CGM
Active Member
Though I didn't know how it would be illuminated, you can see from the renderings that it is parts of the design
Toronto Festival Tower and tiff Bell Lightbox | 156.96m | 42s | Daniels | KPMB
Evan
Active Member
The crown is curtainwall and not exposed concrete, correct?
khris
Senior Member
That could also just be his impression of the render, as it does appear to be lit from within.
CGM
Active Member
Lamest attempt ever.
khris
Senior Member
Wow thanks for the new photo update. It's really changing the feel of the area in the pictures!
Mike in TO
Senior Member
I could be wrong, but if I recall correctly it wasn't the entire crown that was to be lit by Michael Snow's design, but just the 'fin' portion that sticks out vertically on one side of the crown.
re: RoCP: I agree, but at least it's a start and may encourage more inspired attempts to illuminate some towers more tastefully in the future.
The Minto test concepts run last winter looked good, I guess we'll see what the entire complex looks like once everything is complete. I've attached a photo taken during a winter storm last January.
condovo
Senior Member
Wow. Progress on Lightbox that's actually noticeable to the naked eye. Thanks for posting.
T-Squared
Active Member
Thanks for the pic. I walked by the other day and never really noticed how long the block is across King until construction has finally picked up!
yyzer
Senior Member
Property Report: MIXED USE
From car wash to new home of the stars
Partners in new TIFF headquarters say it will raise the bar in a sometimes rowdy Toronto party zone
INGRID PHANEUF
Special to The Globe and Mail
September 2, 2008
TORONTO -- It's a year before builders aim to call it a wrap on the Toronto International Film Festival's new headquarters, and creative differences have arisen between the "director" - architect Bruce Kuwabara - and the "producer" - King and John Festival Corp.
The issue is whether an outdoor staircase connecting the rooftop of the five-storey Bell Lightbox movie theatre with the pool area of the Festival Tower condominiums should be accessible to both Bell Lightbox visitors and Tower residents - or closed to all. Mr. Kuwabara wants it open. King and John has other ideas. And so it goes.
It's certainly not a show-stopper. Indeed, it's but a minor hitch considering the differing aims of the commercial and cultural partners who have spearheaded the mixed-used development rising from a former parking lot three blocks north of the CN Tower.
As movie stars and film lovers fan out across the city this Thursday for the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), they might include a side trip to the construction site to scope out what should be the hub of activity for the festival this time next year.
TIFF's fundraising campaign - the target totals $196-million - is on track, as are the construction schedule and condominium sales, partners say.
"We have another $50-million left to raise, so there is a sense of urgency," TIFF co-director Noah Cowan conceded. "But as the funding campaign is composed of three parts - capital, endowment and operating funds - we have various ways of recombining these amounts so we can stay on schedule."
Festival organizers are hoping events at this year's TIFF will yield more contributions. "There's no better opportunity than the upcoming festival to showcase to our donors and prospective donors what we can do," Mr. Cowan said.
He stopped short of comparing raising money for Bell Lightbox with that of producing a film. "Donating philanthropic moneys for a top-notch global organization is far less risky than investing in a film. We don't call our donors investors."
That is, with the exception of the Reitman family - the filmmaker Ivan and his sisters Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels. They are wearing two hats: as donors to the TIFF fundraising campaign and as joint venture partners with Toronto home builder Daniels Corp. in King and John Corp., which is developing the 41-storey condo tower above Bell Lightbox.
"I bought a penthouse there myself," Mr. Reitman said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Part of King and John's $22-million donation consists of the land that the project occupies, until recently a parking lot, but the site of a car wash when Klara and Leslie Reitman purchased it in the early 1960s.
Mr. Reitman calls the fruition of his parents' vision for the area "the culmination of a great immigrant story." They came to Canada from Ukraine after escaping the Holocaust, "penniless and not even able to speak the language," he said.
"My parents would be incredibly proud of what we're doing today, because when he purchased the car wash over 50 years ago, he said the city would come back to the area one day. And he was right."
The area, now known as the Entertainment District, has come back with a roar - some would say too much of a roar. There have been complaints about noise and rowdy patrons at the many bars and clubs that have sprung up over several blocks in the past 15 years. But the TIFF partners believe their project will bring a sense of maturity to the district.
Mr. Reitman says it will be "a centrepiece for the Entertainment District, providing not only a focus for two weeks in September, but all year long."
