNA3 will have spe­cial “mist­ing sta­tions” to help cool things down. “You just walk under­neath it and you have this won­der­ful mist that cools you off, then you go back and con­tinue tan­ning,” says Simone, who got the idea on a trip to Ari­zona. “It was so hot, but you’d walk around and they would mist every­thing to cool things off. I thought it was a great idea — we should have mist.” After all, she notes, “not that many peo­ple use out­door pools.”

The DNA3 pre­sen­ta­tion cen­tre opens in Sep­tem­ber. The project is being mar­keted to first-time buy­ers and move-up buy­ers, those in the 25– to 40-year-old demo­graphic who want to be in the thick of the King West action. To gen­er­ate buzz for DNA3, the sales cen­tre has a spe­cial events cen­tre in the space that used to be the car dealership’s showroom.

For the pre­vi­ous DNAs, an events cen­tre served as a venue for fash­ion shows, art exhibits, and pro­mo­tions for the Mol­son Indy and Toronto Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val. Dhanji says some­thing sim­i­lar is planned for DNA3.

“We’ll be host­ing num­ber of par­ties from the film fes­ti­val to neigh­bour­hood par­ties, with tie-ins with fash­ion, design and every­thing that relates to the build­ing itself. We really want to get our brand out there.”

Spe­cial events help. But in the end, few things are more impor­tant in rein­forc­ing the DNA brand than the project’s slick pre­sen­ta­tion centre.

“It allows prospec­tive pur­chasers to walk through and touch and feel the ele­ments they’re going to have in that build­ing,” says David Klugs­berg, a vice pres­i­dent with mar­ket­ing firm LA Inc., who has worked on all three DNA projects. “It’s an envi­ron­ment that speaks to the per­son­al­ity we’re try­ing to cre­ate with the final product.”

Strong per­son­al­ity and brand­ing are key, he says, given that pre-construction buy­ers can be ner­vous about buy­ing a condo based on only a plan. “When peo­ple are buy­ing a condo, at the end of the day they’re buy­ing a suite to live in,” Klugs­berg says. “So hav­ing a strong brand sets it apart. It touches peo­ples’ emo­tions and gives the project a per­son­al­ity. Buy­ers can then take own­er­ship of that brand.”

The idea, in other words, is for DNA to become a part of them.

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

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