City
A force for good or evil? Peter Freed's Toronto
I've already reported on how, despite some people's wishes, the Entertainment District continues to reach skyward. On the west side of Spadina, however, there's a more sedate form of development occurring: mid-rise, focused on design, and potentially more in-tune with the surrounding buildings and city council's plans. Is the King-Bathurst area getting development right? Not necessarily -- and its problems highlight the difficulties that even the most well-meaning developers have in bringing quality projects to Toronto.
What's probably most interesting about this area is that many of the buildings are being built by one developer, Peter Freed. Since 2004, he's launched nine projects in the area. Before the announcement of his latest project -- the Thompson Residences on King West -- Freed's developments (Fashion House, 75 Portland, 650 King Street West and 550 Wellington West, among others) have already added 1,600 condo units to the neighbourhood. His developments have helped make Downtown West the fastest-growing area for new real estate in Toronto.
With so much development, there have been losses. Crangle's Collision, an art-deco auto repair shop on Bathurst, was partially demolished. A portion of its exterior has been incorporated into the new Thompson Hotel, which is connected to the condos at 550 Wellington Street West. Fashion House will incorporate (and restore) the Silver Plate building, but several warehouses behind it will be torn down. And the new Thompson Residences will replace the Travelodge on King Street West, whose 50s motor-home vibe was a bit of a sore thumb, despite mention in the New York Times by the Frugal Traveler, who stayed there a few years ago.
This is clearly one of the major effects of this Freed-based transformation: the rise in property prices. Unlike the similarly mid-rise St. Lawrence market neighbourhood, Freedville beckons deep pockets. Some of the smaller condos are in the $180,000 range for 600 square feet (a relative bargain), but the largest go for millions and more.
This will likely only intensify over the next few years. The Thompson Hotel is the first international outpost for the very upscale New York brand, and it's expected that when its bar and restaurants open in the next month or so, it will attract a lot of wealthy people.
The focus of the Film Festival, for instance, used to be Yorkville, but with the opening of the Bell Lightbox, many of the industry's power brokers will want to cluster and mingle in the neighbourhood.
Property prices don't have much room to grow before they become astronomical. According to Realnet, Downtown-west is the fifth most expensive place to buy a suite in the city, after Bloor-Yorkville, the Downtown core, St. Clair and Yonge and the Central Waterfront. It appears that we can have mid-rise, design-based development in the downtown area, but the question is -- at what cost?
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I love Freed developments, but taken in the context of the neighbourhood (with its busy weekend club scene) it's definitely not for me and a broad cross-section of Torontonians. I'm sincerely hoping that Freed decides to develop in other areas.
What made the old art deco facade interesting was the use of the stone, the steel cladding, the simplicity of material. This is a mockery.
I'm not sure what's worse: the fact that this replica was built, or the fact that obviously no consideration was given towards integrating it into the new building. If ever there was a design challenge gone unsolved, this is certainly it. Worse still, it's of their own creation.
Some of the Freed buildings are actually interesting (against the admittedly low bar set by other developers). But I find this red herring (the Crangle's anomaly) very odd.
I'm now experiencing SERIOUS construction, design, engineering, and customer service problems after living in the building since January 2010. Communication from Freed has been extremely poor and they have actually deceived residents about deficiencies in the hope that we forget about them.
I've started a blog to take note of the the more important deficiencies:
http://freeddevelopmentsripoff.blogspot.com/
I'm not doing this to bitch for no reason. All of my complaints are things you would expect in a luxury condo in Toronto like climate control! Anyway, I just started the site. I'll be posting more relevant information along with photos and evidence.
I hope the blog holds Freed Developments Ltd. accountable to fix these deficiencies and educate any future buyers of Freed projects
Of course you are. These condos are bottom-of-the-barrel crap, made as cheaply and quickly as possible. "Freedville" is *not* a good model for the rest of the city, as Jason notes above, it's designed with only Freed's short-term bottom line in mind. Unless you happen to have a vested interest in the financial well-being of Freed Developments, they are contributing absolutely nothing to you or your community. Look at photo #6 above: this looks like a Communist wasteland. I wonder what sort of response you'd get if you took that photo around and asked the vox populi if that was the City of Toronto they were envisioning for the future.
Freed is building a new St James Town centered at King & Portland, and citizens of Toronto will live to regret it.
Kate York - be persistent but don't let the problems get to you. The builder has a million things to get to. They will get to yours eventually but at this stage they are swamped. There are always a million wrinkes to get ironed out at start-up (esp. HVAC related).
Make sure you get all of yuour deficiencies documented on the Tarion forms by the deadlines and all issues will eventually get dealt with. This is why pre-construction is generally cheaper. Depending on when you bought you probably made over 100G's already, so enjoy as much as you can but be persistent, and eventually everything will get done.
To the above comment made by "Linked" stating the value made due to pre-sonstruction, well, I also purchased preconstruction in 2007 and the building was not complete until January 2012 (4 yrs 4 months later). There's no way I'm even close to $100K ROI considering the interest I've paid on the loan for deposit plus taxes (land transfer, development levies, lawyer fees, upgrades to turn that piece of crap they call luxury into something of value....plus if I sold it, the broker fees). They sold me a bill of goods in the model suite, but when you move in, do you realize what you have to add to even bring meaning to the word modern?
Let my words be heard, I will never buy preconstruction again after my experience with Freed. They are NOT high-end and the building is only of value because of the neighbourhood's value. There is no customer service post signing. ZERO.
Oh, and by the way, the rendering of the building presented in the sales center was vibrant, white with green accents. The current building is grey and black with white accents.
Freed Customer Service = FAIL FAIL FAIL