Thomas Dutton, senior vice-president at Daniels, isn't worried about the effect of the district's reputation on condo sales. "Selling in the Entertainment District has not been an issue for us at all; neither from the point of view of people who want to live there, who see it as an exciting, dynamic area, nor when it comes to construction. We've suffered no vandalism," he said, adding that 80 to 85 per cent of the condos are sold.
Daniels' donation to Bell Lightbox, through King and John, consists of management fees during construction, Mr. Dutton explained.
He expects the theatre will raise the district's tone.
"The area is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be," he said. "Most of the night life areas are further north around Richmond and Adelaide. If you walk along King Street, there are several excellent individually owned restaurants, theatres, Roy Thomson Hall, Holiday Inn, Mountain Equipment Co-op and offices, so it's fairly stable.
"But I do think the project will bring a certain momentum and raise the whole standard for the area, because TIFF will be running programs all year long."
Mr. Kuwabara, a partner in Toronto-based Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, agrees.
"It just feels great being in the city during the film festival, and having all that activity focused in this area not only for 10 [days] but for 365 days a year will be incredible," he said in an interview at his office, which overlooks the construction site.
In designing Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower, Mr. Kuwabara said he aimed to create a modernist structure that is "highly animated at street level" - with a bistro, retail boutiques and TIFF-run gift shop, lobby and museum at ground level. Screening rooms, archives, workshop areas, bar, restaurant and offices occupy the floors above. The second floor restaurant and a bistro downstairs will remain the property of King and John.
Mr. Kuwabara calls Bell Lightbox "a city of film unto itself," and his design indulges his love of films: A flight of stairs referencing the stepped roof of the Villa Malaparte on the Mediterranean island of Capri - where Jean-Luc Goddard shot his 1963 film Contempt, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance - sweeps up from the rooftop terrace to the condo's pool area.
Mr. Kuwabara's fingers stroked the staircase of an architectural model of the project. He bemoaned the notion that the stairs connecting Bell Lightbox with Festival Tower probably will be cordoned off. "It ruins the continuity."
And so it goes.
*****
The credits roll
It's not quite a cast of thousands, but financial support for Bell Lightbox, the new home for the Toronto International Film Festival, runs far and wide:
The Governments of Canada and Ontario - $25-million each.
The Reitman family and Daniels Corp. through their joint venture King and John Festival Corp. - $22-million.
Other donors, which include several individuals and corporations: Visa Inc., the Copyright Collective of Canada, NBC Universal Canada, the Allan Slaight family, the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and TIFF's board of directors, staff and volunteers have also contributed.
Corporate sponsors for Bell Lightbox include:
Bell Canada, which has naming rights and preferred supplier status through 2018, with an option through 2023.
Royal Bank of Canada is a major sponsor and the official bank.
From car wash to new home of the stars
Partners in new TIFF headquarters say it will raise the bar in a sometimes rowdy Toronto party zone
INGRID PHANEUF
Special to The Globe and Mail
September 2, 2008
TORONTO -- It's a year before builders aim to call it a wrap on the Toronto International Film Festival's new headquarters, and creative differences have arisen between the "director" - architect Bruce Kuwabara - and the "producer" - King and John Festival Corp.
The issue is whether an outdoor staircase connecting the rooftop of the five-storey Bell Lightbox movie theatre with the pool area of the Festival Tower condominiums should be accessible to both Bell Lightbox visitors and Tower residents - or closed to all. Mr. Kuwabara wants it open. King and John has other ideas. And so it goes.
It's certainly not a show-stopper. Indeed, it's but a minor hitch considering the differing aims of the commercial and cultural partners who have spearheaded the mixed-used development rising from a former parking lot three blocks north of the CN Tower.
As movie stars and film lovers fan out across the city this Thursday for the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), they might include a side trip to the construction site to scope out what should be the hub of activity for the festival this time next year.
TIFF's fundraising campaign - the target totals $196-million - is on track, as are the construction schedule and condominium sales, partners say.
"We have another $50-million left to raise, so there is a sense of urgency," TIFF co-director Noah Cowan conceded. "But as the funding campaign is composed of three parts - capital, endowment and operating funds - we have various ways of recombining these amounts so we can stay on schedule."
Festival organizers are hoping events at this year's TIFF will yield more contributions. "There's no better opportunity than the upcoming festival to showcase to our donors and prospective donors what we can do," Mr. Cowan said.
