I was going to take some pix of the sales centre, but never got around to it. The wife just delivered a kid, and everything else fell by the wayside.
So the three of us all are going to be living here just a stone's throw from The Bluffs development site for as long as we can foresee. However, we live on the south side, near the lake. As mentioned, $1+ million detached properties are very common here. In fact, there is a teardown nearby up for sale now on the lake on Fishleigh, listed at $900000:
E2514038
Personally I think $900000 represents an overpriced listing, but nonetheless I think it's quite possible for them to get 90%+ of asking price, which would mean well over $800000... for a teardown.
That said, I understand where some of the negative comments come from. Certain pockets relatively close by aren't the nicest, esp. north of Kingston Road. But then again, that's true of a lot of neighbourhoods. It's also true the shopping on that strip isn't great, but I suspect a big development like that would bring better shops. In the meantime I do more shopping near my workplace, as well as at Gerrard/Victoria Park, further east on Kingston Road, and sometimes at The Beach (which is a 5 minute drive away). I use the No Frills on the strip there just for basic stuff when I'm in a rush. I do use the Shoppers frequently, as that's a standard nice Shoppers (and better than a bunch of them on Danforth).
The other issue one should be aware of though is transit. It's just bus to the area, connecting to street car at Vic Park, or else subway at Kennedy station or else Go at Scarborough Station. I'd like to see bus Rapid Transit introduced on Kingston Road, and the study of the area came up with a final design that includes provision for BRT, but according to the TTC, BRT (or LRT) on Kingston Road is currently quite low on their priority list. So low as to not really be a consideration at this point, because the density is too low. As density increases with projects like this, that may change though.
BTW, here are the prices for their units:
http://thebluffs.ca/prices-and-plans.php
$370000 for 3 bedrooms + den over 955 square feet, with lake view, and one parking spot and one storage unit. Holy crap that's cheap! Esp. so considering it includes
9' ceilings, marble countertops, and stainless steel appliances. It also includes FTTS with cat 5 wiring of the units. If that means what I think it means, it could mean 100 Mbps DSL sort of like City Place, depending on the internet provider. (For my detached home, I'm on FTTN --> DSL, which gives me max 25 Mbps download speeds currently.) The other thing I find attractive: NO pool. NO squash courts. Etc. So, NO need to pay for them in condo fees.
