[sunnyraytoronto]

This project puts off a lot of bad vibes. The "LCBO Coming Soon" sign has been up for months and months. I guess their definition of "soon" is different than most people's. And I think every single one of those ground floor retail kiosks has a "for lease" sign in the window.

As for the bad vibes from this project,.... I've been commenting on that since I joined the forum 6 years ago,....

As I recall an inside the glass version of "LCBO Coming Soon" have been up since early in the year,.... I remember taking a photo of it and my fingers were cold! So it was like late winter,..... they were supposed to open last Spring,... but by June the LCBO store was already complete with shelving, cash registers, security cameras,... everything except the most important part,... the wine & beer,... err, I mean stock,....

Don't expect the LCBO to be opening anytime soon,... it will miss this holiday season,.... dam shame since it's a few minutes walk from my place and practically in my backyard,.... most of my neighbours have been eagerly waiting for the LCBO to open,,... I've been eagerly waiting for anything at EmeraldPark to open! I believe it's Metro that will be operating the LCBO,... and with the Metro situation at EmeraldPark the way it is now (pay penalty to walk away or keep store just to rent it out), it might be quite a while before we quench our thurst for local LCBO alcohol,... if ever.

This is the LCBO site showing the real "LCBO Coming Soon" (new, relocated & renovated) province-wide,... no mention of EmeraldPark location,... and the latest entry is for January 2016
http://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/shared/storeopenings/FutureStoresMap.shtml

 

[UD2]

Somethings never change. Every time I open this thread I read essays by SRT bashing emerald park. Poor designs, poor colour, poor materials, poor workmanship, poor sidewalk, poor selling process, poor placement of address signage.

This must be the worst project in Toronto.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

Somethings never change. Every time I open this thread I read essays by SRT bashing emerald park. Poor designs, poor colour, poor materials, poor workmanship, poor sidewalk, poor selling process, poor placement of address signage.

This must be the worst project in Toronto.

I'm just being informative and factual,... as always.

UD2, ok I'll say something more positive about this developer,... EmeraldPark is this developer's (Bazis) ONLY development project in North York. Now that this developer is building E-condo in midtown, Exhibit across from ROM and 1 Yorkville (to add to their only completed condo CrystalBlu),.... other busy parts of Toronto will get to experience this developer's work. ;p

Another positive note,.... EmeraldPark's dollarama green colour does bring more greenery to the area on a snowy winter day,....

Which development project would be the worst one in Toronto? I'm thinking it's this developer's (Bazis) One Bloor East project,.... where in around 2007 Bazis advertised condos at south-east corner of Yonge & Bloor starting at $300,000 ,..... people were lining up outside for a week before the sales office open,.... and just before the sales office finally open the signage was changed to prices starting in the $500,000
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/condo-mania-hits-as-1-bloor-st-goes-on-sale-1.263865

But after market crash in 2008, Bazis couldn't get financing for their One Bloor East project and had to sell off the assets to another developer,.... who is now building their one project there,.... Karma is funny like that,.....

 

[stjames2queenwest]

I love dollarama green. It's beautiful. I will happily overlook most other issues and consider this a huge success for the shot of colour alone.

 

[Bill123]

Yea the color is fine especially when its at that certain time of day where the cheap glass makes it look like its underwater and there's light shining on it, get what I mean? It looks really good at that time of day. I don't know whos idea it was to make most new condos and offices blue, clear or black, totally makes the city look dull.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

Yea the color is fine especially when its at that certain time of day where the cheap glass makes it look like its underwater and there's light shining on it, get what I mean? It looks really good at that time of day. I don't know whos idea it was to make most new condos and offices blue, clear or black, totally makes the city look dull.

Personaly, for me, it's looking at the curved western side of the towers at sunset,... that's when the sunset reflect off the curve in different spectrum giving the top of EmeraldPark various shades of yellow-orange-reddish-brown hue,.... like the EmeraldPark towers are on fire! Burn, baby, BURN! Hey, I can dream can't I?!?!?! ;p

Anyways,.... back to reality,.... here's photos of the EmeraldPark bike parking,... 7x2 + 8x2 + 9x2 + 3x2 = 54 of the double decker steel bike parking racks,.... and 9 of the blue hang on the wall bike racks,... for a total of 63 bike parking spaces to satisfy their CityPlanning minimum requirement of 57 required bike parking spaces for condo residents and 6 required bike parking spaces for Commercial (office and retail) users. Interesting they have "Visitor Bicycle Parking" Signage on them as a way to signal they're not just for residents but also Commercial users,.... Whereas most developer segregate bicycle parking spaces for residents Vs Commercial Office Vs Commercial Retail into different areas (original floor plan had them segregated),.... Bazis place them all in the north-east part of the loading dock area which is a Common Area accessible to all EmeraldPark residents, commercial office and commercial retailers.