He stopped short of comparing raising money for Bell Lightbox with that of producing a film. "Donating philanthropic moneys for a top-notch global organization is far less risky than investing in a film. We don't call our donors investors."
That is, with the exception of the Reitman family - the filmmaker Ivan and his sisters Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels. They are wearing two hats: as donors to the TIFF fundraising campaign and as joint venture partners with Toronto home builder Daniels Corp. in King and John Corp., which is developing the 41-storey condo tower above Bell Lightbox.
"I bought a penthouse there myself," Mr. Reitman said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Part of King and John's $22-million donation consists of the land that the project occupies, until recently a parking lot, but the site of a car wash when Klara and Leslie Reitman purchased it in the early 1960s.
Mr. Reitman calls the fruition of his parents' vision for the area "the culmination of a great immigrant story." They came to Canada from Ukraine after escaping the Holocaust, "penniless and not even able to speak the language," he said.
"My parents would be incredibly proud of what we're doing today, because when he purchased the car wash over 50 years ago, he said the city would come back to the area one day. And he was right."
The area, now known as the Entertainment District, has come back with a roar - some would say too much of a roar. There have been complaints about noise and rowdy patrons at the many bars and clubs that have sprung up over several blocks in the past 15 years. But the TIFF partners believe their project will bring a sense of maturity to the district.
Mr. Reitman says it will be "a centrepiece for the Entertainment District, providing not only a focus for two weeks in September, but all year long."
Thomas Dutton, senior vice-president at Daniels, isn't worried about the effect of the district's reputation on condo sales. "Selling in the Entertainment District has not been an issue for us at all; neither from the point of view of people who want to live there, who see it as an exciting, dynamic area, nor when it comes to construction. We've suffered no vandalism," he said, adding that 80 to 85 per cent of the condos are sold.
Daniels' donation to Bell Lightbox, through King and John, consists of management fees during construction, Mr. Dutton explained.
He expects the theatre will raise the district's tone.
"The area is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be," he said. "Most of the night life areas are further north around Richmond and Adelaide. If you walk along King Street, there are several excellent individually owned restaurants, theatres, Roy Thomson Hall, Holiday Inn, Mountain Equipment Co-op and offices, so it's fairly stable.
"But I do think the project will bring a certain momentum and raise the whole standard for the area, because TIFF will be running programs all year long."
Mr. Kuwabara, a partner in Toronto-based Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, agrees.
"It just feels great being in the city during the film festival, and having all that activity focused in this area not only for 10 [days] but for 365 days a year will be incredible," he said in an interview at his office, which overlooks the construction site.
In designing Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower, Mr. Kuwabara said he aimed to create a modernist structure that is "highly animated at street level" - with a bistro, retail boutiques and TIFF-run gift shop, lobby and museum at ground level. Screening rooms, archives, workshop areas, bar, restaurant and offices occupy the floors above. The second floor restaurant and a bistro downstairs will remain the property of King and John.
Mr. Kuwabara calls Bell Lightbox "a city of film unto itself," and his design indulges his love of films: A flight of stairs referencing the stepped roof of the Villa Malaparte on the Mediterranean island of Capri - where Jean-Luc Goddard shot his 1963 film Contempt, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance - sweeps up from the rooftop terrace to the condo's pool area.
Mr. Kuwabara's fingers stroked the staircase of an architectural model of the project. He bemoaned the notion that the stairs connecting Bell Lightbox with Festival Tower probably will be cordoned off. "It ruins the continuity."
And so it goes.
*****
The credits roll
It's not quite a cast of thousands, but financial support for Bell Lightbox, the new home for the Toronto International Film Festival, runs far and wide:
The Governments of Canada and Ontario - $25-million each.
The Reitman family and Daniels Corp. through their joint venture King and John Festival Corp. - $22-million.
Other donors, which include several individuals and corporations: Visa Inc., the Copyright Collective of Canada, NBC Universal Canada, the Allan Slaight family, the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and TIFF's board of directors, staff and volunteers have also contributed.
Corporate sponsors for Bell Lightbox include:
Bell Canada, which has naming rights and preferred supplier status through 2018, with an option through 2023.
Royal Bank of Canada is a major sponsor and the official bank.
yyzer
Senior Member
and some interesting info regarding the two restaurants which will be in the podium...from today's Star...
