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Coming Soon to the Financial District: INDX Condos

Coming Soon to the heart of the Financial District from Lifetime Developments and Centrecourt Developments: INDX Condos . Register now for floor plans and pricing and your opportunity to purchase a suite before the public opening.

The location of INDX doesn’t get any more central than this. A direct connection to the PATH network would give residents underground access to

• 6 subway stations
• Union Station
• The Bus Terminal at Bay and Dundas
• Hundreds of shops, restaurants, & eateries
• The Eaton Centre
• City Hall & Metro Hall
• The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
• Ryerson Business School
• The Air Canada Centre
• Roy Thompson Hall
• The Metro Convention Centre
• The Ritz Carlton Hotel, Royal York Hotel, 1 King West Hotel, Sheraton Centre, Hilton Hotel
• Many more…

Wow. When you break down this list and see what being connected to the PATH in this area gives you it’s really quite incredible.

The development team is the same team that shocked the condo industry when they basically sold out a 46 storey tower in a matter of weeks back in November with KARMA. Lifetime and Centrecourt are two companies that really ‘get it’ when it comes to giving condo investors what they are looking for: a high quality product in a great location that has a high potential for some serious ROI. Prices for INDX will likely be quite similar to that of Karma which averaged about $680 per square foot according to Realnet.

As proposed the project will be 53 storeys and 784 units. I suspect that if sales are successful they will apply for several more floors. Several years ago Harry Stinson was trying to build a 90-storey tower on this exact site before his project failed, investors lost thousands and he sort of went off on a self-imposed exile to Hamilton where he is attempting to build some condos. This site has been the subject of many rumors ever since but now that we have two bonafide developers sitting on it and ready to repeat the success of Karma Condos, this site will surely be home to hundreds of people in about 4 years time.

Contact me now for INDX Condos VIP Sales.

INDX

Karma Gets 50

Karma condos by Lifetime Developments and Centrecourt Developments is going to be 51-storeys. The first 46 storeys sold out in record time in the fall of 2011. In fact, they basically sold an entire 46-storey building at the time with out any model suite of any kind (possibly never been done before in Toronto?!). There are only a handful of existing buildings that can boast breaking the 50-storey mark, but in 5 years there will be a lot more downtown.

If you missed out on this project, now is your chance to still get a unit here, and not just any unit but one of the highest units in the entire city that will have spectacular views. Please contact me for floor plans and pricing for the top-5 floors at Karma and your chance to secure a unit before the upcoming .

Coming Soon: Karma Condos

Coming Soon from Lifetime Developments and Centrecourt Developments: KARMA CONDOS. Register with me now to receive floor plans and pricing for the VIP sales event.

Karma Condos will be a sleek new tower located at 21 Grenville Street (Yonge and College) and designed by none other than architectsAlliance. The building is going to be HUGE. With around 10 units per floor and either 46 or 52 storeys (depending on what gets approved), this one will be a monster condo tower in the heart of downtown.

This building is very investor friendly. The suite mix is mostly smaller suites and this area is the perfect storm for rental properties. Yonge and College is arguably the best spot in the entire downtown core to own a condo if you are an investor. Why?

• You are steps away from the Yonge subway and streetcar
• Equidistant from the two major Universities downtown: UofT and Ryerson, meaning you have a massive pool of potential student renters every year
• Walking distance to the financial district as well as the hospital district, meaning you have a massive pool of potential young professional renters every year
• Most importantly, area buildings like College Park (Bay and College) and The Met (Carlton and Yonge) command some of the highest rental rates of any building downtown. Bidding wars for rentals in this area is quite common! Here is a sample of what some units have rented for recently at College Park for example: Studio-$1380/month, 1 bed-$1900/month, 1+den-2250/month and 2 bedrooms-$2800/month

Besides all this, the two developers who are partnering on the project are both top-notch. Lifetime has launched several projects downtown in the past year including: The Bond, Bisha, The Yorkville, and Centrecourt is a new company headed up by Andrew Hoffman (formerly of Menkes) and have enjoyed tremendous success with Peter Street condos.

If you are interested in buying a suite at this fantastic investment building, please contact me to register for the VIP sales event coming this month!

Karma Condos

This condo is launching in October 2011. Contact me to register for the VIP Sales Event!

Coming Soon: The Bond Condominiums

Coming soon from Lifetime Developments: The Bond Condominiums. For floor plans and pricing, please contact me.

Lifetime are arguably the hottest, hippest developers in the city right now. Their projects really bring the sizzle to a sometimes staid industry. Lifetime has all the ingredients for a winner with this project located on Adelaide, just west of John Street. Great floor plans, competitive pricing for the neighbourhood, great standard finishes, and an excellent name. There’s something very suave about being able to say that you live at “The Bond“.

The extremely sexy podium (see below) will have several floors of office space (perfect for this area and will continue to help the neighbourhood lose the ‘clubland’ image), followed by 2 floors of amenities for the condos (including an outdoor pool-everyone’s got one these days!), then it’s 31 floors of condos ranging from 327 sq ft studios to 859 sq ft 3 bedrooms.

