Luxury tower at 1 Bloor East to go ahead, minus a few storeys
Deadline for Kazakhstan-based Bazis International Inc. to pull the plug on the project expired this week
Kate Hammer
Toronto —
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 17, 2009 08:10PM EDT
A luxury condominium building at Yonge and Bloor Streets seems ready to go forward – most of it, anyway.
Through real estate agents and lawyers, buyers for 1 Bloor E. learned this week that the project would go up, but only 68 storeys.
That's about a dozen less than were forecast in 2007, when crowds camped for days, hoping to purchase square footage inside what was going to be Canada's tallest residential building.
Garth Juriansz, a real estate agent who bought a south-facing unit on the 39th floor, and sold numerous others, said he had clients who bought on the 70th and 71st floors.
He said the developer, Kazakhstan-based Bazis International Inc., has promised to return his clients' deposits with an offer to buy at a discount on lower floors.
“If they're end users and they're facing south, they had a spectacular view and they will be a bit disappointed,” he said.
Calls to Bazis offices in Concord, Ont., were not returned.
Another buyer, who asked to be identified only as David, said he was frustrated with a lack of communication from the developer.
“I'm happy it's moving forward, but worried in a sense about what the scope of the project will be now,” he said.
David, who bought a 540-square-foot one-bedroom unit on the 33rd floor for about $370,000, said he'd like to know how the changes would affect the hotel and retail spaces on the lower floor, and the overall appeal of the building.
“They were marketing to me the tallest residential tower in Canada, now it's not,” he said.
A deadline for Bazis to pull the plug on the project expired this week and buyers and real estate agents have been waiting for the developer to make a formal announcement.
Mr. Juriansz said permits from the city to close parts of Yonge and Bloor Streets appear to be the next hurdle, but he was confident the project would move forward.
Bazis had partnered with Lehmann Brothers Inc. to buy the land, but the brokerage went bankrupt.
Councillor Adam Vaughan said that many developers have had to recalibrate their projects as the economy slowed and lenders have become increasingly cautious.
“It wouldn't surprise me if they've said, ‘This is the amount we have sold, if we drop the size of the building, change the size of the building to meet the threshold for financing, then we can go ahead with the project immediately,” he said.