Here's an article with a bit of extra info about the project: http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/reales...-firms-up-financing-with-development-partners

Emerald Park firms up financing with development partners
August 25, 2010

Tracy Hanes

SPECIAL TO THE STAR


Emerald Park, a large mixed used condo project on Yonge St. just south of Sheppard Ave., is going ahead, thanks to a deal struck between the original developer, Bazis International, and two others.

Plazacorp Urban Residential Communities and Metropia Urban Landscapes have joined Bazis as partners in the development, ensuring that the 500 original purchasers of the 565 available suites will be able to retain their suites at the prices they originally bought them for (approximately $500 per square foot).

Bazis suffered a heavy impact when giant financial services firm Lehman Brothers, which provided a substantial portion of the financing for its projects, went bankrupt. Another Bazis landmark project, 1 Bloor, was subsequently sold to Great Gulf Homes, who redesigned and relaunched it as Number One Bloor.

“This is very exciting,” said Scott McLellan, senior vice president for Plazacorp about the Emerald Park partnership. “The fear of the almost 500 purchasers was what was going to happen to this project. When we got involved, part of our strategy was to keep the existing purchasers. We wanted to keep everyone in the deal. We finally got the news out and have heard nothing but positive feedback.”

Plazacorp has built more than 4,000 condos in the GTA during the past 20 years. Metropia CEO and founder is Howard Sokolowski, former chief executive officer and co-founder of Tribute Communities, and owner of the Toronto Argonauts. His partner Tony Moro is former CEO of Tridel’s construction division.

“With Tony involved, we will have the latest and best technology in the construction industry,” says McLellan.

For the past few months, McLellan says a realtor working with the partners has been quietly selling the condominium retail space in the podium that will connect Emerald Park’s two luminous green towers, based on the strength of the new partnership and the site’s connection to the Sheppard subway station.

“We had 115,000 square feet on the ground floor and we sold it all,” says McLellan. “And a major national grocery chain has committed to buying the entire second floor space.”

Although the third floor office space hasn’t been released yet, McLellan says there is already demand, including from “people who bought ground-floor retail and want a corporate office upstairs.”

McLellan says that the strength of the working relationship to date also means the trio is discussing future joint ventures on other Bazis holdings including a prime site at Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. directly across from the Royal Ontario Museum.
 
wow, this is really good news after a long delay... lets just hope the unique design of these towers is kept (and actually constructed).
 
I just walked past the site. The parking lots were officially closed on September 1st and yellow "caution" tape is now blocking all of the entrances. Basically the only thing on the site is the advertising billboard. It certainly looks as if they are ready to start.
 
Pips said:
I just walked past the site. The parking lots were officially closed on September 1st and yellow "caution" tape is now blocking all of the entrances. Basically the only thing on the site is the advertising billboard. It certainly looks as if they are ready to start.
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How appropriate they're using crime scene type yellow tapes,.... given how Bazis have treated their Condo buyers over the years. :rolleyes:

BTW, who is the "major national grocery chain" on the second floor? Doesn't sound like T&T. Already have Loblaws at Empress Walk, Bayview Village and third one on Yonge south of York Mills/Wilson. Maybe Metro moving back to the neighbourhood.
 
sunnyraytoronto said:
How appropriate they're using crime scene type yellow tapes,.... given how Bazis have treated their Condo buyers over the years. :rolleyes:

BTW, who is the "major national grocery chain" on the second floor? Doesn't sound like T&T. Already have Loblaws at Empress Walk, Bayview Village and third one on Yonge south of York Mills/Wilson. Maybe Metro moving back to the neighbourhood.
Click to expand...

Wholefoods will be in the future Hullmark building across the street.
 
Interesting update. The whole site is now completely fenced off with high metal fencing. Maybe they could yet beat Hullmark at putting shovels in the ground. No prep work here.
 
I hope bazis updates Emerald park's web page more frequent to show how the construction is going on.
For the time being, any regular update, news or picture is really appreciated.
 
