Colborne cool: Condo titan moves east

By Olivia Stren

I think safe is a pejorative word,” chef Claudio Aprile declares over a toothsome starter of devilled eggs, spiked with smoked bacon and souffletine. We’re having lunch at his King East restaurant, Origin, along with real estate developer Peter Freed, architect Peter Clewes and designer Johnson Chou (the latter two are behind Mr. Freed’s latest condo project, 60 Colborne, across the street). Mr. Aprile is relating his contempt for safety — and its posse of bland wing-men (predictability, banality, mediocrity) — to food and architecture. “I’m not saying that everything needs to be polarizing, but you don’t want to be everything to everyone,” he says. “I like to take ingredients that aren’t always celebrated and turn them into something special.”

With that pronouncement, a waitress places exhibit A before us as if on cue: A large beet, provocatively served whole with knife and fork, is adorned with walnuts and pickled red onions, and landscaped with mini snow drifts of creamy chevre. The chef-owner and celebrated culinary provocateur has long been fond of bucking convention, re-imagining ingredients and flavour profiles. His distaste for the road well travelled, and the pleasure he takes in not pleasing all and sundry asserted itself early in his career. Mr. Aprile was fired from his first job at a doughnut shop in Brampton, which found him stuffing each pastry with 10 pumps of jelly (he was supposed to use one pump). He was fired from his next job, the Keg, because he spent his time carving animals out of carrots at the salad bar. And he also once quit a job at a Toronto restaurant when the owner, who popped in for dinner with his young son, requested ketchup. (He proposed using his mother’s tomato jam. When the owner insisted on ketchup, Mr. Aprile quit.)

Mr. Aprile finds a kindred carrot carver in Mr. Freed: “Peter likes to push the envelope, too. His philosophy is compatible with mine. I want to be a leader. I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already done.” Mr. Freed is also hardly in play-repeat mode. He’s moved his Monopoly playing piece — with 60 Colborne, the king of King West has headed east. Mr. Freed was drawn to this neighbourhood for the same reasons he was initially attracted to King West. I love neighbourhoods that mix the new with the historic,” he says. It’s a design-driven approach that has proven inordinately successful. King West is a Freedian universe of design-centric condos and their young and stylish dwellers, while construction cranes plastered with his name decorate every block.

When I ask Mr. Freed how many condos he’s developed, he looks at me bashfully as though I’d asked the most vulgar of questions. “It’s not like I wake up and count my units,” he says. (Then, he reveals his number: 3,000 units.) I’ve met and interviewed Mr. Freed several times, and every time I am newly struck by his preternatural calm. For a 3,000-unit man, Mr. Freed has a remarkable talent for appearing eternally tranquil. In a culture that loves to confuse being busy with being successful, Mr. Freed (who is quite obviously both) has a refreshing knack for always appearing at leisure. As if he had nothing more pressing to do than chat idly over a root-veg salad.

Mr. Freed becomes animated when he starts discussing what enticed him eastward. “We wanted to expand into other great neighbourhoods and this opportunity came up to buy this site [a former parking lot] to build and complete the north side of Colborne street,” he says. “Designing and creating a property is creating the ultimate product. And it’s a real privilege to create a physical structure that could be here for the next 200 years.”

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Street Smarts: The core condo score

Toronto has a love affair with the condo, with 28,466 new-build units purchased in 2011. Thousands more are planned. Suite size, price, amenities and architecture are important, but more and more, a building’s neighbourhood is being considered the ultimate draw. The seventh part of a lengthy series examining the GTA’s new condo ’hoods.

By Suzanne Wintrob

Once upon a time, Nancy MacKinlay lived with her parents, her older brother and the family dog on a quiet, leafy street in Scarborough. Now that she’s all grown up, the 33-year-old wouldn’t dare trade her lively urban digs for the hush of suburbia.

“It’s relaxing for me,” says Ms. MacKinlay of her downtown neighbourhood. “I like the hustle bustle. I find when I go visit my parents in Scarborough, there’s just nothing —  you have to get in your car to go anywhere,” she says. “There’s not the convenience of putting your shoes on and walking out your front door and going grocery shopping and then stopping for lunch somewhere and then picking up flowers,” she says. “It’s all so close and there’s tons of variety. I like the diversity of everyone walking the streets. There are families and older people and younger people. There’s lots of fashion. There’s always something to look at and things to do.”

