Toronto The Livmore | 138.68m | 43s | Vertica | IBI Group

steveve · Oct 17, 2017

interchange42 said:
Wow, how did it come to be that your Mom was hangin' up toppa' the Shangri-La?

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She hangs with the right people

. It was for a viewing, and that particular unit is still on the market at 9.something million. As with similar high profile ‘super penthouses’ in similar buildings, many remain unsold for years following the building’s completion (as the case with the penthouse(s) at Number One Bloor, some penthouse units don’t hit the market until after the building is completed - One Bloor’s in particular is being launched with viewings now that the building is essentially complete). The ultra luxury condo market just is a little more tricky in Toronto’s case... this one, I was told, was even used recently for a film shoot, as the unit is fully furnished. I’d imagine something similar would have happened at the Trump/St. Regis penthouse in the years since, but that remains an empty shell... and yes, I missed out on this one!

interchange42 · Oct 17, 2017

The super penthouse is the only segment of the condo market in Toronto which is overbuilt, and a number of developers have finally figured this out; a number of buildings are now going up with the penthouse levels having exactly the same suites as all the floors below. The Shangri-La is one of those buildings where it makes perfect sense to have OTT suites up top, and I'm sure that they will eventually all sell, but it just doesn't make sense to have the balls-to-the-wall suites in buildings where 99% of the suites are everyday crash pads. Parade at CityPlace is an example: two slap-happy monster suites on the skybridge, hundreds and hundreds of shoebox suites in the rest of the development. The concerns of the average owner are not going to be the same as those of one of the two luxury sky mansions, so those patricians are not going to be represented well by Board decisions. If you've got the money, you buy in a building where others have similar concerns.

/ramble

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Yegger · Oct 17, 2017

This tower could really have used a few setbacks. As much as I like its glazing and darker look so far, I feel like the massing and the way the tower sits on the podium only exacerbate how overbearing it is from the street. Still a good looking development overall though.

modernizt · Oct 17, 2017

I think this is a rare case where a podium makes a tower far more overbearing than it would have been without one. The tower is sleek and straightforward, but the podium is heavy and overbearing.

interchange42 · Oct 17, 2017

modernizt said:
I think this is a rare case where a podium makes a tower far more overbearing than it would have been without one. The tower is sleek and straightforward, but the podium is heavy and overbearing.

For me, it'll all come down to the quality of the cladding applied to the concrete frames. If it's a deep but reflective black, what's currently a big minus might transfer into the plus column. With the quality of the glazing above, I feel there's some hope.

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