3Dementia said:
Thx for the informed corrective MetroMan. Appreciated. But don't mess with my Catastrophizing... this is an important UT precursor/buffer for those happy results in T.O. ;-)

P.S. hope the condo corp builds a strong reserve fund.
Click to expand...
P.S. I hope you leave your pessimism at home next time you post.
 
I purchased a unit here for myself, here's some rationale for buying, varying from little to high importance...

- surrounded by greenery (park in the south, vines) and public artwork
- grocery store right underground
- curated retail stores and dining (this has been discussed before), combined with....
- a community feeling (hopefully), with 600 ft of frontage and a courtyard, as opposed to being plopped right on the street
- emphasis on design and Westbank/BIG has a good track record
- proximity to The Well for office, retail, dining, etc..
- one downside is that if it becomes a tourist attraction it could be annoying...but overall, no other projects were as interesting.

Any other purchasers here--would be great to see your rationale and biggest points for buying
 
Curious what the demographic of the buyers are here....as the location has a lot of younger adults (25-35). But based on the pricing here I'd think the only people that can afford it are older? Empty nesters? Would love to live here but with a little guy don't think this is the right place for me. But I do envy the purchasers here.
 
TheKingEast said:
Curious what the demographic of the buyers are here....as the location has a lot of younger adults (25-35). But based on the pricing here I'd think the only people that can afford it are older? Empty nesters? Would love to live here but with a little guy don't think this is the right place for me. But I do envy the purchasers here.
Click to expand...

From my understanding, Westbank historically catered very strongly to Mainland Chinese buyers for their Vancouver projects. It remains to be seen if this is the same for King. I am assuming the economy in China would have impacted the typical Westbank client mix.
 
tzchn said:
I purchased a unit here for myself, here's some rationale for buying, varying from little to high importance...

- surrounded by greenery (park in the south, vines) and public artwork
- grocery store right underground
- curated retail stores and dining (this has been discussed before), combined with....
- a community feeling (hopefully), with 600 ft of frontage and a courtyard, as opposed to being plopped right on the street
- emphasis on design and Westbank/BIG has a good track record
- proximity to The Well for office, retail, dining, etc..
- one downside is that if it becomes a tourist attraction it could be annoying...but overall, no other projects were as interesting.

Any other purchasers here--would be great to see your rationale and biggest points for buying
Click to expand...

Has a supermarket tenant been disclosed?
 
MetroMan said:
It's January. I'm staring outside my window at buildings on King St with climbing plants that in the winter lose their leaves but maintain the character of buildings with plants. Trees in parks don't disappear in the winter, neither will the trees on KING's terraces. We have seasons in Toronto. Plants change throughout the year.

Catastrophizing about Westbank/BIG not including the plants on a building that is entirely built around the concept of terraces with plants, and despite ample information out there detailing the lengths to which they're going to implementing it, is really starting to get tiring.

They've gone so far as to choose plant species and design a cabling system to support vine growth. Terraces all have soil basins and irrigation built in. The entire mass of the structure is specifically designed to consider solar exposure on all the plants. So they're building all this infrastructure as an integral part of the building then they're just going to say, "nah never mind about the plants"?

View attachment 224015View attachment 224016
View attachment 224017View attachment 224019View attachment 224020View attachment 224021View attachment 224022
Click to expand...

Interesting species choices.

Mostly decent.

I wouldn't call any of what they are calling 'trees', trees. More like shrubs that can get 9-16ft tall depending on conditions. (Sumac and Serviceberry)

Staghorn Sumac is super durable if you get get it established, it's actually hard to kill.

Serviceberry can be a tiny bit fussier, but it's far from fragile.

Flowering Dogwood is a curious choice in that Toronto is just beyond its native range which basically stops at Burlington.

It's actually moderately endangered in Ontario.

Dogwoods are generally durable, I think I might have gone with Alternate-leaved (or Pagoda) dogwood here; but I supposed they liked the flower better on this one.

Should all work fine.

Should also attract a fair few birds and butterflies.

Lots of fruit thrown-off so could be some mess; but will definitely create an interesting environment.
 
RZ12 said:
Whole Foods is coming across the street, why would there be a grocery store here?
Click to expand...

As you can see, I was responding to a post by a purchaser, indicating there would be an on-site grocery store. That would be why I asked.
 
RZ12 said:
Whole Foods is coming across the street, why would there be a grocery store here?
Click to expand...
Where is Whole Foods coming to? Didn't know this, only know Farm Boy is coming to Front and Bathurst

Rimsky44 said:
From my understanding, Westbank historically catered very strongly to Mainland Chinese buyers for their Vancouver projects. It remains to be seen if this is the same for King. I am assuming the economy in China would have impacted the typical Westbank client mix.
Click to expand...
I was at the launch of their Penthouse, and spent an hour there, so VERY SMALL sample of interested buyers but I saw
- Foreign buyers: lots of Chinese, few Mexican and Middle Eastern empty nesters and young entrepreneurs etc.
- Local empty nesters
- Local investors
So those were my observations...I didn't buy, it's out of my budget so I bought at the Well but I think it's a great project!
 
karledice said:
Where is Whole Foods coming to? Didn't know this, only know Farm Boy is coming to Front and Bathurst
Click to expand...
Don't know if it's been confirmed, but there's been some discussion of Whole Foods being the grocery anchor at The Well.
 
karledice said:
I was at the launch of their Penthouse, and spent an hour there, so VERY SMALL sample of interested buyers but I saw
- Foreign buyers: lots of Chinese, few Mexican and Middle Eastern empty nesters and young entrepreneurs etc.
- Local empty nesters
- Local investors
So those were my observations...I didn't buy, it's out of my budget so I bought at the Well but I think it's a great project!
Click to expand...

Yeah my reference to Mainland Chinese is that they sell DIRECT to China (so you wouldn't even see the buyers at the launch, as they're not physically there but signing via internet/fax or with someone with power of attorney). It's hard to get a sense of what their mix for this is like unless you work for Westbank, which was why I qualified it as "from my understanding...(and)...historically catered". The ones showing up physically to sign may only be a non-representative sample of the total number of buyers.
 
Rimsky44 said:
Yeah my reference to Mainland Chinese is that they sell DIRECT to China (so you wouldn't even see the buyers at the launch, as they're not physically there but signing via internet/fax or with someone with power of attorney).
Click to expand...
So, like my building: sold out, but empty. I've lived in a building across from KING's site for 7 years. No more than 4-5 units have ever been occupied on my floor with 12 units. Some floors are completely unoccupied. While I don't mind it myself as a resident, it really kills the potential of the neighbourhood. If foreign investors are just going to buy these to sit empty to profit after some time or if they're going to list rentals at too high a price, then it's really going to have a negative effect on the neighbourhood and the dynamic of the building itself.

Toronto needs strict policies on discouraging absent owners. Toronto real estate is functioning as a bank to park money instead of as homes for people to live. No wonder the rental market is verging on unsustainable.
 
My husband and I bought a unit at King Toronto a year ago. We are not foreign investors, but purchased it as our retirement home. Here's my post from last October about our rationale for buying a King Toronto unit. We are still as excited as ever about this decision and have no regrets. The penthouses, given the price, are going to attract only a very small percentage of super wealthy people, but in reading through this forum, I think this condo will attract more of a range of buyers than some of the naysayers think.
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...stbank-bjarke-ingels-group.16800/post-1496302
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top