Finally putting in dark wood panels for lobbies (about 8 months after condo residents started to move in) as per their original renderings.

Now installing roll up cage doors in food court area food stalls,....

 

[Bill123]

Personaly, for me, it's looking at the curved western side of the towers at sunset,... that's when the sunset reflect off the curve in different spectrum giving the top of EmeraldPark various shades of yellow-orange-reddish-brown hue,.... like the EmeraldPark towers are on fire! Burn, baby, BURN! Hey, I can dream can't I?!?!?! ;p

View attachment 60373


Anyways,.... back to reality,.... here's photos of the EmeraldPark bike parking,... 7x2 + 8x2 + 9X2 = 48 of the double decker steel bike parking racks,.... but I missed another group deeper in,.... and about 9 of the blue hang on the wall bike racks,... anyways, they need to satisfy their 57 required bike parking spaces for condo residents,.... interesting they have Visitor Signage on them,.... I'm guessing the 9 blue ones are to satisfy the visitor-customer requirements,... Weird that they place them all in the north-east part of the loading dock area near lobby for East Tower,.... original floor plan had them inside hallways near condo lobbies,... As I recall the 6 visitor-customer bike space requirement were supposed to be outside,....


View attachment 60374

View attachment 60375

Finally putting in dark wood panels for lobbies (about 8 months after condo residents started to move in) as per their original renderings.

View attachment 60376

Now installing roll up cage doors in food court area food stalls,....

View attachment 60379

Yea at sunset it looks good too.

 

[Michael Ianni]

The dollarama green is nice from a distance but at street level I think it's horrible, looks really cheap and ugly

 

[Uncle Meat]

It seems that not a whole lot is going on with Emerald Park lately. Most notably, the elevator area around the subway entrance. Hopefully they are doing something below. The promised February opening looks increasingly bogus, as just about every other deadline associated with this project. LCBO, Metro, etc.

I also can't help but notice the unfinished look of some of the ground level parts of the structure. Compare the glass sidewalk roof and its black support pillars to those of Hullmark Centre across the street. Emerald's looks like an afterthought. Also, I see others already talked about the exposed concrete around the perimeter of the ground level near the top of the ground level glass facade (just behind the glass above the ceiling level). It looks like someone forgot to cover it with some cladding or paint. It is clearly visible to anyone walking by the building on a daily basis. Oversight or intentional ?

I am still contemplating whether all the street furniture on the perimeter of the building is 'minimalist design' or simply cheap. Hard to say. Even the sidewalk concrete looks inferior to Hullmark's. I hope the developer proves me wrong on all these points once they officially finish the job, whenever that happens.

On the positive side, I like the uniqueness of the building, its shape and color. Having just come back from Panama (the country capital), I was impressed at the architectural diversity of the numerous condo and office towers that recently sprouted up along the city coast. It seems there are few condos in Toronto that can be described as truly unique and original. Too many "grey boxes". Emerald Park certainly meets that criterion.

some examples:

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

It seems that not a whole lot is going on with Emerald Park lately. Most notably, the elevator area around the subway entrance. Hopefully they are doing something below. The promised February opening looks increasingly bogus, as just about every other deadline associated with this project. LCBO, Metro, etc.

I also can't help but notice the unfinished look of some of the ground level parts of the structure. Compare the glass sidewalk roof and its black support pillars to those of Hullmark Centre across the street. Emerald's looks like an afterthought. Also, I see others already talked about the exposed concrete around the perimeter of the ground level near the top of the ground level glass facade (just behind the glass above the ceiling level). It looks like someone forgot to cover it with some cladding or paint. It is clearly visible to anyone walking by the building on a daily basis. Oversight or intentional ?

I am still contemplating whether all the street furniture on the perimeter of the building is 'minimalist design' or simply cheap. Hard to say. Even the sidewalk concrete looks inferior to Hullmark's. I hope the developer proves me wrong on all these points once they officially finish the job, whenever that happens.

On the positive side, I like the uniqueness of the building, its shape and color. Having just come back from Panama (the country capital), I was impressed at the architectural diversity of the numerous condo and office towers that recently sprouted up along the city coast. It seems there are few condos in Toronto that can be described as truly unique and original. Too many "grey boxes". Emerald Park certainly meets that criterion.

some examples:

Greetings UncleMeat,...


