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

ShonTron said:
But at least College Park itself is a relatively successful retail environment, with Metro, Sobey's, Winners, and so on. I think the owners were dreaming when they expected a PATH connection from the south, but they should have at least expected a far better connection to College Park and the subway than what they ended up with.
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Undoubtedly. Like you said in your previous post, if this was purely a rental-retail building, the developer/landlord would have had big incentive to invest in a proper connection to College Park.

As a condo-retail, I do not see what other avenues the storeowners can take to get those necessary changes done, short of suing. May this be a lesson to all of us in Toronto.
 
Here's a good quote from that article that is relevant to a lot of discussion that happens on this forum in general:

For lawyer Ted Charney , who is not involved in the lawsuit against Aura but has represented condo owners in other disputes with developers, the Shops at Aura appear to be yet another example of when a project’s description falls short of reality.

He said developers are “notorious for including a standard clause in the purchase agreement that says unless they make the promise in the agreement, you can’t rely on it.

“They can promise you the moon in marketing materials and the presentation centre, but when you sign the agreement all of those promises that occurred before you signed, it’s as if they never existed,” he said.
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ShonTron said:
I think the owners were dreaming when they expected a PATH connection from the south, but they should have at least expected a far better connection to College Park and the subway than what they ended up with.
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Apparently the connection to College Park is owned by GWL Realty, the owners of College Park. They're the ones who decided on the crash doors it seems.

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I saw the marketing pictures that were online; it had little to do with what we have now. Small and unsophisticated investors were overly impressed by those marketing materials and didn't pay enough attention to objective evidence about what was really offered to them.
 
I think it will ultimately take one or a small handful of parties buying the entire mall at a discount before major renovations can be done to put something attractive down there. I see an ultimate future as a club or entertainment venue of some kind.
 
If I was a retail landlord with this property, I'd have a few ideas of how to fix it:
  • Move the food court closer to the main entrance and improve the sightlines downstairs.
  • Pay for GWL to improve the connection. Build better, glass doors and improve the lighting.
  • Maybe turn the whole thing into a giant underground food court. Attract specialty restaurants and bakeries that could draw people in by word of mouth. There's one Japanese curry vendor that's quite popular down there. More of that could help.
  • Convert it into nightclub space. It's separated enough from the residential areas so noise wouldn't affect residents.
  • Or see if a big-box retailer would be interested in the space, like a furniture store (it'd complement BB&B/Marshall's).
But as a condominium development, any of these fixes are extremely difficult to implement.
 
Ramako said:
I think it will ultimately take one or a small handful of parties buying the entire mall at a discount before major renovations can be done to put something attractive down there. I see an ultimate future as a club or entertainment venue of some kind.
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There are 122 units in this basement. The two units listed in the article were purchased for $356,000 and $435,000 respectively. Let's average that out to $395,000 average selling price. $395,000 * 122 units = $48 million.

Due to the failures of the mall, over 50% vacancy rate and the probable desire for these investors and shopowners to leave, I am sure the potential investor would be able to acquire this basement for significantly less. Even then, that is still a pretty significant sum for a potential investor.

A club or entertainment venue future would be interesting, with the proximity of the subway stations to the north and south.
 
ShonTron said:
If I was a retail landlord with this property, I'd have a few ideas of how to fix it:
  • Move the food court closer to the main entrance and improve the sightlines downstairs.
  • Pay for GWL to improve the connection. Build better, glass doors and improve the lighting.
  • Maybe turn the whole thing into a giant underground food court. Attract specialty restaurants and bakeries that could draw people in by word of mouth. There's one Japanese curry vendor that's quite popular down there. More of that could help.
  • Convert it into nightclub space. It's separated enough from the residential areas so noise wouldn't affect residents.
  • Or see if a big-box retailer would be interested in the space, like a furniture store (it'd complement BB&B/Marshall's).
But as a condominium development, any of these fixes are extremely difficult to implement.
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These are good ideas. GWL might have no interest in improving the connection, even if the Aura owner(s) are willing to foot the bill. And a nightclub might not be a permitted use in the zoning. But that is the kind of thinking they need to salvage this space.
 
WislaHD said:
Due to the failures of the mall, over 50% vacancy rate and the probable desire for these investors and shopowners to leave, I am sure the potential investor would be able to acquire this basement for significantly less. Even then, that is still a pretty significant sum for a potential investor.
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Not to mention the difficulty in trying to get 122 unitholders to sell to you. Notwithstanding how crappy business is, some owners will inevitably hold out for unreasonable amounts of money, thinking they have leverage. You would need at least 80% of the owners and parties with registered claims against any of the units to consent in order to force a sale of the entire concourse. Might be akin to herding cats.
 
ShonTron said:
I bet if this wasn't condo retail, and there was a landlord who was worried about vacancies and retaining tenants, there'd be at least a better connection with College Park and improvements to the layout. As a condo, it's very hard to make any changes. I feel very badly for the owners who bought units down there.
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That's exactly right! If the developer was the owner of the retail portion, they would have never designed it or built it to this terribly low standard. It was practically designed to fail. It's a horrible place to walk, so it's no wonder it's failing. The link to Collage Park is totally unacceptable. Whenever I go there, I will go outside to walk to Collage Park, instead of taking the indoor connection. I think the store owners are justified in suing. If I was them, I would do the same. This mall is a disaster on every level. (inside & out) The developer made no effort whatsoever, to even attempt to make the retail successful. The fact that this is a new building on Yonge Street, blows my mind.
 
The whole situation is unfortunate, but not altogether surprising. I was shocked at how poorly constructed the retail portions of Aura are - the finishes feel cheap and not built to last. I shudder to think how the rest of the building fares.
 
If they had placed the food court on the second floor and had a big box store anchor the basement level instead, it might have helped bring in more traffic overall. As is, I'm surprised that the existing food vendors, other than the curry place, have survived as long as they have. The wayfinding down there is abysmal and it just feels so dreary and oppressive.
 
I don't frequent the area often, and during an impromptu visit to Bed, Baths, and Beyond over the holidays, I can't recall signage for the mall at all. I honestly didn't realize there was a mall downstairs!

I guess the big signage of BBB really detracts away from anything else.
 
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