River City Condos (Urban Capital) - Real Estate -

chriskayTO said:
There are a number of projects that are completed in phases with heavy construction either adjacent or part of the same site. Examples that come to mind are Market Wharf (podium & tower) and College Park 1 & 2, DNA 1 & 2 though I know there are many, many more. A fried of mine received an updated occupancy date for sometime in May - he's in the low-rise section of phase 1.
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Perhaps this for a 'tentative occupancy' rather than 'confirmed occupancy'? It's my understanding that tentative occupancy dates may change and be updated, but confirmed occupancy dates are firm.
 
TOCondoGarden said:
Would you happen to know what floor your friend purchased a unit on in the River Street building? The previous tentative occupancies were from March to beginning of April for this building. So may be an extra month or two now...

I'm just renting month-to-month, so it's not really a concern for me if occupancies are delayed...but it can be tricky for those that need to sell a property or break a lease.
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I could be mistaken, but I think the interior design team is only half-way through their design appointments with purchasers, which to me, may indicate that they have yet to order the interior design pieces in preparation for the occupancy dates that have been circulating......maybe you have a different experience?
 
T.0.isthebest said:
I could be mistaken, but I think the interior design team is only half-way through their design appointments with purchasers, which to me, may indicate that they have yet to order the interior design pieces in preparation for the occupancy dates that have been circulating......maybe you have a different experience?
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No, I haven't had my appointment scheduled yet. I know everything that I'm going to choose after extensive thought, however, haha. When you buy resale properties, you can always blame the previous owners for their choice of finishes haha.

My unit is on the 12th floor of the King Street building with tentative occupancy for July 26th, 2013. The summer is still my busy season for my business, so a delay into the Fall would be fantastic, although I now have moving down to a science and can pack up everything in a few days :)
 
FYI: Just got updated, anticipated occupancy dates for the King St building. Starts mid-June for the 3rd floor. I'm on the 12th floor with a mid-Sept move-in date. These are about 4 to 8 weeks longer than last notification. It's far better to be delayed and move into a well-finished unit, so no concerns here.

Not sure when River St building starts...I'm curious if anyone received their list and would like to share :)
 
Biased opinion aside (I'm an owner of a suite), I've been following this project for almost a year and like a lot of you, I'm real excited about this project and community. That said, while some of us have gotten an occupancy letter for this coming summer, due to the recent strike by the elevator technicians, it appears our occupancy is delayed until the matter is resolved. While they will continue work on the suites, they "cannot get occupancy from the governing municipal body, which in this case is the City of Toronto, because the elevators will not be operational." When the union comes to an agreement, apparently it will take up to three weeks (approximately) to complete any remaining work required for occupancy.
 
I just moved in to 51 Trolley Crescent (the second building of Phase 1). The hot bath water temperature is really low. It just lube warm, not hot at all. Is this normally? What can I do? Please advice. Thanks.
 
A lot of those issues seem pretty typical of new condos. Once you have a legit property management in place, a lot of that stuff will be fixed. As far as quality of workmanship. Get used to it. Unless it's one of the bigger developers, you're going to get crap job. The trades have so much work that they will pay a young, inexperienced kid to help them out...and guess who's doing the work?. Plazacorp, Tridel, etc...have better trades and get things fixed quickly. I was able to pick an issue during a PDI and by the end of it, a trade was in there fixing it. But urban Capital isn't on that level so you're going to get the sloppiness and crap customer service. As long as your unit is structurally sound then things will work out.

Phase 3 looks very promising.
 
I agree that this is all typical new build stuff I've dealt with. This is my 3rd brand new condo I've lived in (2 different developers, 3 different construction management firms), and the problems here seem standard. As TheKingEast said, these will get ironed out once the board gets into the swing of things.

Regarding the out-of-control parking on Trolley Crescent, this will only last as long as this is an unassumed road. Once it's conveyed to the City, they will then start ticketing and towing, just like any other street.

But really, it always surprises me the lengths people will go to in order to score free parking.

Now the real problem here is folks who refuse to clean up after their dogs. Or, worse, allows them to do their business in the bicycle storage room.
 
Nothing worse than irresponsible dog owners. If someone is caught letting their dog pee and shit in the building without cleaning t up, they should either lose their dog, be asked to move or be fined. Harsh of course, but irresponsible dog owners drive me nuts.
 
NBGtect said:
We have seen dog crap everywhere. The fourth floor is horrendous with urine stains that are never removed. The stairwells are prime places for dog urine too. Our condo docs said max. one dog. We see so many people with multiple dogs. Our point is that very little gets enforced. People have bikes and BBQs on their balconies against rules.

