[Mithradate]

Emerald Park Condo's Web Page New Look

I just checked their web page and can see a new section, which advertising office and retail plans.
After all disappointments, lets think positive and hope they are going to start to built this beautiful high rise very soon.

 

[Solaris]

looks like the previous rumour of Emerald Park condos being turned into a joint-venture project was not entirely wrong ... even though it is not JV with Tridel, this project now has two names shown beside Bazis International ... being Plazacorp and Metropia ... I guess Bazis just isn't capable in getting this site up on their own ~

Given the involvement of Plazacorp now in this project and their experience, I feel pretty optimistic ~ but Metropia is a name that I'm not familiar with, according to their website (http://www.metropia.ca/) they are an 'urban' builder in Vancover, Calgary and Toronto

 

[investican]

Hmm Im surprised by this. Seeing how Bazis couldn't acheive financing by themselves. Interesting --- anyways it seems METROPIA is also METROSPOT TELEVISION LTD, which is a TV marketing company who is run by Howard Sokolowski who owns the Toronto Argonauts and is former CEO of Tribute Communities. He is married to Linda Frum -- she used to be a journalist and now she is part of the Canadian Senate. They live in Forest Hill in one of the more sought out streets. As for his urban developments in toronto, vancouver and calgary I haven't found any information.

 

[uptownto]

Here's a link that shows brochures and renders for the retail/office portion. It's going to be a mall with a second floor food court. I don't mind that at all, I prefer it to just having a small group of tiny spaces that are only good for nail salons and dry cleaners. Hopefully it can attract some real stores in there.

http://www.thegalleriaatemeraldpark.com/

 

[Gratty]

I'm not crazy about the mini-mall - it's going to be a dead area. You're not going to have the foot traffic you see in the Sheppard Centre or Empress Walk or the future Hullmark Centre. A small food court a ground level - easily accessible from outside would have sufficed. The entire second floor should have been offices like the 3rd floor. The area needs to keep more of it's retail at street level to bring more life to the area.

Here's a link that shows brochures and renders for the retail/office portion. It's going to be a mall with a second floor food court. I don't mind that at all, I prefer it to just having a small group of tiny spaces that are only good for nail salons and dry cleaners. Hopefully it can attract some real stores in there.

http://www.thegalleriaatemeraldpark.com/

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Remember that those retail cubicles are on the ground floor: offices are on the third floor while the second floor will supposedly be a supermarket.

 

[Coltaine79]

post removed due to irrelevance

 

[maestro]

Wrong lot dude

 

[DaninToronto]

That's just embarassing

 

[yyzer]

posted today by Kenji over at SSP........

Letter from Bazis: Construction is scheduled to start this fall.

 

[yyzer]

hope you don't mind me reposting this, BuzzBuzzHome, you being a member here, but here is your excellent blog post from today.....good news for Emerald Park....

BuzzBuzzHome
August 17, 2010


Bazis International has successfully negotiated a partnership with two of the area's most experienced developers to complete its Emerald Park project on Yonge Street just south of Sheppard.

This partnership ensures that the existing 500 purchasers of the 565 suites in the project will be able to retain their suites and reap the benefit of the $75 to $100/sq. ft. increase in the value of their units over the last year and a half.
The trio – Bazis, Plazacorp Urban Residential Communities and Metropia Urban Landscapes have announced that all the condominium retail space in the podium which connects the pair of shimmering emerald green towers has been sold to eager buyers.

"The strength of this partnership is such that the two levels of retail were literally sold out before we officially took them to market," says Mr. McLellan. "A major grocery store chain has committed to buying the entire second floor, and with that in place, merchants very quickly bought the retail spaces on the ground floor. While the third level office space has yet to be released for sale, Mr. McLellan adds that there has been tremendous demand."
"By any measure Emerald Park is a major success story," says Mr. McLellan. "The collapse of Lehman Brothers deeply affected Bazis and its projects. But because of the financial strength of Plazacorp and Metropia, and the track records of the companies and their principals, we are in the final stages of negotiations for financing and construction will start this fall."
Mr. McLellan adds that the strength of the working relationship to date also means the trio is discussing future joint ventures on other Bazis holdings including its prime site at Bloor Street and Avenue Road directly across from the Royal Ontario Museum.

Plazacorp is one of the GTA's most successful developers having built more than 4,000 condominium residences during the past 20 years. Metropia is a national real estate company devoted to urban development and renewal. Its founder and CEO Howard Sokolowski is also the former co-owner of the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts.
As the former Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Tribute Communities, Mr. Sokolowski earned a stellar reputation as one of the largest homebuilders in Canada: building over 25,000 homes across Ontario.
"The location, just a block south of Yonge and Sheppard and connected to the Sheppard subway station is so superb that it is literally a retailer's dream," he adds. "The decision to make the space available as condominium rather than leased space also played a major role."

http://blog.buzzbuzzhome.com/2010/08/emerald-park-bazis-is-back-with-new.html

 

[interchange42]

Not so much of a blog post above, as a press release from Bazis.

Meanwhile, Solaris posted an ad back in May (see post #422 above) that already had Plazacorp's and Metropia's logos on it. What took so long for the official word?

42

 

[iSlutsky]

hope you don't mind me reposting this, BuzzBuzzHome, you being a member here, but here is your excellent blog post from today.....good news for Emerald Park....

Thanks yyzer. No problem at all. Anytime.

I am excited to find out when this "fall" construction will commence. I also hear that there is an other site somewhere they are working on (not the Exhibit site mentioned above). Should be interesting.

 

[egotrippin]

I hope this news bodes well for the quality of construction. After seeing close up shots of Blu and compromises from the renders, I fear for all of the proposals with Bazis name attached to them. Doubly so considering that was in Yorkville. Here's hoping for positive results though.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I hope this news bodes well for the quality of construction. After seeing close up shots of Blu and compromises from the renders, I fear for all of the proposals with Bazis name attached to them. Doubly so considering that was in Yorkville. Here's hoping for positive results though.

Bazis was never vague about Emerald Park, though, unlike Crystal Blu...very detailed renderings have been released and they've been working with the design review panel to tweak the podium and street level while trying to stick to the rather specific vision for the architecture, something that you can say was never really in place with Crystal Blu. Tweaked for the better? We'll see. Hopefully the requirements of dull standardized streetscaping, bending over backwards to accommodate the TTC, and so on, won't hurt it. There's a heck of a lot of green glass, with corners all over the place, which could all end up looking bright and smart or sickly and clunky.

This is a far more prominent location than Crystal Blu, anyway...it's not mid-block and surrounded by taller buildings. This should be very visible from up and down Yonge, Sheppard, and the 401. If there is a god, Emerald Park will distract eyes away from the atrocious Skymark towers down the street, which look like conjoined pseudo-Greek columns with leprosy, covered with a coat of "Wet Precast" from the Debbie Travesty paint collection.