Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

Aura - only look good from far

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the shape and form are pretty good but the up close cladding is not so good.

the choice of white blinds for the areas with darker glass seems to really stand out, curious to see how that goes once the upper floors are occupied.
 
I just walked through the underground "mall" yesterday (I had no idea it was even a mall despite living downtown all of my life, I just thought it was a condo w/ Marshalls, BMO, and the other above-ground retailers).

All I can say is wow. I was there 5PM on a Saturday and I was the only person on the floor except for a janitor and one customer of the only occupied store in the food court. The mall is at least 75% vacant with the few retailers being a few salons (with no customers), a cubicle sized cafe, a cubicle sized convenience store, and maybe one or two others that I forget. The food court only has one tenant - a japanese food place that actually looked decent; supposedly, another place in the food court will be opening shortly and an empty stall had a sheet of paper that said "pho" on it.

It felt like an abandoned mall in a remote location. I feel bad for the vendors who are there with no customers to sell to....
 
I have just noticed that AURA now is 79 floors. Any idea as to when an additional floor was added and at what level?

Txs.

If I'm counting correctly, they've poured the 75th floor and are working on the walls. I think the western cladding is up to the 64th floor. AFAIK, the residential floors are still going up to 78, and then (I think) 6 mechanical floors to top it.
 
If I'm counting correctly, they've poured the 75th floor and are working on the walls. I think the western cladding is up to the 64th floor. AFAIK, the residential floors are still going up to 78, and then (I think) 6 mechanical floors to top it.

If you go to AURA website at www.collegeparkcondos.com, you will see that the Penthouse is now at floor 79. Perhaps, a R/E agent could solve the mystery.
 
That's because there is no 13th floor. So the 78th floor is numbered as the 79th floor.
 
So I have a really bad feeling about this mall for the following reason:

1) First those claiming its 75%+ vacant today ... lets be fair, I doubt the majority of tenants (both retail and residents) have moved in ... so I actually expect it to be pretty full in a year or so ... yes maybe even 100% occupied for a couple months ... just like Yonge and Dundas.

2) In 2 years it'll probably be at least 50% vacant.

3) Unlike Yonge and Dundas, where at the very least adaptive retail use can take place over time (think the beer store downstairs) that will be much much more difficult here if not impossible ... not because of the location or layout, both of those work well ... rather because these are condo retail units ... that implies they each owned by an individual owner, getting them all to commit to selling (and at the same time) will likely be impossible ...
 

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