Dinner and a movie
A suite in the Festival Tower will leave owners star-struck – and living in the lap of celebrity. Rita Zekas reports from the red carpet, CO6
September 6, 2008
Rita Zekas
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
It's the Toronto International Film Festival and the city is swarming with celebrities this week – everyone from Alan Alda to Renée Zellweger.
But if you bought a condo at Festival Tower at John and King Sts. – a dramatic 42-storey condominium residence atop the Bell Lightbox, the new permanent home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group – you could be living in the lap of celebrity every day.
There are Hepburn, Poitier, Freeman and DiCaprio penthouses and, depending on who you want to sleep with, there are suites named Douglas, Nicholson, Monroe, Keaton, Jolie, Hayworth, Pacino, Brando, Eastwood, Chaplin, Bardot, Bacall, Loren, Sarandon, Redford, Garland, Hoffman and Duvall.
Director/producer Ivan Reitman bought one. We would have thought the Eastwood, but his is the Poitier, because the floor plan suited him.
Guess who's coming to dinner? Poitier just happens to be a friend.
Reitman will be inviting other boldfaced names over but won't divulge who. There are other celeb tenants, but their privacy is respected.
The architects are Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, but it's the Reitman family and The Daniels Corp. that made it happen. Reitman furnished the site, formerly Farb's Car Wash, the family business run by his parents Clara and Leslie Reitman.
The Festival Tower is an homage to his parents. His sisters, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels, are also involved.
Reitman, who was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Canada at age four with his family, visits Toronto four or five times a year, always for the film festival. He has relatives here and in Montreal, where he lived before he moved to California after producing Animal House in 1978. He now resides in Santa Barbara.
"My father had a dry-cleaning business and he saw an opportunity at King St. 40 years ago and scraped together the money to buy the land," Reitman explains. "My sisters and I questioned that because it is a tough business and he started it in his 50s or older. He talked about selling the land and I bought into the business after Animal House."
During the last 10 to 15 years of their lives, he says, his parents spent the winters in Florida. Farb's closed down and became a parking lot.
"After (my parents) both passed away, we were looking for a tribute to them and their extraordinary lives. I knew that TIFF was looking for a home and the movie business has been good to me. TIFF occupies a special place in the lives of Torontonians and it seemed appropriate. It's a great location for them and we decided to contribute the land.
"Developers approached us on a regular basis, but it didn't seem the right fit," Reitman says.
He interviewed several development companies, and finally found the right match with The Daniels Corp., creators of more than 18,000 homes and condos across the GTA.
"Daniels was sympathetic to the same goals and they are great builders," he said. "We embarked on a great adventure to build a wonderful place to live in downtown Toronto and to experience the film festival experience all year round."
TIFFG operates year-round with initiatives such as Cinematheque and the Sprockets International Film Festival for Children.
With the completion of its 150,000-square-foot home, Bell Lightbox will house five theatres as well as a film library and archive, meeting places and two galleries.
So a former carwash will be awash with glitz and cinema.
Think location, location, location: It's in the heart of the entertainment and eatery district at John and King Sts., near the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales and Royal Alex theatres and right in restaurant row, featuring everything from submarine sandwiches to Susur Lee's latest and the hot new Spice Route upscale Chinese resto.
Accessible from the two-storey lobby is a restaurant presided over by Oliver & Bonacini, partners in six restos including Jump, Canoe and Auberge du Pommier.
"On the ground floor is a 140-seat, all-day market bistro café," that will open at 6:30 a.m. until 1 or 2 a.m., says Michael Bonacini. "It's more of a laid-back atmosphere with takeout, take-home, a quick grab to go. It caters to the condo dwellers in the community heading to work who can get their lattés or have a healthy breakfast to eat en route or pick up a sandwich for lunch. We'll have a unique breakfast menu that you can eat in as well. If you come home late from work and don't feel like cooking, you can pick up a prepared meal to heat in the condo kitchen. There is also a patio of 70 seats with a small bar."
It sounds like Pusateri is moving downtown.
"On the second floor, there is another restaurant, an artisanal resto with 130 seats that is chef-centric and will feature local, organic, homegrown produce from a small grower," he continues. "On the first floor, you'll be able to go and get a terrific burger with a delicious sauvignon blanc or a braised lamb shank with a cabernet. It will be popular with theatre-goers and people who live in the 'hood. It is casual, informal dining; the finer dining is on the second floor. It is more upscale – not as upscale as Canoe but just above Jump."
