RioCan Living will launch sales of
Verge Condos, its first condominium project without a development partner, in Toronto in August.
RioCan acquired the site at the southwest corner of The Queensway and Islington Avenue in Etobicoke in 2010 to add to its retail portfolio, as it included a 100,000-square-foot
Cineplex movie theatre, three restaurants and a bank branch. The Cineplex land was acquired by a former partner, so RioCan was left with a 25,000-square-foot plot to intensify.
“It also came with the benefit of the leases for the three restaurants and the bank having very limited lease term left,” RioCan senior vice-president of asset management John Ballantyne told RENX. “One of the toughest parts of converting retail properties into residential through intensifying them is freeing up the leases. This one had it already built in.”
The mixed-use project will include 545 units in 17- and 11-storey buildings, a podium with 30,000 square feet of retail space, a public park and a new service road on the south side of the property.
Unnamed institutional investment partners RioCan has done business with in the past have an 80 per cent financial stake in Verge. RioCan has retained a 20 per cent ownership interest along with project oversight as general partner and sole development manager.
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Verge’s unit breakdown will be: 33 per cent one-bedroom; 35 per cent one-bedroom-and-den; 22 per cent two-bedroom; and 10 per cent three-bedroom. Units will range in size from 430 to 1,060 square feet. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced.
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If sales go as well as anticipated, construction should start in the second half of 2022 with occupancy in Q1 2025.
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