Toronto becoming a condo Mecca

Having just spent several days chauffeuring some west coast industry guests on a housing tour of the city, I don’t believe there’s ever been a more exciting time in Toronto’s evolution. When you take it in all at once, it’s truly remarkable to see what has been happening and even more exciting to see what’s still to come.

Our waterfront redevelopment is finally underway with the first condo buildings on the market in a project called River City. With the Pan Am games coming in 2015, the waterfront is going to be a hub of activity for many, many years to come.

A little further north and west, the redevelopment of Regent Park is well underway. The scale of the redevelopment is huge and in my opinion, very well conceived.

Around the Air Canada Centre and Rogers Centre, there’s a whole critical mass developing with condo and office buildings rising simultaneously. Proceeding along Front Street, it’s amazing to see how far west City Place has progressed with the railway lands redevelopment on the south side.

Then there’s Liberty Village, which has developed into a thriving community and a little further southwest, completely new neighbourhoods forming in the Fort York area with so many buildings already standing and more to come.

Remember the motel strip in Etobicoke? It’s hard to believe how much condo development has already occurred there. let alone how much is currently being marketed and sold.

From a north-south perspective, Yonge Street features signature projects like the 80-storey Aura building at College Park and the 65-storey One-Bloor development which has just been re-launched. Continuing north, there are all the great new buildings at Yonge/Eglinton, Yonge/401 and the North York City Centre.

There’s no question that the City of Toronto has become a condo mecca. Meanwhile the 905 municipalities are bringing on some big plans as well, but that’s a subject for next week.

article from – METRO CANADA April 08, 2010 9:00 a.m.

Stephen Dupuis is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). He can be reached at president@bildgta.ca.