They will also provide food service to the condos.
"If you want to have a dinner party or Sunday brunch, you could have the osso bucco delivered to your suite. It's almost like living in a five-star hotel."
They plan to have all this in place by April 2010, he says. Condo occupancy is fall 2010.
The FT has other five-star amenities as well, such as a private 24-hour-a-day concierge. A second lobby on the 10th floor is home to the Resident Services director, who provides services such as dog walking or dry cleaning.
The Tower Club on the 10th and 11th floors has a pool centre, library, spa, sports lounge and fitness centre. The condo also has a fully equipped Tower Cinema, with seating for up to 55 people, which is so state-of-the-art the TIFFG will use it for screenings.
"There is a super deluxe screening room for residents and guests for DVD to film reel," says Simona Annibale, director of marketing for Daniels.
Annibale says that although 80 per cent of the units are sold, a select few have been withheld until Sept. 13. There are still two or three of the dozen penthouses left.
"The release is a two-punch thing," Annibale explains. "They are at the base of the building and close to the action."
Response has been great, she says, and reflects "a real mix of people."
"Young professionals; first-time buyers; move-up and move-down buyers – it's a more sophisticated building."
And some have even bought without parking. They may be planning to avail themselves of the tower's auto-share option.
The Poitier penthouse is far from Ivan Reitman's first foray into real estate.
"I bought an office building in L.A. and 600 apartments in Nevada, but this is the first time I've bought a highrise that is this elaborate," he says.
Reitman has a film coming out in January and three others in development, but none in the festival.
"My son (Jason, director of previous fest films Thank You for Smoking and Juno) doesn't either. He's coming with me to the festival and he'll probably feel a let-down."
Jason can always chat up fest guest George Clooney, who is in talks to star in Jason's new film Up in the Air, which is about a corporate downsizer consumed with collecting air miles, but the title could apply to his father's FT condo.
Dinner and a movie
A suite in the Festival Tower will leave owners star-struck – and living in the lap of celebrity. Rita Zekas reports from the red carpet, CO6
September 6, 2008
Rita Zekas
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
It's the Toronto International Film Festival and the city is swarming with celebrities this week – everyone from Alan Alda to Renée Zellweger.
But if you bought a condo at Festival Tower at John and King Sts. – a dramatic 42-storey condominium residence atop the Bell Lightbox, the new permanent home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group – you could be living in the lap of celebrity every day.
There are Hepburn, Poitier, Freeman and DiCaprio penthouses and, depending on who you want to sleep with, there are suites named Douglas, Nicholson, Monroe, Keaton, Jolie, Hayworth, Pacino, Brando, Eastwood, Chaplin, Bardot, Bacall, Loren, Sarandon, Redford, Garland, Hoffman and Duvall.
Director/producer Ivan Reitman bought one. We would have thought the Eastwood, but his is the Poitier, because the floor plan suited him.
Guess who's coming to dinner? Poitier just happens to be a friend.
Reitman will be inviting other boldfaced names over but won't divulge who. There are other celeb tenants, but their privacy is respected.
The architects are Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, but it's the Reitman family and The Daniels Corp. that made it happen. Reitman furnished the site, formerly Farb's Car Wash, the family business run by his parents Clara and Leslie Reitman.
The Festival Tower is an homage to his parents. His sisters, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels, are also involved.
Reitman, who was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Canada at age four with his family, visits Toronto four or five times a year, always for the film festival. He has relatives here and in Montreal, where he lived before he moved to California after producing Animal House in 1978. He now resides in Santa Barbara.
"My father had a dry-cleaning business and he saw an opportunity at King St. 40 years ago and scraped together the money to buy the land," Reitman explains. "My sisters and I questioned that because it is a tough business and he started it in his 50s or older. He talked about selling the land and I bought into the business after Animal House."
During the last 10 to 15 years of their lives, he says, his parents spent the winters in Florida. Farb's closed down and became a parking lot.
"After (my parents) both passed away, we were looking for a tribute to them and their extraordinary lives. I knew that TIFF was looking for a home and the movie business has been good to me. TIFF occupies a special place in the lives of Torontonians and it seemed appropriate. It's a great location for them and we decided to contribute the land.
