Tall tales: Comparing new condo heights in Toronto and New York City

The flocks of construction cranes crowding Toronto’s skyline won’t be going away any time soon. In late August, City Council approved anincredible amount of development over the course of just one week – 755 storeys of space over 18 new buildings.

Largely concentrated in the downtown and the burgeoning South Core district along the lake, the approval of the new structures raised the spectre of the “Manhattanization” of Toronto as the building boom continues with no end in sight. The term is often thrown about when discussing big cities undergoing big increases in density and tower heights.

But how does Toronto measure up against its American counterpart when it comes to skyscrapers? Toronto is famous for its volume, but can it reach the dizzying heights of the new builds coming to Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and Park Avenue?

Not quite.

We looked into the ten tallest new residential builds in both cities, looking into condos completed within the last five years, currently under construction, or in the pre-construction phase. And despite Toronto’s growth spurt, Manhattan still dwarfs us.

Toronto’s architectural ambitions reach up to 1,000 feet (or 305 metres) with the design for the much-discussed Mirvish+Gehry project, planned for King Street West and Simcoe. New York City’s tallest building, the Nordstrom Tower at 225 West 57th Street, will rise an astonishing 1,775 feet or 541 metres. Once finished, the skyscraper will be the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere and a symbolic one foot shorter than the 1,776-foot-tall One World Trade Center.

If you were to transport  Mirvish+Gehry into Manhattan, it would come in seventh place among the ten tallest New York City condos, taking the place alongside the 1,000-foot tall 35 Hudson Yards project.

The ten tallest New York City condos are all located in Manhattan, which is undergoing its own uniquely shaped building boom. Vanity Fairdescribed the construction trend thusly: “These days, it is not just a woman who can never be too rich or too thin. You can say almost exactly the same thing about skyscrapers, or at least about the latest residential ones now going up in New York City, which are much taller, much thinner, and much, much more expensive than their predecessors.”

The third tallest new condo in New York, which goes by both 111 West 57th Street or 107 West 57th Street, is vying for the title of skinniest skyscraper in the world with a width of just 60 feet or 18 metres.

Want to see how the two cities stack up? Check out our infographic below. We chose to go by total height as opposed to storeys since storey heights and podium sizes can differ greatly from building to building.

We all know Toronto is tops when it comes to condo construction. But how do its tallest towers compare to New York City’s new residential builds? Check out this infographic to find out.

 

As we head into autumn, we thought we’d check on the latest housing bubble chatter in light of the CMHC’s recent statement about the market.

 

 

Fact of the Week

In Montreal, 35% of the condo units currently under construction are located in the downtown area.

 

Source: BuzzBuzzHome.com

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Tableau Upping the Entertainment District’s Design Ante

September 17

During the frenzy of interviews and red carpet appearances at the recent 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, many international celebrities commented on the dramatic changes they noticed in the area compared to previous visits. The festival takes place in the heart of the Entertainment District, an area with one of the country’s densest concentrations of construction activity, and like the previous couple of years at TIFF, the world was taking notice of our ongoing growth spurt.

One of the high-rise developments currently reshaping the local cityscape is Tableau Condominiums, a 36-storey condominium development by UrbanCapital Property Group, Malibu Investments and ALIT Developments, currently rising at the southeast corner of Richmond and Peter Streets.

Tableau Condominiums, UrbanCapital, Malibu Investments, Alit, Wallman

Tableau viewed from the northwest corner of Richmond and Peter, image by Craig White

Designed by Wallman Architects, Tableau is especially notable for its namesake ‘table top’ four-storey podium, marked by a massive colonnade now taking shape on the building’s Richmond Street frontage. The scaffold which has obscured the colonnade’s concrete columns for several months is now being removed, and as of this week, seven of the nine columns have been revealed, along with much of the sheltered Privately Owned Public Space (POPS).

 

A pre-construction rendering of the building from the same angle as the image above illustrates this condominium development’s coming dramatic contribution to the Entertainment District’s public realm.

Tableau Condominiums, UrbanCapital, Malibu Investments, Alit, Wallman

Rendering of the colonnade and public art at Tableau, image courtesy of Urban Capital

 

Notable in the image above, the colonnade will be the home to an artwork by Shayne Dark, called Nova, which will pierce through the openings in the table top podium, visible in the image below.

Openings in the podium roof where Shayne Dark’s ‘Nova’ will be installed, image by Craig White

It is difficult to adequately portray the sheer scale of Tableau’s colonnade in photos, but it is becoming clear when looking through its columns that the space delineated within is destined to become a very well known local landmark, one of those places you’ll take friends visiting Toronto to show the town off. The columns frame views of the surrounding cityscape both close-up and on the increasingly crowded horizon, and the coming finishing details and the eventual removal of the hoarding on this site (likely still a year away) will only then show just how many dramatically framed new views of the Entertainment District and Financial Core towers we will have here.

