Fabrik Condos is launching this week in the heart of the Fashion District. Contact me now for floor plans and pricing for the VIP sales event.

Fabrik represents really the first new launch in what promises to be a very busy 2012 for the new condo market. The developer on this project is Menkes, which is considered a blue chip developer in Toronto. They have been building for decades and they are behind some very well known projects like Gibson Square and Savvy up at Yonge and Sheppard, 770 Bay (Lumiere) and The Four Seasons downtown. Of course what they are really going to be known for when 2012 is all said and done is 1 York / 90 Harbour which promises to be one of the largest projects ever attempted in Toronto. Rest assured when you buy from Menkes you are working with one of the best.

Fabrik is going to be a nice boutique project right on Richmond, just west of Spadina. Popular resale buildings nearby include 477 Richmond (live-work lofts, formerly an office building), 438 Richmond (The Morgan by Great Gulf), 388 Richmond (District Lofts by Context). Nearby pre-construction projects that could be considered direct competitors would be Brant Park (Brad Lamb), 32 Camden (Sorbara), and Lofts 399 (Cresford). In general, prices in the resale market for this pocket west of Spadina are lower than those east of Spadina, so I’m hoping that prices at Fabrik will reflect this reality i.e. they will be priced lower than the likes of King-Charlotte, Tableau, Peter Street, The Bond etc.

Please contact me today for your chance to buy at Fabrik before the public opening! Continue reading for a marketing video on the project put out by the developer.

This condo is launching in 2012. Contact me for floor plans and pricing and your chance to buy before the public launch!

UPDATE: I corrected the map above after I received some great info from a Jimmy Jax (see the comments section), and I added a rendering of the RBC office tower.

No, Toronto is not getting a 200 storey condo building, but a couple of developers are planning some massive projects in the heart of the York Centre neighbourhood.

Menkes is planning not one but two 70-storey towers on their site at 90 Harbour street, directly south of Maple Leaf Square on the other side of the Gardiner. Tridel is also planning a 75-storey tower just west of there on a triangular shaped lot directly south of where the ICE towers will be located. Three 70+ storey towers = more than 200 storeys of condos and over 2000 units coming soon to this location. Wow. To put that in perspective, the two towers of Maple Leaf Square have around 872 units combined.

I put together the graphic above to try to illustrate what’s happening in the area. Infinity 3 and ICE 1&2 are under construction. Tridel and Menkes are in the proposal stage, and RBC is going to be the lead tenant in a new office tower to be built on Queen’s Quay just east of York. I am not sure what the future of the site with the question mark on it is (if anyone knows please let me know). The one above the ICE site will be a commercial building. The one east of the Menkes site is currently the famous Harbour Sixty steak house.

Below is a cool rendering which gives you an idea of how the proposed Tridel building will interact with the ICE towers. For more information on any of these condo projects, please contact me.

Now a rendering of the RBC office tower:

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.

Although this project is not launching in the “VIP” stage until next month, I have access right now to Peter Street Condos. Call it “Platinum Access”, “Super VIP”, “pre-VIP”, or whatever, the point is that I can get my clients into this building today. For information including floor plans and pricing, please contact me.

Designed by architectsAlliance, interiors by Cecconi Simone, and developed by Centrecourt Development, this 40-storey tower with 427 suites is aimed squarely at investors and first time buyers. Average suite size is 550 sq ft, meaning there are a lot of very affordable units in the sub $350K range. Side note: the architects at architectsAlliance will be sure to want to make this one a beauty because their offices are right across the street and they will have to stare at the building every day!

Located at Peter and Adelaide, equidistant from both King street and Queen Street, the location project is right in the heart of the rapidly gentrifying Entertainment District. The Entertainment District as we know it will soon be no more, as many of the clubs are moving further west and being replaced with condos. Some of the pundits are prognosticating that this area could become the next Yorkville with all the recent and planned additions of high end condos, hotels, restaurants, and of course TIFF and Bell Lightbox.

Centrecourt Developments is headed up by Andrew Hoffman, who is a 20 year veteran of the Toronto condo scene and formerly the C.O.O. of Menkes (Four Seasons, Lumiere, Pears, one of the most respected condo developers in Toronto). Rumor is they already have 2 other downtown sites that they will be developing in the short term on top of this one. They are very well organized and are poised to become a major player in the Toronto condo game.

