So the main reason I checked out the FoodBasics store was to solve that mystery of why the mini-shopping cart has amazon logos on them
IMG_9708amazon.jpg


WillTo said:
Maybe they purchased the flags on Amazon?
Everyone has a Prime membership these days.
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Wow,.... @WillTo is right! Now they have a FoodBasics sticker over the Amazon logo!

IMG_9758.JPG
 
mkerian said:
I understand the buildings have issues, but at the end of the day I picture some poor young family with a baby or two, perhaps even owners of the units, having to deal with this type of disruption in their lives. Makes me sad. Hopefully it can be resolved quickly.

Of course most people would take a nice small house in the city with a backyard and green space, and less chance of shoddy workmanship, but we know that this isn't possible. Some families have to make choices on where they live and what they live in. I imagine a young family may have made the (perfectly fine) choice of living there. Ah well...such is life.
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I'm not sure that I'd agree that houses are less likely to have shoddy workmanship. Mike Holmes made his career off it.

sunnyraytoronto said:
The permanent FoodBasics signage (approved by City) went up last Saturday September 4th. Yes, I've seen many bewilder grocery shoppers go in and out of Emerald Park expecting FoodBasics to be open!
View attachment 348166

View attachment 348167

While the outer part of EmeraldPark is considered Common Area - Metro/FoodBasics has permission to mount signage at 3 areas. The previous "Food Basics Coming Soon" banners were likely never approved by City - thus, technically against City bylaw,... and any 311 call would have forced FoodBasics to take them down. Gee, I wonder who would have made that call,... WholeFoodsMarket across the street or Longos
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What an utter mess the podium is. No proper signs for individual retail units, even the ones that access the street directly. So tenants awkwardly install signs on the insides of windows, making it look way more cluttered than it would be otherwise. The main mall entrance isn't from Yonge Street, but instead on the south side, out of the way and rather anonymous looking. The mall entrance on the north side nearest Yonge is even more anonymous, without any signage or other visual cues whatsoever that it's a public entrance. It's as if the building was deliberately designed to make the retail as invisible as possible. And don't even get me started on the sea of puke green spandrel. 🤢

Okay, rant over. Back to work.
 

'Cold dark world': Sudden 113% spike in condo fees sparks nasty dispute, threats​


Nov 6, 2021


When condo fees more than doubled in a North York building, it sparked a nasty dispute involving legal threats, frightening e-mails, and accusations of a conspiracy, according to a new Ontario Superior Court judgment.

And now the board of the commercial units at the Emerald Park condo at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue is hoping a new court order against harassment and threats will give some relief — and allow them to get to the bottom of the surprise fee hikes that are common to many new builds in Ontario.

"It kept me awake at night. I couldn't sleep," said William Liu, a member of the board who says he was as surprised as anyone to see the fee hike in the first five years the building was open.

"One hundred thirteen percent on our unit is a lot. For example, my fees went from about $500 a month to about $1000 a month," he said.

That was tough for his business, a storefront smartphone and technology repair firm. But others in the building took it worse.

Soon, the court judgment says, a group of owners blamed the board for the financial problems, issuing multiple lawsuit threats, accusations of corruption and something called "civil conspiracy," and frightening e-mails.

One said, "I will find you in Singapore, where you hide and drag you into my cold dark world."

The tensions got in the way of actually tackling the reason the fees hiked so much, said another unit owner, Leo Papageorge.

"Obviously, it's in all our common interests to get our fees to the level they should be at so that when you have someone who is throwing stones at people for nothing, it makes things ten times more difficult," Papageorge said.

The issue of suddenly rising condo fees is not limited to that building. An Ontario Auditor-General's report in 2020 found many developers had sold units using understated amounts for condo fees in their initial budgets — and didn't include expected expenses.

A survey in the report found about half of condo boards saw their fees go up by up to 30 per cent. Around four in 10 boards saw it increase more than that. One in 10 didn't know.

At the time, the Auditor-General recommended that the developers provide additional disclosure of expected increases to common area expenses, give condo boards more time to claim increased amounts and borrow best practices from other jurisdictions.

In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, the developer must put money in trust to be available to the condo corporation, the report says, and in B.C., developers that understate expenses have to pay a penalty that doubles if expenses are 10 per cent higher or triples if expenses are 20 per cent higher.

"There are no similar provisions in Ontario," the report says.

At the time, the Ontario government said following those recommendations would require more legislation. That's a process the Ontario government is going through as it revamps the Condo Act.

That should have been done long ago, said NDP MPP Jessica Bell, who is the critic for Housing, Urban Planning and Tenant Rights.

"The Auditor-General found very clearly there are many condo residents that are moving into buildings that face a sudden increase in condo fees because developers are systematically understating the condo fees at time of sale. That's not fair. Condo residents deserve to know how much they're going to pay to get a well-maintained building. They have rights," she said.

One thing the government should do is require a third party to analyze the expected expenses so that residents aren't taking the word of a developer who is also interested in selling the units in the building.

Lawsuits continue at the Emerald Park building, seeking to discover exactly why the fees went up, with the condo board engaging a forensic auditor.

The judge, in this case, issued an injunction saying the condo unit owners can't threaten or harass Liu or other board members, something Liu says is helping him sleep at night again.
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toronto.ctvnews.ca

Sudden 113 per cent spike in Toronto condo fees sparks nasty dispute and threats

When condo fees more than doubled in a Toronto building, it sparked a nasty dispute involving legal threats, frightening e-mails, and accusations of a conspiracy, according to a new Ontario Superior Court judgment.
toronto.ctvnews.ca
 
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Yikes… wonder how much of it was cause of the flood vs. because of bad management.

Actually re-reading it, is the whole condo getting increases or just the commercial units?
 
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Mint said:
Yikes… wonder how much of it was cause of the flood vs. because of bad management.

Actually re-reading it, is the whole condo getting increases or just the commercial units?
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The article talks about maintenance fee hike for the Retail & Office-Condo units,... and the issues faced by the Board of Directors for these Commercial units. Most of the Retail & Office-Condo units were not directly impacted by the Flood in East Tower - I heard it went from top floor to as low as 6th floor but Office-Condo units are on 3rd floor.

The Residential Condo Board is a different board,... they'll have to deal with maintenance fee hike from the Flood,... and they have a long history of screaming-matches and fist-fights!

I believe the ultimate issues lies with Bazis,.... the way they low-balled initial maintenance fee cost to make it look attractive to buyers, I also suspect Bazis routed some of their cost into common area to be paid by other's maintenance fees, and all the corner cutting Bazis did during construction is now catching up with the current owners via maintenance - on a 6 year old condo building
 
AlbertC said:
Interesting, I was unaware of this foodcourt:

www.blogto.com

This semi-hidden food court might be Toronto's most delicious

The food court at North York's The Galleria at Emerald Park is what you might call a hidden gem. Located at street level of the twin residential towe…
www.blogto.com www.blogto.com
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I've been to the Allwyn's there, but that story makes me want to try everything. Ooooof, too bad they put North York Centre somewhere up in the tundra, but okay…

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