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/street-smarts-the-core-condo-score/

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Street Smarts: Central storeys in Toronto core

By Suzanne Wintrob

Steve Cameron lives with two university buddies in a rented townhouse near the Distillery District. But as a 27-year-old single guy working at a family-run real estate finance lending firm in the heart of the financial district, he wants to live where he works and plays. That’s why INDX, a 54-storey, 700-suite condo project by Lifetime Developments and CentreCourt Developments at Bay and Adelaide looks so promising to him. From the bachelor-pad-type black kitchen counter tops to the poker room, golf simulation room and the lobby’s shoeshine station and dry-cleaning drop-off area, it’s a building that’s hoping to beckon career-focused keeners like Mr. Cameron.

“I’m really dedicated to my career, really focused on putting in as many hours as I can to get as far ahead as I can in the next few years,” he says from his office. “To do that, the best place to be is down here. The financial district has become a place that is more conducive to a young professional’s lifestyle, with a lot of great restaurants and pubs to go out to. … My time is worth too much to be sitting on a Go Train or in traffic for two half hours every morning and every evening.”

As of February 2012, there were 13 active projects with 5,103 units in the downtown core between Bloor and the Gardiner Expressway and University and Church, according to RealNet Canada Inc. That’s down slightly from the previous year with 15 projects and 5,848 units. Average price per square foot rose to $939 from $868.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/street-smarts-central-storeys-living-high-in-downtown-t-o/

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Home price rise in Canada may be topping out

OTTAWA — Price increases in Canada’s booming housing market may be topping out, according to the latest survey by the country’s largest real estate organization.

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the survey of five major housing markets showed prices continued to rise in February.

However, the 5.1 per cent year-over-year increase in February was the smallest since June 2011. It was also the fourth consecutive month in which gains slowed.

CREA said its Multiple Listing Service Housing Price Index, or HPI, found that the largest year-over-year increase was in Toronto at 7.3 per cent, but even there price momentum continued to fade.

Price increases also moderated further in Calgary to 2.5 per cent and to just 1.6 per cent in Montreal.

As well, gains decelerated in all housing categories tracked except for two-storey, single-family homes.

The aggregate composite MLS HPI rose 1.1 on a month-over-month basis in February, with prices for two-storey, single-family homes up 1.6 per cent. Prices for townhouse/row and apartment units saw smaller gains of 0.4 and 0.5 per cent respectively.

Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist., said the HPI typically rises in February from the previous month as demand ramps up leading into the spring housing market.

“(But) The monthly price increase in February this year was less than what we saw in either of the past two years, which is more evidence that the trend for Canadian home prices is slowing,” Klump said.

The index based on single-family, townhouse/row unit, and apartment unit sales activity in Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Greater Montreal and Greater Toronto.

http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1150878–home-price-rise-in-canada-may-be-topping-out

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Moving Building Facades

In 2002, Ned Kahn worked with the staff of Technorama, the major science center in Switzerland, and their architects, Durig and Rami, to create a facade for the building which is composed of thousands of aluminum panels that move in the air currents and reveal the complex patterns of turbulence in the wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWIhkvgg6MQ&feature=player_embedded

Jean Nouvel created a spectacular facade, based upon electronically controlled camera iris shaped devices in the style of decorative Arab screens, for the IMA in Paris, 20 years ago. For some reason, mechanical facades have recently started cropping up here and there in architecture. Here are some of our favorites.

http://www.oobject.com/category/12-moving-building-facades-videos/

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All the info you need to buy in Florida

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well with you. I wanted to send out all the info below that I have blogged about in the last few weeks. This information helps to answer most of the questions Canadians have when looking to buy Florida real estate.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this.  Please call or email me with all questions.

RBC USA Mortgage application attached. (Yes , you can approved for a US mortgage with your Canadian credit score!!! 20%-30% down).

http://www.rbcbank.com/products-and-services/cid-296622.html

www.altrolaw.com

http://www.altrolaw.com/practice-areas/cross-border-real-estate/

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/02/29/florida-real-estate-market-starting-to-turn-around/

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/housing-crisis-to-end-in-2012-as-banks-loosen-credit-standards-2012-01-24?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.housingpredictor.com/2012/florida.html

http://www.worldpropertychannel.com/us-markets/residential-real-estate-1/miami-condo-market-the-blue-doral-hyatt-residences-trump-hollywood-the-related-group-jorge-perez-miami-association-of-realtors-edgardo-defortuna-fortune-international-w-south-beach-craig-studnicky-related-isg-4576.php

Quick Facts:

  • 2.8 million Canadians visited Florida in 2008 (83% were from Quebec & Ontario)
  • One out of four properties purchased in Florida is by a Canadian
  • Canadians now own over $40 billion dollars of real-estate in Florida, more than any other foreign buyer
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Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

I am pleased to inform you that the name for our subway station ‘Vaughan Metropolitan Centre’ has been approved. This is good news for Vaughan as it is consistent with the marketing and branding of our city and downtown core. TTC Chair Karen Stintz was very supportive of our position. In the meetings held with her she clearly understood our case. I have expressed to her our gratitude. As well I want to thank Clayton Harris and Tim Simmonds for their cooperation on this file.

