Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

Well, the ad is almost two years old and the unit has never been rented so it clearly wasn't thought out well.

Since 2013 there have been 484 listings for 384 Yonge for sale or rent (storefronts), now what is important is that out of that 484 only 10 units have been able to sell or be rented (as per MLS stats). That means 0.026% of what has been up for sale or rent has turned into actual money for the Seller or Landlord. A lot of the 484 listings have been relistings so it does not mean that there were 484 individual units, nonetheless I would bet this is the only property in the city, the province and likely the country with a lease/sale ratio this low. An interesting fact is that most owners of leased/sold are of Asian descent. I will let you draw your own conclusions on what that means for what is happening to Toronto Real Estate.
 
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Definitely need to have niche stores or depend on word of mouth in order to attract people; foot traffic wouldn't do it. It's quicker to just exit College Park and walk down to Gerrard than to navigate the underground pathway. Last time I was down at the food court, there seemed to be a new place opening, which was surprising; Kaiju seems to be the only one that's consistently busy whenever I'm down there.
 
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Expected traffic of 30K "approximate" daily? Please, can the lies get more blatant than that?

But "prime real estate", and "downtown destination for sophisticated shoppers!" If the ad says it, then it must be good right? Can't go wrong.

Also, Why Is Every Word Capitalized?
 
One of the LED stripes on the southeast corner of the building has partially gone out. I guess this doesn't bode well for their durability.
Don't worry, based on the quality of this building I'm sure it will be repaired in no time at all.

/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s
 
Location, location, location? Wrong.

It's parking, visibility and access. The problem is zero outta 3 here. Something radically different is required to bring this space back from the dead. Tinkering will only lead to a worsening smell.
 
The layout of that basement is atrocious. The food court is hidden, and a lot of the units are too small. It's a shame since that space could have been much more especially since they are fixing up the park space between College Park and Aura. They could have made an inviting entrance to the lower level from the park and had a nice food court/market down there.
 
That would require someone with a larger retail portfolio and I think we can presume that it being sold off as condos says a lot that Canderel or any other large holding company wasn't interested in the space. Afterall, one of these companies purchased or Canderel maintained ownership of floors 1 to 3. Now the question is why build the space? Why not have saved a bunch digging a slightly shallower basement with condo parking,etc. beginning on P1? Was there some sort of indirect density bonusing?
 
That would require someone with a larger retail portfolio and I think we can presume that it being sold off as condos says a lot that Canderel or any other large holding company wasn't interested in the space. Afterall, one of these companies purchased or Canderel maintained ownership of floors 1 to 3. Now the question is why build the space? Why not have saved a bunch digging a slightly shallower basement with condo parking,etc. beginning on P1? Was there some sort of indirect density bonusing?
shoulda coulda woulda
Meaning that it is of no use to dwell on what should have (shoulda), could have (coulda) or would have (woulda) happened/been done.
Said as an attempt to shorten a discussion that focusses on the past, thus providing no solution to an actual problem.
 
There's always value in discussing these things for future considerations.

The solution to Aura's basement is pretty simple but, will be difficult and time consuming to implement. It's need to become a PATH corridor. that can only be accomplished by connecting to other blocks including other PATH systems. At that point, the retail condo owners shouldn't have a problem cashing out.

Perhaps planning was seeing the bigger picture by encouraging the basement level retail if that is what really transpired. I feel for those that purchased these units but, they also show have known better.
 
How could one find a floor plan of the entire lowered level retail?

There was one posted around in this very thread - let me see if I can find it.

Found - http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...rel-graziani-corazza.492/page-264#post-555396

Though it doesn't necessarily look like what was built in the end (e.g. food court).

Another one that actually resembled the actual outcome:
Aura-Condos-Retail.png


http://yongestreetcondos.net/auracondo/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Aura-Condos-Retail.png

AoD
 
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