Rouge Bijou (Downtown Markham, Remington, 10 + 3x 7s, Quadrangle)

[Mike in TO]

Don't get me wrong. I love the concept of 'smart growth'. But I have this feeling that some people are taking advantage of the city's support and jacking up the housing prices.

Constructing and servicing this type of community is not cheap, also the regulatory and taxation environment has changed drastically the last few years which has contributed the substantial increases in new home prices.

Also if the homes in this community are selling like hot cakes one could make the argument that the units are underpriced.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Can you really justify raising the price of new residences to the point that sales slow in an effort to make them "appropriately" priced? People making less than $100,000 per year deserve new houses, too. Perhaps Remington could make more money by charging more for the houses, but I'm quite sure that the community they're trying to create may not work if they do attempt to max out profits.

Everyone, including the media, neglects the rest of Markham Centre that is under construction - Downtown Markham is just a cute little master planned village that's only part of a larger area. Success or failure of Markham Centre will not depend on Downtown Markham but on everything along #7. A good chunk of the work in molding the community is retrofitting a very haphazard area criscrossed by the Rouge and dotted with ultra-suburban 80s projects like the Civic Centre and the Hilton. I'd love to find out what's planned for the south side of #7 east of Warden (currently farms)...whatever it will be it doesn't seem to be much since Viva is bypassing it.

 

[edwin]

I'd love to find out what's planned for the south side of #7 east of Warden (currently farms)...whatever it will be it doesn't seem to be much since Viva is bypassing it.

It is called the Sciberras Road Draft Precinct Plan for now. "Draft precinct plan to be updated to reflect recent policy initiatives prior to adoption by Council - anticipated Fall 2007."

Projected Office/Commercial: 13,600m2
Projected Residential Units: 872 units

I went to the public meeting yesterday evening. The Times group proposed to add 100+units to their tower, and the Town seemed to like the idea. Be prepared to see an increase in residential units from all the Markham Centre projects in the near future.

 

[Hydrogen]

"Downtown Markham."

I guess it's just a figure of speech.

 

[yin_yang]

"Downtown Markham."

I guess it's just a figure of speech.

what did you mean by your comment, future-man?

it's just a vision for now, also, yes.

 

[Hydrogen]

^Presently, there's no "there" there.

Future-man???

 

[yin_yang]

^Presently, there's no "there" there.

Future-man???

thought you were able to go into the future and see how it turns out...

so...what did you mean by your comment? it'll be a cool place in the summer when it gets built.

 

[canrocks]

Anything new at Downtown Markham? How's it going?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

There's some new-ish stuff on the main site:
http://www.downtownmarkham.ca/index.php

The master plan has been fleshed out a bit more, in terms of pics of how the retail promenades and public spaces will be formed (High Street, piazza, gallery, etc.).

Here's a great summary of recent developments in Markham Centre:
http://www.markham.ca/markham/aspc/markhamcentre/PDF/MC_DevStatus_2007.pdf

 

[maestro]

It's been a while but there were five tower cranes on site dancing in the wind when last in Markham. The first residential tower was at grade and the Honeywell office building was just short of topping out.

 

[marcus_a_j]

Feb. 4, 2008

From Liberty Square

Honeywell building, southside of Enterprise

 

[interchange42]

Oh, now I understand why they call it 'Downtown' Markham.

42

PS - thx for the pix

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I'm convinced that one or two of those cranes are just for show.

 

[Dan416]

Looks like a young MCC.

 

[marcus_a_j]

I'm convinced that one or two of those cranes are just for show.

It does appear that way. Where the "show" cranes are, there's another building where the underground parking has almost reached ground level.

Although the buildings sold really quickly, at pretty high prices too, I don't think this project will be a success like they plan. I hope it does, but I don't think it's possible to build a new "urban centre" on greenfield land. Every unit will have at least one or two cars, minimal transit usage, and there's only a little bit of employment that's going to be built. I wish the Town would just do one big Master Plan including Downtown Markham, Liberty Square and the Warden/7 project. Oh well, could of been purely SFHs