Move over FCP- Aura to be the tallest

Jackhammer · #1 Posted: **Nov 17, 2007, 6:56 AM**

Great Zeus son of Chronus - is this true?

From Tuscani01 at SSC:

Tallest Condo In Canada Coming To Downtown T.O.
Friday November 16, 2007
CityNews.ca Staff

Think the chaos over the condo at 1 Bloor St. East was frenzied this week? Just wait till the real estate agents, developers and would-be flippers hear about this. What promises to be the largest condo tower in all of Canada was announced on Friday - a building that once finished, will stand 75 storeys and 343 meters tall.
The "Aura" will change the face of the downtown core yet again when it's built at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard, opposite College Park. The builders say it will encompass 1.3 million square feet - with at least 1.1 million devoted solely to residential space. And what would a Yonge St. development be without business? Some 190,000 square feet will be reserved for retail space.

"I look at Yonge Street as being a street that is going to be in a major state of change over the next five to ten years, and it's only going to make this environment better," believes Michael La Brier, the president of Canderel Stoneridge, which is behind the building.

The Bloor condo is 79 storeys and this one is only 75. How can they claim bragging rights to being the tallest? A spokesman tells CityNews.ca that the Aura beats its competitor on metre and square footage size, and that each residence will actually be bigger in height than the Bloor spot - so even though it has fewer storeys, it will actually wind up being slightly taller than the other address.

Those behind the plan have yet to reveal how much it will cost you to buy a place in the complex. That may not be decided until next month. But the spokesman explains that while there will be high end and pricey luxury models on the upper floors, some of the lower tiers should be affordable - although he wouldn't say how much "affordable" is.

It's the latest in what's rapidly becoming a newly energized market. A survey released earlier this week by Remax shows condos are on fire again in this city, with a 14 per cent rise in sales over last year - and growing.

And the residences are getting taller. The number of buildings over 200 metres - about half the height of the CN Tower - will more than double, going from seven to seventeen. It doesn't surprise realtors like Paul Raszewski. He's been selling condos here for 25 years and has seen the market bloom. "Because of the fact that the house prices in Toronto have skyrocketed, a lot of the young people, young professionals cannot afford a home. Automatically their choice is to go into a condo."

The fact a riot almost broke out last week at the Bloor St. location is testimony to just how much in demand the condominiums are. "They are very well marketed properties, and some of them are in very hot locations where there may not be many more opportunities to actually build any more because there's no more land in Toronto to really build new things," Raszewski concludes.

The Aura has been in the planning stages for more than a year, undergoing seemingly endless scrutiny and changes, before the city finally approved the project. After the frenzy that accompanied the earlier unbuilt condo, this one promises to create equal fireworks. Early registrations are being accepted online but actual sales won't start until February 2008, and the new condo may not be ready for tenants until 2012.

M II A II R II K · #2 Posted: **Nov 17, 2007, 5:09 PM**

Sounds great, so I take it they both will be taller than FCP, and reach has high as the observation decks of the CN Tower.

Jackhammer · #3 Posted: **Nov 17, 2007, 5:29 PM**

343m appears to be a misprint, but this ain't over yet:

Aura aims to be tallest condo tower in city
Yonge-Gerrard
Will Tremain, National Post
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007

An old-fashioned race to the skies may be under way in Toronto's condo tower market.

Condo developer Canderel Stoneridge Equity Group yesterday unveiled its Aura tower, which it plans to build next year at Yonge and Gerrard streets.

Aura, a slender knife-blade building, currently sits at 75 storeys and 243 metres in height. That would make it slightly short than Bazis International's planned condominium tower at One Bloor Street East, whose roof would sit at 248 metres. The Trump International Hotel and Tower on the southeast corner of Bay and Adelaide, which when first announced was described as Canada's tallest residential tower, was recently scaled back to about 274 metres.

But Michael La Brier, president of Canderel Stoneridge, said his company could add up to 10 more storeys -- provided the city blesses the plan. Aura would then be the city's highest condo building, at about 280 metres.