Those buildings in Panama tends to be tall slender buildings,.... in NYCC there "was" a 100m (about 30 storey) height limit,...and now there's an extra height tax for going over that limit,... thus, NYCC buildings tend to be on the short stubby side,... much like myself! ;p And as I well know,... it's impossible to make short and stubby look like a towering super model! ;p

HullmarkCentre started their demolishion/construction about 8 months earlier on their more complex 45 & 35 storey complex VS the 40 & 30 (err, I mean 32) storey EmeraldPark project,... HullmarkCentre NorthTower stalled for a year as they had to redesign the pedestrian subway tunnel for TTC entrance at it's base so that it wouldn't interfere with the existing TTC WYE subway turning tunnel,.... yet, HullmarkCentre completed everything earlier this year,.... meanwhile,.... not only is EmeraldPark pathetically slow,... but they don't seem to have any urgency to get EmeraldPark finished,...

The cheap appearance of this project is the least of the developer's problem right now,.... the poor build quality and some of the corners they've cut during construction to save a few bucks is now coming back to bite them,... the retail mall area doesn't pass city inspection and won't be handed over to buyers until they do,... some condo units still need to pass inspection and can't be occuppied until then,... there's also mold issues,.... there are serious water leakage issues in the foundation & underground garage,...

As for the EmeraldPark subway entrance opening in February,... maybe February 2017,... or 2018! We should just call up a few buddies over for a weekend project, get a couple cases of beers and order some pizza,.... and finish the subway entrance ourselves! ;p At this point, all the concrete is in place, it's just putting in the finishing tiles, floors, railing, lighting, etc,....

 

[Uncle Meat]

Hello Sunnyray,

All that excitement of having new retail, LCBO, large grocery store and subway entrance ... gone. We may now have a mini version of the South China Mall in our neighbourhood for a few years. Speaking of China, as I said a while back, in the time it takes to put the tiles, lights and railing in the subway entrance, China would have built a whole new subway station. It would be interesting to find out directly from the architect himself, Roy Varacalli, what he thinks about how the project is turning out.

 

[Bill123]

That excitement was gone a long time ago when t&t moved out. Right now I remember around 4/75 stores are going to "open soon" in the mall after 3 months of getting the keys. However each time I visit around the lunch time mark I see a real estate agent or a potential tenant there checking out the properties. There are a lot of barriers discouraging potential tenants to start a store there.

1. City still has not approved ownership, can take a year
2. Uneven concrete floor, some which require thousands of dollars to fix
3. You have to deposit several grand to start renovations
4. You have to pay the architect almost 1K so he can "inspect your property"
5. Right now mall hours are from 8am to 5pm. North york is a sleeper community and most people get home at 5 or 6 from work so with these mall hours we lose a lot of business from those types. It is not known when the mall hours will extend.
6. No subway connection until feb 2016
7. No anchor tenant
8. 1 toilet for a 2 story mall of 75 stores
9. No free parking
10. You have to renovate the unit yourself so
10.1 You have to find an engineer/drafter/consultant to draw schematics for such a small project
10.2 You have to find a contractor willing to do such a small project for the floor
10.3 You have to find electrician to do such a small project
Due to this many of the store owners are renting them out instead of opening their own store. When you give a professional such a small project to do it goes all the way to the bottom of their to-do-list, they raise rates, it takes unnecessarily long.
11. The tmi is quite ridiculous at $6-8/sq feet a month. Mall has not even grand opened yet, management works 5 days a week, hours are unconvential for a mall.
12. Unknown grand opening time. Even if they give us a time who would trust them?
13. 71/75 stores there are vacant
14. No traffic

Oh and they keep issuing addendums which end up costing the tenant more money.

 

[Automation Gallery]

I'm sorry to hear, it sounds like you 3 individuals above are all North York residents unhappy with this Bazis development, now lets hear from the the other hundreds

 

[Bill123]

Personally I am fine with everything due to my unique circumstances, its just that I feel terrible for the other store owners and even worse for the tenants. It looks good from the outside but its quite rotten once you get into the details. Imagine waiting from 2008 to 2015 for something you thought you could flip or rent out in a jiffy but now you are stuck holding the bag and when a tenant signs an agreement with you to lease you will then have to push all this rotten stuff to their responsibility for several years. Hopefully when interested in properties here they will google emerald park and see our analysis and be more informed before deciding to rent or not.

 

[TheKingEast]

What a mess.