Sincerely yours,

Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua

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If you go big, we’ll go bigger

Yonge-Gerrard project stretches to 78 storeys, edging T.O. rival’s 75

SUSAN PIGG

The battle of the biggest has just escalated three storeys.

Canderel’s Aura condo project at Yonge and Gerrard Sts. has regained the title of tallest residential skyscraper in Canada thanks to a committee of adjustment decision that will see it stretch to 78 storeys once construction is completed in 2014.

That means Aura will top Tridel’s 75-storey Ten York condo project, announced late last year, which appeared close to taking the tallest title.

Aura is also untouchable on another level: It boasts an $18.3 million, 11,370 square-foot penthouse, the biggest in Canada, with unimpeded views of the city.

Well, at least for now.

The committee of adjustment decision is “massive,” says Canderel vice-president of sales, Riz Dhanji — just like Aura, which is expected to help kick-start the rejuvenation of Yonge St. north of Dundas, along with the new Ryerson University facilities planned for the area.

Aura will not only expand to 985 units, thanks to the additional floors, but will have four storeys of retail. That will be the first stacked retail outside of the Eaton Centre, with more to come in a dozen or so new condo projects planned for Toronto’s main street.

Some seven condo projects, totaling almost 3,800 new residential units, are close to or already under construction on or close to Yonge St. south of Bloor, including Aura, says Ben Myers of condo research firm Urbanation.

Another seven, with a potential 3,565 units, are in the planning stages, many incorporating heritage properties.

It’s an unprecedented level of residential construction along the subway corridor and will eventually stretch all the way up to Richmond Hill, said Myers.

The height hype over which was taller, Aura or Ten York, had become a bit of a joke between good friends Dhanji and Tridel vicepresident Jim Ritchie.

But it mattered more to Dhanji, given that black hoardings surrounding the ongoing construction — the skeleton of the building is already up to the 15th floor — boast that Aura is Canada’s tallest residential building.

“When Jim made the Ten York announcement, I did have a smile on my face,” says the good-natured Dhanji. “And, who knows, he may get the last laugh.

” But 75 storeys is it for Ten York, insists Ritchie. It’s all the tiny waterfront area site can handle.

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Want to buy into a ‘top’ school? Real estate company ranks areas by test scores

Toronto Star

Lawrence Park — the richest neighbourhood in Canada — has the highest standardized test scores in Toronto, according to a new ranking by a local real estate company.

Realosophy, a real estate brokerage in Leslieville, recently started ranking desirable neighbourhoods according to school performance. Their latest offering is a top 10 list of Toronto areas ranked by how well elementary schools perform on EQAO exams — and unsurprisingly, the highest-scoring schools are in some of the city’s priciest neighbourhoods, including Lytton Park, Moore Park, York Mills and The Kingsway.

“We all know that if you have high income and highly-educated parents, the child’s chances of going to university are basically 100 per cent,” said Urmi Desai, who does marketing and communications for Realosophy. “We expected (the schools) to be in very, very high-end areas so really, the ‘best neighbourhoods’ list was not much of a surprise.”

Topping the list is Lawrence Park, where the average home sells for $2.1 million and residents in 2010 had an average net worth of $3,824,165. In this upscale neighbourhood, 94 per cent of elementary students boasted EQAO scores that met or exceeded provincial standards in the 2010 – 2011 school year.

Desai said her company began offering these kinds of rankings due to a surging demand — many prospective home buyers show up at her office with crude Excel spreadsheets charting school scores and property listings.

Desai said EQAO scores are only one measure of school performance, however, and parents should realize that they don’t have to pay top dollar to live near a good school. Other Realosophy rankings include “Best Toronto schools on a $500K budget” and “Most improved Toronto schools 2012.”

But education experts warn against placing too much emphasis on EQAO scores when determining which schools — and neighbourhoods — are “best.”

The provincial exam only tests Grade 3, 6, 9 and 10 students on math and English skills, and fails to reflect important measures of a quality education, such as class size, extracurricular programs and parent engagement.

“It is worrying that this is the way we use data about education,” said Annie Kidder, executive director with People for Education, an advocacy and research group. “What’s important is not just that one piece, but having a rich understanding about the whole school and not just its test scores.”

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