 

Tableau Condominiums, UrbanCapital, Malibu Investments, Alit, Wallman

Tableau viewed from the north side of Richmond Street, image by Craig White

Nearby are two more construction sites featuring dramatic news buildings; Queen Richmond Centre West kitty corner from Tableau, and Picasso across the street from Tableau. This will be a very interesting block when the three are finished—or close to finished—by next year’s film festival.

Source: http://www.urbantoronto.ca/

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GTA expected to lead country in luxury home sales

Sales of $1 million-plus houses — and condos — are expected to be strong into 2015, a report from Sotheby’s states.

 

Demand for Toronto real estate remains strong. For example, this seven-bedroom, 11-bath Bridle Path home was listed for $14.8 million and sold this year for $14.2 million. It boasts a cognac and smoking room, an indoor pool and a 1,200-bottle wine cellar.


SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY CANADADemand for Toronto real estate remains strong. For example, this seven-bedroom, 11-bath Bridle Path home was listed for $14.8 million and sold this year for $14.2 million. It boasts a cognac and smoking room, an indoor pool and a 1,200-bottle wine cellar.

The GTA is expected to lead the country, outpacing even Vancouver, for high-end house and condo sales into early 2015, according to a new forecast from luxury realtor Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

Strong demand for homes over $1 million — sales were up 34 per cent in the Toronto area in the first six months of 2014, year over year — is being fuelled by increased immigration and international buyers, low interest rates and strong consumer confidence, says Sotheby’s in its forecast released Thursday.

“Overall there is a ton of confidence. The reality is that Canadians are wealthier today than they’ve ever been,” says Sotheby’s realty president and CEO Ross McCredie.

Not to be underestimated — and a major reason the average detached home now costsclose to $1 million in Toronto — is the shortage of homes for sale, which is playing out in bidding wars.

That’s even a problem increasingly impacting Toronto’s luxury condo sector, says the forecast, based on recent high-end sales and a report on luxury sales in the GTA, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal for the first half of 2014, released by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada in July.

Just a year ago, the city was seen as having a worrisome glut of pricey condo units because of the flood of new luxury hotel/condo projects such as the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Shangri-La and Trump.

Some 36 per cent of Toronto condos that sold for between $1 million and $2 million in the first six months of this year sold at or over asking price, often because of multiple offers, says Sotheby’s. So did 41 per cent of the condos sold between $2 million and $4 million.

Ironically, says Toronto-based Sotheby’s agent Paul Maranger, wealthy downsizing baby boomers and their grown children are increasing finding themselves looking for the same places — well-appointed $1-million-plus condos with top amenities in great downtown neighbourhoods close to the core.

“The high-end condos that are completely ‘done’ sell exceedingly well,” says Maranger. Far less so older luxury units needing the added costs and “emotional capital” of major renovations.

“We’re seeing dramatically improved showing activity and a tightening in the (high-end) condo market that is the antithesis of a year ago when the perception was that the market was saturated.”

Almost 3,000 single-family homes sold for over $1 million across the GTA in the first six months of 2014, some 37 per cent over list price, says Sotheby’s. That’s up from the 27 per cent that sold over list price in the same period of 2013, according to the report.

Another 600 sold for $2 million and up, more than 20 per cent over list price. That’s up from the 12.63 per cent that sold over list price in the first six months of 2013.

Demand for Toronto real estate remains strong among the growing ranks of the world’s rich, says McCredie. Wealthy baby boomers are also fuelling the market through a combination of buying and selling as investments, downsizing themselves and helping their kids break into the market.

Vancouver is expected to see “modest but positive momentum” in sales of homes over $1 million, lead by detached homes, says the Sotheby’s forecast. Sales of houses and condos were up by 34 per cent in Vancouver the first half of 2014 over the same period of last year.

Calgary is expected to see a more balanced market to the end of this year after a shortage of inventory drove up prices, and bidding wars, and drove a 17 per cent increase in the sales of $1-million-plus homes in the first half of 2014.

That eased over the summer as more luxury homes, and condos, hit the market, notes the report.

Montreal has seen a resurgence of high-end sales since the election of a Liberal majority restored consumer confidence and a sense of political stability.

Sales over $1 million increased by 11 per cent there in the first half of this year, says the report. They are expected to remain “consistent” into 2015, with sales of single-family homes in the $1 million to $2 million range likely to dominate in the luxury sector.

Source : TheStar.com

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