"Developers approached us on a regular basis, but it didn't seem the right fit," Reitman says.
He interviewed several development companies, and finally found the right match with The Daniels Corp., creators of more than 18,000 homes and condos across the GTA.
"Daniels was sympathetic to the same goals and they are great builders," he said. "We embarked on a great adventure to build a wonderful place to live in downtown Toronto and to experience the film festival experience all year round."
TIFFG operates year-round with initiatives such as Cinematheque and the Sprockets International Film Festival for Children.
With the completion of its 150,000-square-foot home, Bell Lightbox will house five theatres as well as a film library and archive, meeting places and two galleries.
So a former carwash will be awash with glitz and cinema.
Think location, location, location: It's in the heart of the entertainment and eatery district at John and King Sts., near the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales and Royal Alex theatres and right in restaurant row, featuring everything from submarine sandwiches to Susur Lee's latest and the hot new Spice Route upscale Chinese resto.
Accessible from the two-storey lobby is a restaurant presided over by Oliver & Bonacini, partners in six restos including Jump, Canoe and Auberge du Pommier.
"On the ground floor is a 140-seat, all-day market bistro café," that will open at 6:30 a.m. until 1 or 2 a.m., says Michael Bonacini. "It's more of a laid-back atmosphere with takeout, take-home, a quick grab to go. It caters to the condo dwellers in the community heading to work who can get their lattés or have a healthy breakfast to eat en route or pick up a sandwich for lunch. We'll have a unique breakfast menu that you can eat in as well. If you come home late from work and don't feel like cooking, you can pick up a prepared meal to heat in the condo kitchen. There is also a patio of 70 seats with a small bar."
It sounds like Pusateri is moving downtown.
"On the second floor, there is another restaurant, an artisanal resto with 130 seats that is chef-centric and will feature local, organic, homegrown produce from a small grower," he continues. "On the first floor, you'll be able to go and get a terrific burger with a delicious sauvignon blanc or a braised lamb shank with a cabernet. It will be popular with theatre-goers and people who live in the 'hood. It is casual, informal dining; the finer dining is on the second floor. It is more upscale – not as upscale as Canoe but just above Jump."
They will also provide food service to the condos.
"If you want to have a dinner party or Sunday brunch, you could have the osso bucco delivered to your suite. It's almost like living in a five-star hotel."
They plan to have all this in place by April 2010, he says. Condo occupancy is fall 2010.
The FT has other five-star amenities as well, such as a private 24-hour-a-day concierge. A second lobby on the 10th floor is home to the Resident Services director, who provides services such as dog walking or dry cleaning.
The Tower Club on the 10th and 11th floors has a pool centre, library, spa, sports lounge and fitness centre. The condo also has a fully equipped Tower Cinema, with seating for up to 55 people, which is so state-of-the-art the TIFFG will use it for screenings.
"There is a super deluxe screening room for residents and guests for DVD to film reel," says Simona Annibale, director of marketing for Daniels.
Annibale says that although 80 per cent of the units are sold, a select few have been withheld until Sept. 13. There are still two or three of the dozen penthouses left.
"The release is a two-punch thing," Annibale explains. "They are at the base of the building and close to the action."
Response has been great, she says, and reflects "a real mix of people."
"Young professionals; first-time buyers; move-up and move-down buyers – it's a more sophisticated building."
And some have even bought without parking. They may be planning to avail themselves of the tower's auto-share option.
The Poitier penthouse is far from Ivan Reitman's first foray into real estate.
"I bought an office building in L.A. and 600 apartments in Nevada, but this is the first time I've bought a highrise that is this elaborate," he says.
Reitman has a film coming out in January and three others in development, but none in the festival.
"My son (Jason, director of previous fest films Thank You for Smoking and Juno) doesn't either. He's coming with me to the festival and he'll probably feel a let-down."
Jason can always chat up fest guest George Clooney, who is in talks to star in Jason's new film Up in the Air, which is about a corporate downsizer consumed with collecting air miles, but the title could apply to his father's FT condo.
Whoaccio
Senior Member
I kind of want a zoning bylaw to prohibit idiotic floor plan naming.
rdaner
Senior Member
I want a bylaw ensuring that the rooftop staircase is open to the public.
adma
Superstar
Too bad there isn't a Sonny Tufts suite...
urbandreamer
recession proof
9 September 2008 photo update
Pano to come later....
Pano to come later....