Yes, normally the residential portions are finished first. A good recent example is Minto Westside, in which the residential units have been occupied for many months, but the commercial is still being completed. Many other buildings are similar. In the odd exception, where the commercial leasing has gone well, some of the commercial areas may be occupied earlier, such as in Aura, but that is quite rare.
Registration is based on the condo portion of the building only. While it is possible that some none residential portions of the building may be held within the condominium corporation, other than the residential parking area, that is rare. Registration is not based on occupancy of the units, but when the developer (technical title the Declarant, as they are the ones responsible for submission of the Declaration to the City), has completed all the proper paperwork. The longer it takes for the complete paperwork to be submitted, the longer it will be until the condominium is registered. On the other hand, the Berczy, at Church and Front streets, was very fast - it was registered prior to any residents taking occupancy.
This can vary widely building by building. All the electrical, mechanical, and life safety systems have to be suitably complete, tested, certified, operational and accepted by the City inspectors, in addition to interior construction of the individual suites themselves. For a small building - six months or more after topping off could be reasonable, for a larger building can be up to a year before the builiding is in a ready enough state for the initial residents can move into the lower floors - upper floors are normally longer. Normally a building, with a custom footprint such as the Waterworks could be more towards a year after topping off
Property Valuations, even though it is only thirteen floors. Construction of the Waterworks building is going very quickly though - the construction crew is working long hours, and frequently on the weekend as well. If they keep up the same pace on the interior, they may bring this building in at the shorter end of the standard time frames for a building of its size and complexity.
We overlook this project from a couple of streets away, and can see it from our windows - have been watching it for a while.