The floor plans are very impressive in this project, the finishes are excellent, and the prices are very competitive for this caliber of a building in this location. For details and  your opportunity to purchase a unit in advance of the VIP release, please contact me.

Coming soon to Avenue Road and Davenport, Pears on the Avenue by Menkes. For more information on the upcoming VIP sales event for this project, please contact me.

This project will be sure to once again ignite the debate over what exactly is ‘Yorkville’ and where the boundaries of this neighbourhood end. Many developers have jumped on the Yorkville marketing train over the past few years, billing their projects in the streets adjacent to Toronto’s most prestigious locale as part of the Yorkville scene.  However anyone who has spent time in the heart of Yorkville (Bloor-Cumberland-Yorkville) will tell you that moving a block or two in any direction will put you in some very different surroundings.

Regardless of whether Avenue Road and Davenport is in Yorkville or not, there is no question it is a great location.

With prices said to start in the mid $400s for this project, I am expecting the prices per square foot to be in the $700+ range. This will almost certainly be a project aimed at end-users (as opposed to investors) particularly ‘down-sizers’ from the Yorkville/Forest Hill/Annex neighbourhoods. Expect this to be a big trend over the next couple decades – mid-size projects in Toronto’s poshest neighbourhoods aimed at getting empty-nesters and retired baby boomers out of their 2000-3000 sq ft homes and into 800 sq ft condos down the street. Ditch the maintenance of the home but keep your postal code.

Questions? Contact me.

Welcome to your online guide to “The Best Penthouse Suites in Toronto“. In this installment I will be profiling the west penthouse suite at Four Seasons Private Residences in Yorkville.

Author’s note: This blog post was originally published in 2008. Hence, some of this information may be out of date. For the most up-to-date information regarding the best penthouse suites in Toronto, please contact me.

The Four Seasons Private Residences in Yorkville was launched by Menkes in early 2007 at the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue in the heart of the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood.  It was billed right from the start as the premier luxury condo project in the city. While an argument can be made that there are plenty of other equally luxurious and prestigious projects out there, one thing is certain: the West Penthouse at the Four Seasons is the most expensive condominium in Toronto with a price tag for the entire 55th floor at $30 million.

Back in 2007, there was a rumor circulating that the penthouse would be priced at about $16 million, however, the developer never said this would be the case.  When the project launched there wasn’t even any schematic drawings for the Penthouse or anything – it didn’t technically exist until very recently.

Here are the specifications on the West Penthouse at the Four Seasons – 9,000 square feet and the entire 55th floor of the West Tower.

Developer: Menkes (Very good developer, many projects completed and underway in Toronto)
Penthouse: The penthouses and sub-penthouses for the Four Seasons have just been officially released for the first time last month (September 2008). The project consists of two towers. One 55-storey with the new Four Seasons hotel at its base, and one 26-storey that will be strictly residential.
Key Features: All the 5-star hotel amenities of the four seasons are at your disposal. Ultimate hotel life style. Yorkville location. Prestige brand. Miele and Sub-Zero appliances. Penthouse even includes a 680 sq ft suite in the east tower for your housekeeper or other personal staff. Menkes is claiming that this is the only condo in Canada that comes with a staff residence.
Notes:
-14 different kitchens to choose from.
-Smallest suites in the building are around 1100 sq ft.
Occupancy: late 2011
Potential Negatives: No precedent for the premium price in Toronto. $3333 per square foot is more than double the price of other comparable offerings such as the penthouse at College Park offered at about $1440 per square foot.

To receive more information on the Four Seasons Toronto Penthouse, including a full colour brochure, please contact me.

Downloads:

• Four Seasons West Penthouse floorplan.

Links:

• Interview with the Alan Menkes and Brian Gluckstein – president of Menkes and the penthouse designer respectively about the West Penthouse.
• Developer’s official site
• Globe and Mail article on the West Penthouse

The Best Penthouse in Toronto Series:

• College Park Aura Penthouse
• Shangri-La Penthouse
• The Residences of the Ritz Carlton Penthouse
• 1 Bloor Penthouse