The entertainment district can probably safely be renamed the condo district, as this is the 8th (by my rough count) 30+ tower in the immediate area to be launched in the past year! Others include The Mercer, Studio, Tableau, Peter Street Condos, Cinema Tower, Theatre Park, Bisha, King-Charlotte. Buyers want to live here, and clearly the city of Toronto is highly encouraging developers to build here. In 5 years there will be probably 10 40-storey towers in the entertainment district that are not there today.

For pricing and floor plans for The Bond, please contact me.

The Bond

All Quiet on the Condo Front

After a very busy spring market for new condo launches downtown, the last 6 weeks or so have been fairly quiet. While it’s not uncommon for developers to launch new projects in the summer months, it doesn’t look likely that anything significant will be launched before September. It seems even developers enjoy taking some time off in the summer months and they also realize that real estate is cyclical and the best time to be a seller is when there are plenty of buyers (in the spring, and to a lesser extent, the fall).

Those of you who are on my investor email list will already know this, but this fall is shaping up to have some very exciting new projects launching. The top-5 upcoming projects that I have my eye on for investors right now are:

1. Paintbox Condos (Regent Park)
2. River City Phase 2 (West Donlands)
3. Lifetime Developments (Victory, X2, M5V, The Yorkville) has 2 sites they are getting ready for launch this fall.
4. 42 Charles St East (much hyped Cresford project at Yonge and Bloor)
5. Cityzen has a couple in the pipeline including Pier 27 phase 3 and Front & Sherbourne

I’m already working behind the scenes to get my clients in to some of these projects before ANYONE. Get on my email list by contacting me today.

Top-5 Things The Sale of the Four Seasons Penthouse Tells Us

In case you missed it, Menkes has confirmed that the penthouse at the Four Seasons in Yorkville has sold to an international buyer. 8000+ square feet for $28M. So what does the sale of the most expensive apartment in Canadian history tell us about the condo market in Toronto? I think it says a few key things:

1. Four Seasons is King. By setting such a massive record that will likely not be surpassed for possibly 10 years or more, The Four Seasons brand is now clearly the number one luxury condo-hotel in Toronto. I often talk about the “Big Four” of Toronto condo-hotels: The Ritz-Carlton, Shangri-La, Trump Tower, and The Four Seasons. The penthouse sale once again solidifies The Four Seasons as the most prestigious brand in this sub-market.
2. Yorkville is King. As much as there are many great streets, intersections, and neighbourhoods in Toronto, this sale reminds us that Yorkville is still #1 in the eyes of the truly elite buyers.
3. Toronto is King. This could not happen in any other city in Canada. Vancouver, for all its high-priced real estate, has (to my knowledge) never seen a condo sale north of $22M. Montreal? Forget about it. The penthouse of the Ritz in Montreal sold for $15M. Toronto is the best market in Canada to invest in real estate and we should be proud.
4. Expect other Dominoes to Fall in 2011. I have a feeling the other condos on the market in the $10M+ range will sell this year. No one likes to be the first to set a new price precedent, but once it is set, similar properties tend to move quickly. Suddenly the penthouse at Aura at 13,000 square feet is looking like a bargain at $17M…
5. No more complaining about $600 per square foot! With this property selling at over $3000 per square foot, Toronto buyers need to see this as a signpost for the future of Toronto. Those who are stuck in the mindset that anything over $600 per square foot is ‘too high’ or irrational may be right, but they need to consider the overall trajectory of the market as well.

Questions or comments? Contact me directly or leave a comment below.

Coming Soon: The Yorkville

The Yorkville is the latest development from Lifetime Developments. Lifetime has been behind some of the hottest projects downtown over the last several years including X2, The Four Seasons, Victory, BISHA, and Liberty Market Lofts to name a few.

The location is strictly NOYO (North Yorkville), and I suspect the prices should reflect this  (we won’t be seeing $1000PSF in this building).  Still, although it’s on the other side of Davenport, it’s still only about 5mins walk to either Bay and Bloor or Yonge and Bloor, or Yorkville institutions like Sassafraz and Pusateri’s.

The architecture itself I think will polarize, as some will no doubt love it for it’s unique, bold shape, while others will malign it for trying to do too much (investors will only be asking, ‘will it make me money?’).

Amenities will include the usual 24hr concierge, gym and yoga studio, party room, roof top terrace, pool, PLUS some extras like piano lounge and wine cellar.

No pricing has been released yet but I would anticipate something in the $750-$850PSF range for this location (in other words, probably slightly below One Bloor prices). That number may seem shocking, but rest assured that it is well supported by the resale market for Yorkville with units at the nearby 18 Yorkville (by Great Gulf Homes) selling routinely in the $800PSF range (for suites with parking).

Lifetime projects are always HOT when they first release. I expect a frenzy of demand from the investor community, especially for the suites under $500K. For floor plans and pricing and your opportunity to buy at the upcoming VIP sales event, please contact me.