Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

Then, having had some interaction with a couple of thousand realtors over the years, and knowing many of them fairly well, expressed the thought that it was unlikely that any agent could stop the urge to share a rendering if they had one available....

Again, terribly sorry, having only had experience on the construction side of things where we routinely have access to confidential materials and somehow manage to respect our non-disclosure agreements it seemed unfathomable to think that anyone else involved in the process could be so unprofessional and disrespectful as to submit to their base desire for commissions and reveal information not yet approved for dissemination. But you clearly know realtors far better than anyone else on the board, and perhaps you're right about their character and underlying motivations.

Or, maybe as suggested, there's a single brokerage quietly handling sales to preferred clients who are buying primarily as investments. I'm not a realtor, I certainly haven't been in real estate for longer than I've been alive, and I have the business cards of several thousand fewer realtors than you do, but even I know that not all people who buy real estate are college kids looking for a bachelor pad with a fancy glass lobby and a clever marketing scheme. These are expensive units, and at this stage they're probably being marketed as assets, not homes or lifestyles. To be worthwhile as an asset buyers only really need to know about square footage, carrying costs, and potential appreciation on their units.

I'd imagine people buying in at this stage are probably on agreements with liberal escape clauses, and they're likely getting prices even below pre-construction pricing to make up for the fact that floorplans and elevations are still subject to change depending on the tender process. And given that everything is subject to change, why would anyone bother releasing any information about the tentative plans?

But more to the point, my post was relevant because you're using the non-existence of a rendering to argue that sales likely aren't proceeding. I'm telling you there may or may not be a fancy CGI rendering and animated fly-bys of the building, but there are definitely preliminary sketches, certainly detailed enough to make some discreet phone calls to respected buyers. And the people involved right now are not going to be the desperate yokel realtors that are a dime-a-dozen-thousand, they're going to be preferred clients that are sensible enough to not broadcast to the world that they've been given front of the line access to the project, especially with the brouhaha that happened with X2 (and Aura... and the original 1BE...) with respect to line-ups.
 
License revoked? what are you smoking? there is no builder out there that I am aware of, and I have been in the industry longer than some of you have been alive, who has such a punitive confidentiality clause in their contracts...and there is no way that OREA would back such an action....your post is amateur, and frankly, ludicrous.....

So I like to embellish a little bit. This is afterall all speculation. Forget rendering. AFAIK, no one has seen anything. If sales are being conducted and Great Gulf has informed their broker handling the sales to withhold any material from public eyes then, why would you think any of this information would make it to the interweb? What sort of amateurish agents have you been hanging around all these years? The type that show up boom time and wear their Re/Max pin proudly?
 
What sort of amateurish agents have you been hanging around all these years? The type that show up boom time and wear their Re/Max pin proudly?

I commend you for inserting the / but I believe the official logo is all capitals, RE/MAX. This made me chuckle though, I can see the image quite clearly.

I look forward to renderings making it to this thread and the general public but for now I guess we will all be entertained by the manhood measuring taking place, gentlemen, draw your swords.
 
Doesn't anyone on this forum have some kind of connection to Great Gulf in some way? Such a vast pool of forumers, I'm sure somebody has dealt with them and has heard something...no?
 
The starting price of smallest sized one bed room (500 sqf) from the lowest floor is $350,000. That translates to $700 per sqf, sound reasonable.

Is there anyone who can independently confirm lochlyn's claim here? One post and the thread goes berserk with speculation with nothing to support this claim. It just seems strange to me that this is all happening behind secret doors to people on some top-secret privileged list yet nothing has leaked. No offense lochlyn, it all just sounds a little unusual especially for such a high profile project.
 
Is there anyone who can independently confirm lochlyn's claim here? One post and the thread goes berserk with speculation with nothing to support this claim. It just seems strange to me that this is all happening behind secret doors to people on some top-secret privileged list yet nothing has leaked. No offense lochlyn, it all just sounds a little unusual especially for such a high profile project.

It happens. 426 University was selling before anyone had even seen the renderings. They did exist, and people who did purchase got to see them.
 
Good point, thank you.
 
How does one get on these lists? Just buy a lot of units over 10 years, or be a billionaire?
 
Typically there are family and friends pre-sales and then sales to major clients. Some investors on these priority lists purchase bulk orders of units from specific developers that they have relationships with and some of the top agents that are invited in the door early have large client lists that purchase in bulk (i.e. only a small minority of the top agents, not the heards that line up in the streets).

These two groups typically get in the door first as priorities and the units are geared towards that market segment. Following these pre-sales it gives the development team and their sales and marketing firm an opportunity to step back and re-evaluate the project and make any necessary tweaks or adjustments prior to the broader public launch and marketing campaign. This stage also can determine how quickly or slowly the development team must move forward on working drawings, construction related contracts, finalizing planning approvals and financial management issues. At this stage there are obviously a lot of professional people in the know, but they aren't going to spill the beans on public forums... (although as more people are brought in the loop that may change, for all I know the next post after mine will be a leaked rendering or price list or whatever).
 
Interesting. That all makes sense, thanks for the insight MikeInTO.
 
Typically there are family and friends pre-sales and then sales to major clients. Some investors on these priority lists purchase bulk orders of units from specific developers that they have relationships with and some of the top agents that are invited in the door early have large client lists that purchase in bulk (i.e. only a small minority of the top agents, not the heards that line up in the streets).

These two groups typically get in the door first as priorities and the units are geared towards that market segment. Following these pre-sales it gives the development team and their sales and marketing firm an opportunity to step back and re-evaluate the project and make any necessary tweaks or adjustments prior to the broader public launch and marketing campaign. This stage also can determine how quickly or slowly the development team must move forward on working drawings, construction related contracts, finalizing planning approvals and financial management issues. At this stage there are obviously a lot of professional people in the know, but they aren't going to spill the beans on public forums... (although as more people are brought in the loop that may change, for all I know the next post after mine will be a leaked rendering or price list or whatever).

Mike, might these pre-sales encourage the developer to increase (or decrease) the height of the building, or are those "tweaks" you mention minor?
 

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