Tag Archives: toronto condo development
Development delayed in High Park
John Rieti – Open File
Four years ago Gary Gagnier was told he had a month to leave the High Park house he was renting because it had been sold and was going to be demolished.
Today that brick house at 3 Pacific Ave. still stands alongside a row of other abandoned two- and three-storey homes on Bloor St. W., right across from High Park.
The delay came as WJ Properties, which owns the houses, tried to remove Linda Sepp, a tenant with severe allergies. Sepp left her home on May 4. For months, her faded Tibetan prayer flags hanging on the front porch had been the only sign of life on the block full of boarded-up windows.
Now that she has moved, development will begin. WJ Properties confirms it plans to build on the site, although it hasn’t revealed any plans or put a timeline on demolition and construction.
WJ also owns the white highrise apartment building at 22 Oakmount Rd. that stands behind the abandoned strip. A resident there says he has heard that midrise buildings will going up along the west side of Oakmount Rd. He’s sure the company he rents from will start work on the site soon, he says.
It might not be an easy time to develop, however.
This evening, Ward 13 Parkdale-High Park councillor Bill Saundercook will officially change Gothic Parkette’s name to Bennett Park. The dedication recognizes the late Eunice Bennett and her daughter Winifred, who once fought against the demolition of 50 homes to make way for a highrise.
Bennett Park, just a few blocks from the abandoned row, could serve as a rallying point for those who don’t want further development in the High Park area, which is already dense with condominiums.
The pace of development in the west end also raises questions, as two condo buildings have struggled to establish roots. The Giraffe highrise, proposed for the intersection of Bloor and Dundas St. W., remains nothing but a closed and oddly spotted presentation centre after the Ontario Municipal Board rejected its plans.
Neighbourhood groups and councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) objected to the building. The OMB ruled in March that it was “simply too large for the site and inappropriate for the area.”
Further west at Bloor and Keele Sts., the Address at High Park is still in the sales phase. A showroom sitting next to an old garage is the only sign of the proposed development.
And then there are the obvious planning hurdles specific to the Bloor stretch. The houses themselves — as different in style as they are in states of disrepair — will be difficult to work into the design of a new building, if that matters.
Towering trees and proximity to High Park, environmental factors that will certainly be considered by city planners when WJ’s proposals are submitted, will be another challenge.
Still, years later and now living in another neighbourhood, Gagnier, a condominium designer, is confident WJ will get the go-ahead to build.
The condo market, he says, is still hot.
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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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In condo marketing, a gut feeling is no longer enough
Terrence Belford – Globe and Mail
You may never have heard of Jane Renwick. Chances are, however, her name will become a lot more familiar if you follow the new homes market in the next few years.
To draw a sports analogy, Ms. Renwick has just made the jump from scorekeeper to star player on an expansion team. About two and a half months ago she quit her job as executive vice-president at Urbanation Inc. and took up a new one as vice-president sales and marketing at Onni Group Developments GTA.
Onni Group has a 40-year history in British Columbia’s lower mainland as building everything from industrial warehouses to large master-planned communities. Two years ago it decided to diversify geographically and Toronto was its first choice. If Canada was an amusement park, B.C.’s housing market would be the roller coaster, and the GTA the infinitely more sedate merry-go-round.
Urbanation by contrast tracks the GTA’s high-rise industry and serves as a consultant on market research for condo builders. Developers hire it to know where the market may be heading, who are the likely target buyers and what kinds of suites to build to best tap into those markets – all based on surveys and number crunching.
You need to know all this to understand what Ms. Renwick’s move might signal for the future of condo development in Toronto.
To date, the men and women who head the sales and marketing teams for condo builders have mostly been drawn from the ranks of sales people or lower level jobs on marketing teams. They worked their way up absorbing skills and insights as they climbed the ranks – you could say they learned their jobs on the street.
They and their bosses relied more heavily on experience and intuition than on evidence-based research to make decisions.
By contrast, decision makers in other areas of real estate (such as commercial, industrial and retail) are now professionally trained managers who long ago abandoned gut feelings in favour of relying exclusively on data-based decisions. Why? It is the influence of the big pension funds.
After the recession in the early 1990s pension funds stepped in and picked up Canada’s public real estate companies and their top quality holdings like Toronto’s skyscraping bank towers for a song. Along with ownership they brought a new attitude towards real estate. No more room for hunches, no more room for individuals calling the shots. Now commercial real estate would be all about professionally trained teams making decisions that were supportable by facts.
Commercial real estate benefited greatly because this new approach changed what was a boom-or-bust industry into a stable, steadily growing sector virtually immune to deep and sometimes near-catastrophic collapses in tough economic times.
All that said, I see Ms. Renwick’s move as evidence that this shift to professional management and fact-based decision making may now finally be creeping into the last real estate sector still dominated by seat-of-the-pants players. The current glut of suites on the market probably comes from the old saying that a rising tide floats all boats.
