Brampton Symphony Condominiums | ?m | 23s | Inzola | GAT Arch

[DKsan]

Cumberland Developments, owned by prolific (and in recent years, controversial) Brampton developer John Cuttruzola, is proposing a new mixed-use development just north of the new Peel Memorial Health Centre. This is at the corner of Queen Street East and Lynch Street, just east of Downtown Brampton.

The architects will be Giovanni A. Tassone Architects. UT Database link.

City report starts on PDF page 5 HERE.

182 residential units (condos and apartments) and 1,054 square metres of commercial uses.

There's an existing 5 storey office building on site. Will be converted to residential and ground floor retail. The 1 storey restaurant on site will be demolished.

288 parking units.

Building A - Converted 5 storey office building
- 911 square metres of commercial space
- 42 residential rental apartments: 15 one bedroom units and 27 two bedroom units

Building B - 21 storey condo
- 143 square metres of ground floor retail
- 140 units: 64 one bedroom units and 76 two bedroom units

Concept Plan screenshot (PDF page 10- it's very high resolution so you might want to actually look at it)

Renders from south and north

 

[TOareaFan]

replacing this.

 

[ShonTron]

Looks promising, but Downtown Brampton has had trouble with new residential highrises, like the Blade at the Dominion Skate factory (though a new proposal is in the works), and the phase two of Mattamy's Rhythm near Kennedy Road. Hopefully, with the planned Etobicoke Creek Riverwalk and better amenities downtown, Brampton finally turns the corner.

 

[TOareaFan]

Looks promising, but Downtown Brampton has had trouble with new residential highrises, like the Blade at the Dominion Skate factory (though a new proposal is in the works), and the phase two of Mattamy's Rhythm near Kennedy Road. Hopefully, with the planned Etobicoke Creek Riverwalk and better amenities downtown, Brampton finally turns the corner.

Both of the bolded projects will likely see life as rental buildings rather than condo buildings.

I guess with this project and the Metrolinx purchase downtown, Brampton is turning the corner on it's high office vacancy rate....rather than swim up stream and try to attract office uses...you can lower the rate by converting office space to other uses

 

[DKsan]

I think with this being a Cuttruzola development, it's more likely to get built. Some of his, or his partners', projects have been built in recent years. The Queen/John condo for example, or that office building at Hurontario/Ray Lawson.

It helps that one of the buildings is a rental.

 

[TOareaFan]

I think with this being a Cuttruzola development, it's more likely to get built. Some of his, or his partners', projects have been built in recent years. The Queen/John condo for example, or that office building at Hurontario/Ray Lawson.

It helps that one of the buildings is a rental.

It's not that "no" condos can be built in Brampton....just that the market for condos, at the price needed to profit, is so shallow that the sales period is protracted. The last 10+ years has seen the GTHA have the biggest condo construction boom in any North American city....ever. The nearly complete lack of that impacting Brampton is so noticeable that the (very) few that have been built really become the exceptions that prove the rule. What have we seen? The one on George Street.....Cuttruzola's other project and Rhythm by Mattamy? Did I miss any? The building immediately south of Queen on Kennedy was converted to condo but the sales they achieved there were largely to existing tenants and I am not sure they ever fully sold out. So, unless I am missing any, if we include that conversion, the 3rd largest city in the GTA has seen a total of 4 new condos during this massive boom.

I know a lot of people love to blame the city and their political mess....but the fact is a lot of buildings have been approved during that time that, either, never saw the light of day because they could not sell units or are/will be converted to rental. Mattamy is in the market with the land for phase II of Rhythm and the buyers looking at that land are rental builders/owners. The proponents behind Blade are selling the building they are just completing on Clark...again, the potential buyers are all rental companies buying the entire building.....it is likely they will take the profit they earn (small as it will be) from that and repeat the effort at Blade.

Knowing a fair bit about how these buildings are financed, it is not clear that having a mixed rental/condo project will get both components built. It will mean the conversion of the existing buildings on site to a rental building can/will go ahead....but any condo construction lender is still going to want to see significant pre-sales before they allow the condo building out of the ground.

 

[DKsan]

Back on January 18, the city approved a Zoning By-Law and Official Plan amendment for this development. LINK to reports, starts on page 220)

It has also changed a bit since it was first proposed.

387 parking spots + 7 publicly owned street parking spaces on Queen.
4 levels of underground parking.

The office building that was proposed to be converted to residential will stay as office uses and will be expanded and "reskined."

Residential tower has been upped to 23 stories with 156 units.

Ground floor landscaping (page 230)

Colour render looking NW (page 231)

Colour render looking southwest (page 232)

http://www.brampton.ca/EN/City-Hall/meetings-agendas/PDD Committee 2010/20170213pdc_Agenda.pdfhttp://www.brampton.ca/EN/City-Hall/meetings-agendas/PDD Committee 2010/20170213pdc_Agenda.pdf

 

[TOareaFan]

^is the residential rental or condo?

 

[jje1000]

I wonder if the lower midrise repurposes & extends the existing office building on the site.

 

[PMT]

Symphony Condominiums: http://symphonycondos.ca/

 

[Edward Skira]

Under construction

 

[aadamttaylor]

 

[ShonTron]

The view from Lynch Street/Peel Memorial Hospital site:

 

[ShonTron]

The precast, setbacks, and curves help to mitigate the grey spandrel and mullions. It’s good to see the superstructure of the old office building incorporated as well, instead of simply demolished.

 

[emphurent]

From the GO a few moments ago:

One thing I always notice on the trip through Brampton is how much free space there is around the downtown to develop, whether it be parking lots or open fields. I can imagine all the empty land around being filled in and Brampton could have a super vibrant downtown.

Unfortunately though the development here is slow, and many just aren't architecturally living up to what should be here. It bugs me that Metrolinx will flatten a whole block of homes and turn it into a parking lot during a housing crisis. Like if they intend to sell it or build on it, now's the best time in the cities history. The location may not be the most ideal, but the GO station here deserves better. That's off topic though.