I'm so sick of the comments regarding a lack of quality retail in the bases of any new condominium projects, why ? Because it is completely untrue.
There are so many examples of condos built in the last 5 years that have plenty of interesting retail in the base ... I'm referring to restaurants / boutique stores / ...
Sure there are many that don't contain what we deem "interesting" ... take banks for example ... well the reason is simple in most of the projects you see this the surrounding area has little to no quality retail space available for a bank to occupy (i.e. such space doesn't exist, or it does but isn't available) and they simply want to be in the area ... its driven by the market ... if I managed the retail in the base of a condo and a bank was interesting of course I'd be interested as well, they're likely one of the most stable retail outlets one can find.
If you stop and think about it, that makes perfect sense, in the GTA most condo projects aren't built on dense streets already filled with retail, even in the core this holds true, so there is generally little retail in the vicinity.
This also explains the other retail outlets we all seem to loath i.e. dry cleaners and the like. Lastly, one needs to keep in mind a couple condo projects in an area don't automatically create an atmosphere compelling to all sorts of retails (I'm referring to restaurants / clothing stores) ... its just not enough. So generally its takes a critical mass of condos / density, moreover they need to have a built form that is desirable for retail. Take SCC and MCC (though many of the new projects in MCC are taking care to do this right), even though one may think there is a critical mass, even if restaurants do go in the base of a building, many times they don't do well, as the built form of the area just isn't conducive to walking.
High rental rates are just the same, generally speaking the retail in new condos are high quality, if you built a similar standalone retail outlet, it would fetch the same rates.
There is generally just one thing that makes some condo retail different, and note that this doesn't apply to most; The condo board themselves ... sometimes they have sway / control over the retail permitted, in such cases generally food outlets aren't desired ... clothing boutiques and the like would be loved though.
Clearly this isn't prevelant though as there are so many condo retail outlets that deal with food in some way or another.