and some interesting info regarding the two restaurants which will be in the podium...from today's Star...
Dinner and a movie
A suite in the Festival Tower will leave owners star-struck – and living in the lap of celebrity. Rita Zekas reports from the red carpet, CO6
September 6, 2008
Rita Zekas
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
It's the Toronto International Film Festival and the city is swarming with celebrities this week – everyone from Alan Alda to Renée Zellweger.
But if you bought a condo at Festival Tower at John and King Sts. – a dramatic 42-storey condominium residence atop the Bell Lightbox, the new permanent home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group – you could be living in the lap of celebrity every day.
There are Hepburn, Poitier, Freeman and DiCaprio penthouses and, depending on who you want to sleep with, there are suites named Douglas, Nicholson, Monroe, Keaton, Jolie, Hayworth, Pacino, Brando, Eastwood, Chaplin, Bardot, Bacall, Loren, Sarandon, Redford, Garland, Hoffman and Duvall.
Director/producer Ivan Reitman bought one. We would have thought the Eastwood, but his is the Poitier, because the floor plan suited him.
Guess who's coming to dinner? Poitier just happens to be a friend.
Reitman will be inviting other boldfaced names over but won't divulge who. There are other celeb tenants, but their privacy is respected.
The architects are Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, but it's the Reitman family and The Daniels Corp. that made it happen. Reitman furnished the site, formerly Farb's Car Wash, the family business run by his parents Clara and Leslie Reitman.
The Festival Tower is an homage to his parents. His sisters, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels, are also involved.
Reitman, who was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Canada at age four with his family, visits Toronto four or five times a year, always for the film festival. He has relatives here and in Montreal, where he lived before he moved to California after producing Animal House in 1978. He now resides in Santa Barbara.
"My father had a dry-cleaning business and he saw an opportunity at King St. 40 years ago and scraped together the money to buy the land," Reitman explains. "My sisters and I questioned that because it is a tough business and he started it in his 50s or older. He talked about selling the land and I bought into the business after Animal House."
During the last 10 to 15 years of their lives, he says, his parents spent the winters in Florida. Farb's closed down and became a parking lot.
"After (my parents) both passed away, we were looking for a tribute to them and their extraordinary lives. I knew that TIFF was looking for a home and the movie business has been good to me. TIFF occupies a special place in the lives of Torontonians and it seemed appropriate. It's a great location for them and we decided to contribute the land.
"Developers approached us on a regular basis, but it didn't seem the right fit," Reitman says.
He interviewed several development companies, and finally found the right match with The Daniels Corp., creators of more than 18,000 homes and condos across the GTA.
"Daniels was sympathetic to the same goals and they are great builders," he said. "We embarked on a great adventure to build a wonderful place to live in downtown Toronto and to experience the film festival experience all year round."
TIFFG operates year-round with initiatives such as Cinematheque and the Sprockets International Film Festival for Children.
With the completion of its 150,000-square-foot home, Bell Lightbox will house five theatres as well as a film library and archive, meeting places and two galleries.
So a former carwash will be awash with glitz and cinema.
Think location, location, location: It's in the heart of the entertainment and eatery district at John and King Sts., near the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales and Royal Alex theatres and right in restaurant row, featuring everything from submarine sandwiches to Susur Lee's latest and the hot new Spice Route upscale Chinese resto.
Accessible from the two-storey lobby is a restaurant presided over by Oliver & Bonacini, partners in six restos including Jump, Canoe and Auberge du Pommier.
"On the ground floor is a 140-seat, all-day market bistro café," that will open at 6:30 a.m. until 1 or 2 a.m., says Michael Bonacini. "It's more of a laid-back atmosphere with takeout, take-home, a quick grab to go. It caters to the condo dwellers in the community heading to work who can get their lattés or have a healthy breakfast to eat en route or pick up a sandwich for lunch. We'll have a unique breakfast menu that you can eat in as well. If you come home late from work and don't feel like cooking, you can pick up a prepared meal to heat in the condo kitchen. There is also a patio of 70 seats with a small bar."
It sounds like Pusateri is moving downtown.
"On the second floor, there is another restaurant, an artisanal resto with 130 seats that is chef-centric and will feature local, organic, homegrown produce from a small grower," he continues. "On the first floor, you'll be able to go and get a terrific burger with a delicious sauvignon blanc or a braised lamb shank with a cabernet. It will be popular with theatre-goers and people who live in the 'hood. It is casual, informal dining; the finer dining is on the second floor. It is more upscale – not as upscale as Canoe but just above Jump."
They will also provide food service to the condos.
"If you want to have a dinner party or Sunday brunch, you could have the osso bucco delivered to your suite. It's almost like living in a five-star hotel."
They plan to have all this in place by April 2010, he says. Condo occupancy is fall 2010.
The FT has other five-star amenities as well, such as a private 24-hour-a-day concierge. A second lobby on the 10th floor is home to the Resident Services director, who provides services such as dog walking or dry cleaning.
The Tower Club on the 10th and 11th floors has a pool centre, library, spa, sports lounge and fitness centre. The condo also has a fully equipped Tower Cinema, with seating for up to 55 people, which is so state-of-the-art the TIFFG will use it for screenings.
"There is a super deluxe screening room for residents and guests for DVD to film reel," says Simona Annibale, director of marketing for Daniels.
Annibale says that although 80 per cent of the units are sold, a select few have been withheld until Sept. 13. There are still two or three of the dozen penthouses left.
"The release is a two-punch thing," Annibale explains. "They are at the base of the building and close to the action."
Response has been great, she says, and reflects "a real mix of people."
"Young professionals; first-time buyers; move-up and move-down buyers – it's a more sophisticated building."
And some have even bought without parking. They may be planning to avail themselves of the tower's auto-share option.
The Poitier penthouse is far from Ivan Reitman's first foray into real estate.
"I bought an office building in L.A. and 600 apartments in Nevada, but this is the first time I've bought a highrise that is this elaborate," he says.
Reitman has a film coming out in January and three others in development, but none in the festival.
"My son (Jason, director of previous fest films Thank You for Smoking and Juno) doesn't either. He's coming with me to the festival and he'll probably feel a let-down."
Jason can always chat up fest guest George Clooney, who is in talks to star in Jason's new film Up in the Air, which is about a corporate downsizer consumed with collecting air miles, but the title could apply to his father's FT condo.