Toronto 400 Wellington West | 38m | 12s | Sorbara | SMV

Northern Magus said:
Perhaps we will. This project, Vu, and Victory have certainly been turning heads.

I've no doubt that developers have noticed, so fingers crossed, we'll hopefully see more.
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I'd say the only head turner out of the 3 is 400 Wellington. Victory is nice, but I wouldn't call it a head turner. Vu is pretty bland looking. What really makes 400 Wellington is the contrast between the red brick and the window frames, as well as the massing and the other subtle brick details.
 
A couple of "small" problems with these 1.5-2.5 million dollar condos:

They share 75 Portland's underground garage entrance (bad enough, but...), which opens up onto Portland St. Problem is, during morning rush hours Portland St. is backed up from Front to King Sts, so in order to exit your own garage you must wait for a complete stranger's kindness of opening up a gap in the bumper to bumper traffic for you.


The rear of the building is mere feet away from 75 Portland's windows - hello poor neighbour!

Also the rear of building looks over a filthy laneway and rear of stripclub (sadly no strippers are in sight).

And, directly beside the building (West side) is planned the "el cheapo" This is Downtown condos (starting from the $200,000's).

Exclusive area? I don't think so.

As mentioned, the bricking is the same grey colored bricks as used on Victory condo, Thompson Hotel Condos, and even the new condo building on King E near Sherborne, and Streetcar Development's condos further along King E near Corktown.
Exclusive? More like the "Chevy" of bricks: the early 2000s will be known as the grey brick condo era, instantly dating any building years down the road. Remember the orange 70's era? Some of the old Toronto subway cars still bear the orange-and-fake wood panelling interior colours. What fun...

I think this whole thing is one big GREED job :eek: at the peak of the condo market.
 
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Stingray said:
think Stratford is referring to 500 wellington.
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Oh that makes sense. If you want to speak about the condo market in a general sense yeah the developers are here to make the most amount of money and offer the least, and they can get away with it because interest rates are low keeping demand high. I don't know how people can afford new builds now, they are getting really expensive!
 
Duke Wellington said:
Great Photos! Yes the condo market is overheated! As long as interest rates stay low, nothing will change.
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An interesting point. It may very well mean that the condo market stays "overheated" for at least 2-3 more years, presumably after which interest rates will rise in tandem with a rebounding economy -- which means that the market might actually stay "overheated" for another 4-8 years.

For a skyscraper geek like me, that would be nirvana. But I think the bigger question is what happens to the US and EU economies over the next 6-10 months, for this will probably have the biggest impact of all on our economy, our banks' ability and willingness to lend, and the confidence people will need to have in order to commit to $500,000 mortgages.

The other thing to remember is that our market is by no means "overheated" when compared internationally: in fact, it's probably still considerably undervalued.
 
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Northern Magus said:
An interesting point. It may very well mean that the condo market stays "overheated" for at least 2-3 more years, presumably after which interest rates will rise in tandem with a rebounding economy -- which means that the market might actually stay "overheated" for another 4-8 years.

For a skyscraper geek like me, that would be nirvana. But I think the bigger question is what happens to the US and EU economies over the next 6-10 months, for this will probably have the biggest impact of all on our economy, our banks' ability and willingness to lend, and the confidence people will need to have in order to commit to $500,000 mortgages.

The other thing to remember is that our market is by no means "overheated" when compared internationally: in fact, it's probably still considerably undervalued.
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I would agree with this! Compared to some cities you are correct. I am just worried that interest rates have really helped real estate see some phenomenal returns over the last 15 years. I don't think this can be sustainable over the long term. People that have invested in real estate over the stock market in the last 10 years are very happy.
 
East Elevation Stucco

Here is a pic of the stucco work on the east elevation. Too bad its not brick as per the rendering but fully understand the economics of this as the Quadrangle building is ripe for development. The stucco work does appear to be of high quality with clean reveals etc.

photoaug26.jpg
 
Yep, that Quadrangle building and maybe even the corner gas station have to have development bulls eyes on them.

If I had to guess, I'd say probably within in the next 3 years.
 
Duke Wellington said:
very nice shots! It's coming along nicely. They are taking a long time completing the balconies though!
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I suspect all the remaining glass will come at the same time. I think they have been waiting to lay the paving stones on some of the terraces and that looks to now be done. It should be done very soon.
 
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