"When we had the building engineered, we had everything so we could add up to 10 more floors to the building," said Mr. La Brier. "So that's certainly part of the discussion we need to have ongoing with the city."

The new Aura skyscraper will boast at least 960 residential units, and more if the additional floors are added. Canderel Stoneridge says 5,000 people are on a waiting list to buy.

Mr. La Brier is clearly willing to barter with the city to win add the additional height for the new tower. "One of the the things we want to do is completely rebuild the [nearby] Barbara Ann Scott Park, and that's a price I'm certainly prepared to pay, especially in lieu of getting another 10 storeys of density on the building."

The local city councillor, Kyle Rae, said he's open to the possibility of 10 more storeys -- ''that would be something that would have to go through planning''-- but welcomes the new people drawn to the downtown core's "residential renaissance."

"I know there are people in the neighbourhood looking to move up," said Mr. Rae.

Riz Dhanji, vice-president of sales and marketing for Canderel Stoneridge, said the sale of Aura's units, starting next February or March, should be nothing like this week's sales for the Bazis tower.

Real estate agents lined up for eight days for the chance to buy a unit in the Bazis tower. On the morning the sale began, arguments broke out, and the base price on the units jumped by $200,000.

"We don't believe in that," Mr. Dhanji said.

"We want it to be more of a controlled process, and as easy a process as possible. But we can't control if people want to line up."

© National Post 2007

Maldive · #4 Posted: **Nov 17, 2007, 5:33 PM**

Quote:

a building that once finished, will stand 75 storeys and 343 meters tall.

^this (343 metres instead of 243 metres) is called a typo. Don't forget the same Citytv report claimed that 200 metres was around half the height of the CN Tower. Not quite.

Quote:

The Bloor condo is 79 storeys and this one is only 75. How can they claim bragging rights to being the tallest? A spokesman tells CityNews.ca that the Aura beats its competitor on metre and square footage size, and that each residence will actually be bigger in height than the Bloor spot - so even though it has fewer storeys, it will actually wind up being slightly taller than the other address.

^this is convoluted bull.

But..... another media report did quote Canderel boss saying there was the possibilty of adding another 10 storeys... up to 85 storeys.

So it could win the height battle... but still under 300 metres (certainly not 343 metres).

Maldive · #5 Posted: **Nov 30, 2007, 5:53 PM**

Here's a quicky sketch I posted elsewhere of how Aura might look ... looking northeast.

towerguy3 · #6 Posted: **Nov 30, 2007, 7:37 PM**

It says 7 towers in Toronto are higher than 200 meters. If the tower is a condo project like Shangri-La, would it still be considered a building and still be listed in the World Almanac in the Tall Buildings section?

Aylmer · #7 Posted: **Nov 30, 2007, 8:11 PM**

I think they should have buildt it more in the core...
Nice design!

vid · #8 Posted: **Nov 30, 2007, 10:55 PM**

It looks nicer than the one on Bloor, I think.

Waterlooson · #9 Posted: **Dec 1, 2007, 12:00 AM**

Beautiful design.... at least on the outside.

Cambridgite · #10 Posted: **Dec 1, 2007, 12:48 AM**

Wow...

Toronto is really sizzlin' these days. The skyline is evidently pushing to the north too.

Canadian Mind · #11 Posted: **Dec 1, 2007, 1:14 AM**

how far is Aurora from FCP and 1 Bloor?

caltrane74 · #12 Posted: **Dec 1, 2007, 1:51 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

how far is Aurora from FCP and 1 Bloor?

2 & a half big city blocks.

Or about 1.5 Kilometers from 1 Bloor East

Canadian Mind · #13 Posted: **Dec 1, 2007, 4:18 AM**

Dayum. Way to spread out your tall buildings. I'm really hoping you guys will get the extra ten floors. Will be a wonderful landmark building.

Oh, and as usual, Toronto sucks.