[BMO]

Liberty Towers by Plazacorp is a well built building with great layouts and within budget. Should of been more specific within Liberty Village. Yes.

I'm very worried about CityPlace and Liberty Village because I've heard horrible stories about how the build quality at CityPlace is horrible and how the transportation and commute times in and around Liberty Village are horrible.

 

[Auraz]

I'm very worried about CityPlace and Liberty Village because I've heard horrible stories about how the build quality at CityPlace is horrible and how the transportation and commute times in and around Liberty Village are horrible.

Stay away from CityPlace. But I did live in Liberty Village and the commuting in and out wasn't bad. It's even better now with strachan being completely finished with construction as well as the dufferin bridge finished. They will also build another pedestrian bridge to access to King St will ease need for car use. Again it all depends where your commute is to.

 

[gentlepuppies]

I find Liberty Place to have extremely bleak/dated architecture, and poor connection to the rest of the city. Cityplace is bleak, but at least not dated looking lol.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I've no experience in the field, but I'd avoid anything with floor to ceiling windows or window walls. Instead go for the traditional framed in wall units.

This....

Instead of this...

 

[gentlepuppies]

It's not a fair comparison because you are using high-ceiling converted-loft type spaces with "framed windows" nearly as large as the floor-to-ceiling example. Punched windows in a regular condo with 8-foot ceilings will limit a lot of daylight and are actually quite depressing.

Add in the fact that the traditional brick wall doesn't offer additional insulation, the window-wall example is actually the best performing one of the 3.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the unintelligent facades of all-glass buildings, but will go for 50-60% glazed buildings where ALL the glazed portions are strategically-located and are floor-to-ceiling for maximum visual connection to outdoors, and where NONE of the non-glazed portions are spandrel.

 

[lilclie]

+1 for having a a third list of developers to stay away from. Or, at least providing reasons why these developers are in the specific lists. UrbanCorp definitely should be in the 'STAY AWAY' list for a variety of reasons above and beyond the delayed closing issues.

I would move Great Gulf out of the bad list as I've been able to compare purchasing pre-construction with Great Gulf vs other developers and they in fact deliver a quality product.

Many issues that are encountered in a condo development can also arise from there being an incompetent Board or Property Manager. If the components of the building aren't properly serviced (e.g. elevator, window, and even reserve fund contributions) a 5-star building can quickly degrade. So, if you're buying resale be sure to review the status certificate and question the maintenance fees.

+1 for reasons these developers fall unto certain lists.

 

[NorthYorkEd]

Anyone have any opinions about the now defunct Bramalea Limited or Cam-nest Developments? They built a couple of the older 1980-ish condos here in North York centre.

 

[treasureseeker]

I have heard that Tridel and Menkes are two of the best Condo builders in the GTA. Well.. other than being good at building their condo's structure, are usually very expensive and maintenance fees are expensive too.. Units are usually built really narrow but not too sure about their resale value. I have also noticed that their facilities (compared to some of my friends' condos), like the gym gets outdated pretty quick and infrequent updates, but other than that, these two have come highly recommended to me.

 

[yin_yang]

tridel is great.

 

[Shiny]

Do not buy pre-sale condo... it is a nightmare at PDI like the ICE Condo I have

 

[TheKingEast]

Do not buy pre-sale condo... it is a nightmare at PDI like the ICE Condo I have

There's that. But Lanterra isn't the best builder out there. I wouldn't buy from them.