When condos were hot, everybody got into the business. Forget after-sales service. Sales and marketing teams were just there to move product. Presentation centre staff was more order takers than anything else.
What Ms. Renwick brings to her job is that deep evidence-based understanding of the GTA market and its buyers.
“After the past two years running Urbanation, I know the GTA condo market intimately – probably better than anyone else,” says Ms. Renwick, 34, and a graduate in economics from McGill University in Montreal. After all, she points out it was to her team at Urbanation developers went when they needed someone to explain what was really happening.
“I know what segments work and how to tailor projects to best meet their needs,” she says.
She understands the business on a micro level as well. Since buying her first condo seven years ago, she has gutted, renovated and sold at a profit five suites in a row, making each her home as she did so.
The choice of Onni also seems to make great sense. The company has two large development sites in hand: One with room for five high-rise towers and 1,000 suites at Bathurst Street and Fort York Drive, just west of CityPlace. Ms. Renwick is now working on getting that as yet unnamed project ready for a March launch.
Its second task will be equally impressive – a project with 1,200 suites at Parklawn Avenue and Lakeshore Boulevard West in Etobicoke.
What Onni offers is not just those decades of experience but also another distinct advantage in a market which has been plagued by delays as developers struggled to sell enough suites to obtain construction financing.
Onni has a large portfolio of office, retail and industrial space in British Columbia, which kicks out enough cash on a steady basis to let it get on with construction without having to reach a high level of presales for condo projects. The Fort York development will start selling in March and start construction in early summer regardless of the level of presales, she says.
Finally both Ms. Renwick and Onni believe strongly in after-sales service. Like companies such as Tridel Corp., Minto Communities and the Daniels Corp., which consistently rate at the top of surveys on buyer satisfaction, Onni will have more than just a skeleton customer service staff.
So does Ms. Renwick’s move signal the start of a change for the better in the condo industry? I for one certainly hope so. For the past 40 years I have covered the commercial side of the business and seen the change for the better professionalism makes. The residential side could sure use the same.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Vertical City
Toronto is Growing Up
The Toronto Real Estate Board President’s column as it appears each Friday in the Toronto Sun Resale Homes and Condos section
Torontonians are crazy for condos. Last month there were 2,361 condo sales in Toronto and the GTA, an increase of 25% from the previous July.
While sales of all housing types have been robust throughout the past couple of months, Toronto condo sales are making a stronger contribution to the big picture than ever before.
In little more than a decade, Toronto condo sales have gone from comprising a quarter of all GTA real estate transactions to accounting for almost one in every three homes that changes hands. In central Toronto condos now represent 60% of resale real estate transactions.
As a result of the Toronto condo boom the population of the downtown core grew by 10% in the last five-year census period, representing the largest five-year population increase in the core throughout the last 30 years.
And there’s more to come. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose in the Toronto area by 10% in June from the previous month to 24,000 units. This can mainly be attributed to condominiums as multi-family developments were up 15% from the prior month.
The popularity of Toronto condominiums has skyrocketed because they appeal to people from so many different walks of life. Toronto welcomes nearly 100,000 newcomers to Canada each year from countries like India and China, where high-rise living is the norm. As such, the Toronto condo market is a natural fit.
Well-educated young adults who are on a career path also see Toronto condo living as an affordable and convenient option, given its proximity to business and city life. Indeed many from the twenty and thirty something age choose developments that reflect their personality.
Whether you’re a media buff, into retro chic or have a penchant for fine art, there’s a Toronto condo designed specifically with your needs in mind.
Empty nesters and those who purchase property around the globe are also drawn to Toronto condos, given their spectacular architecture and luxurious features.
A recent report by Urbanation substantiates their wide appeal; indicating that in the second quarter of this year Toronto new condo sales increased 223% from Q1, to 2,963 units.
Even if you’re not drawn to this housing type, our new vertical city has an economic benefit to all GTA residents.
It obviously benefits housing industry related professions, but it also has a positive impact on a number of other sectors. In fact, according to a study by the Canadian Real Estate Association, one out of every 100 jobs depends on spending associated with resale housing transactions, on things like renovations, furniture and appliances. This study also found that the average resale housing transaction in Ontario generates more than $47,000 in economic spinoffs. Even the smallest businesses benefit from condominium communities, which provide a steady stream of clientele to their ground floor shops.
New housing units also put additional funds into the City’s coffers through property taxes. And intensification offers the opportunity to improve, rather than disperse, city services like transit, waste removal and recreation facilities.
As the fifth most populous urban centre in North America behind Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, Toronto is growing up, both literally and figuratively as it matures into a world-class city.
Tom Lebour is President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, a professional association that represents 28,000 Realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416−388−1960
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