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Sign it or not, they have this extension on their contract and nobody can complaint unless the occupancy goes beyond 2013. But this new amendment is possibly due to the newly joined builder's request.
Bazis's North American chief, Michael Gold, has claimed that he can finish this project in 30 months. Now with having 2 other builders on project, he possibly can make it.
 
More news about what has been happening behind the doors in Emerald Park
********************************************************

Builders

"The condo industry’s comeback kid "

It may be one of the most amazing comebacks in recent real estate history.

This time last year Bazis International was perched on the edge of a financial abyss. Lehman Brothers, the giant U.S. merchant bank, had collapsed and along with it went the financial backing for Bazis’s signature condo project, 1 Bloor.
A trio of developers had launched a court action to foreclose on the mortgage they held on the prime piece of land 1 Bloor would sit on and Bazis could not find the cash to pay them out.

With financing absolutely impossible to find, Bazis’s other two major projects – Emerald Park, on Yonge just south of Sheppard, and Exhibit, on Bloor Street West directly across from the Royal Ontario Museum, seemed certain to meet the same fate. Few in the industry gave much hope of Bazis’s survival.

Today, thanks to a partnership with two greatly experienced new partners – partners with deep pockets – Bazis has not only survived, it is thriving.

Construction on Emerald Park starts this fall; 500 of the 565 suites have been sold; all the condominium retail space on the first and second levels of the three-level podium has been sold and 20 per cent of the condo office space, which is on level three, has been spoken for.

Exhibit, a 32-storey tower with 180 luxury suites is in the final design stage and Bazis president Michael Gold says his company and its new partners – Plazacorp and Metropia Urban Landscapes – are looking at other new ventures as well.
So what happened? How can a company be teetering on bankruptcy one moment and be king of the hill the next?

In this case a lot of the credit goes to Rob Goodall, president of Canadian Mortgage Capital Corp. and a former national managing partner of the real estate division at Royal Trust. He stepped in; worked with Lehman Brothers to sort out the mess its collapse left behind in Canada, saw an opportunity in Bazis’s impressive list of potential holdings and pulled together a deal.

“I went to Rob and asked him if he could find us some partners,” says Mr. Gold.
“The chief impediment to us finding long-term financing on our remaining projects was that lenders wanted more equity – equity we did not have.”

Then it became a matter of who knew whom. Mr. Gold and Mr. Goodall talked with Tony Morrow, former president of Tridel Group and now head of his own company, TMG.

Project Management, Mr. Morrow, coincidentally, holds a stake in Metropia, a company controlled by Howard Sokolowski, former partner in Tribute Communities. Plazacorp, the third partner, had dealt in the past with Lehman Brothers on its projects – and connections led to connections led to connections.

“The upshot is that we all struck a deal,” says Scott McLellan, senior vice-president sales and marketing at Plazacorp.
Metropia would be managing partner for Emerald Park, Mr. Morrow`s company would handle project management, Bazis, Metropia and Plazacorp would all share marketing and sales, with Metropia being lead partner, says Mr. Gold.

“One of the things I insisted on was that the 500 people who had already bought suites be protected,” Mr. Gold says. “The partners readily agreed.”
One of Plazacorp’s inspired ideas was not to lease the commercial and office space in the podium but rather to sell it as condos.

As Mr. McLellan explains the situation, leasing space in a project that might not come on stream for another three years is a tough sell these days.
“The confidence to make commitments that far into the future just isn’t there,” he says. Owning the space instead, however, gives retailers greater control over their future – plus the pleasant prospect of capital appreciation once the economy heats up again.

Finding a major grocery store chain as buyer for the entire second floor proved to be a substantial spur to sales.
“Once we had that deal in place word got around and we were able to sell 72 of the 75 planned retail spaces on the first floor,” Mr. McLellan says.

The success and speed with which negotiations took place on Emerald Park has now led to a similar deal being struck on Exhibit.
“I think this will likely prove to be a long-running partnership,” says Mr. Gold.
 
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