We don't believe that this normal. Our friends in other new buildings don't experience half the frustrations. The floors are never clean. The thresholds in front of all the doors in all the hallways have a protective film that should be removed. Looks horrendous. Everywhere!

You honestly think things will change? We felt that the developer should have produced a quality product for the money we paid. As it stands now, the Condo board will have to deal with a lot and they shouldn't have to. Property management should enforce rules.
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This is stuff that will get cleaned up though. You're still living in a condo that is still in transition. Once you vote in a board you will see that things will change after a while. I've lived in 5 brand new condos. At first there were major issues. Loud parties to garbage in the hallway to people parking wherever they wanted to the carpets not being cleaned. All that stuff was eventually taken care of once a board was in place.

I understand your frustrations. Trust me. I have my own with where I live (probably worse than yours since my issues can't be fixed). The things your'e talking about are typical of new condos...which is why I refuse to buy another brand new condo. I'm either going for resale or a house.

Things will get better. You just have to put them on your tarion form and bitch about it to the builder. I find they react once you bring up legal action.

PS: Property management while a condo's still under construction is pretty much useless.
 
I will echo TheKingEast - these are all very normal problems. This is the risk of buying a pre-construction condo - you buy a condo in today's prices, ready a few years from now, hoping that it will appreciate in the meantime and/or that you will have your pick of finishes and the feeling of getting a brand new unit. The trade off is exactly what you describe - developers who care only about the bottom line and not about their customers, people who forget how to show common courtesy to others (have you seen the garbage chute lately???!), and a less than effective property management and board, because they're new and still figuring everything out.

I agree it's terrible, but this is the system that we are in. Other jurisdictions don't allow interim occupancy and still others don't permit pre-sales of condos. Maybe that will fix some of our problems, and perhaps it won't, but what I can tell you with certainty is that UrbanCapital is no worse than any other developer out there.
 
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chriskayTO said:
I will echo TheKingEast - these are all very normal problems. This is the risk of buying a pre-construction condo - you buy a condo in today's prices, ready a few year's from now, hoping that it will appreciate in the meantime and/or that you will have your pick of finishes and the feeling of getting a brand new unit. The trade off is exactly what you describe - developers who care only about the bottom line and not about their customers, people who forget how to show common courtesy to others (have you seen the garbage chute lately???!), and a less than effective property management and board, because they're new and still figuring everything out.

I agree it's terrible, but this is the system that we are in. Other jurisdictions don't allow interim occupancy and still others don't permit pre-sales of condos. Maybe that will fix some of our problems, and perhaps it won't, but what I can tell you with certainty is that UrbanCapital is no worse than any other developer out there.
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Good point. Get rid of interim occupancy and either change Tarion or create an impartial replacement.

With regards to prop management. It will take a few years before things are "fixed" so you'll have to be patient. It's been a year and a half and we're still doing our building audit so...takes time.
 
NBGtect said:
A beautiful lobby should have gone where the window clings are located. But no, one has to walk through a parking lot with tons of dog crap to get to the worst maintained lobby we've seen in a brand new building. The smaller Lower River St building has the nicer lobby. Weird. People really need to question why the developer doesn't ever show renderings of interior common elements. Be warned for Phase 3.
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It'll get fixed up. Need a good year or so before everything's corrected.
 
Really, dude, you need to chill out and have some patience here. The "parking lot" you refer to is actually a street - an incomplete street. This will be completed in due course once phase 2 wraps up, and it will no longer be a "parking lot". In fact, you've probably noticed that the City has been aggressively ticketing people parking there illegally, which has made a huge difference over the past few weeks.

Again, these are all issues with buying a pre-construction condo. When you buy off plans, you have to take a gamble on details such as exact location and configuration of the lobby, entrances, etc, because you can't actually see them with your own eyes. Yes, some developers have detailed renderings and plans available, but those are always subject to change at the developer's whim as long as it doesn't offer a substantial change to your specific unit or the overall project. These clauses are detailed in your agreement, and you lawyer should have reviewed them with you.

I agree with TheKingEast - these will all be rectified, but it will take a year, possibly more because the building is very much tied to phase 2, to fully realize the benefit of completed grounds, unfettered access to Trolley Crescent, etc.
 
NBGtect said:
Okay, thank you for the advice. We will 'chill out' and have an extreme level of patience and tell all of our disgruntled neighbours (who have become friends) who have the extract same thoughts as us to do the same. It's obviously all of us and not the developer here who is to be given unsolicited advice. Again, thanks so much.
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I have a friend who lives in the building and he has no complaints. All of your complaints are well within the norm of living in a pre-construction condo. My friend was able to rent his place for a fraction of the cost of what it will cost when construction is completed; he's happy.
 
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