The Downtown Condo Thread

[Mys73ri0]

Has anyone checked out 6th and Tenth or Vogue recently? And their thoughts on those 2 buildings

[Frankie88]

Vogue are built by Le Caille, who built a nice condo in 888, 4th Ave called Solarie.

6th and 10th built by Brad Lamb's group who comes from Toronto, used to be a high end condo broker in GTA

[Frankie88]

Originally posted by Euro_Trash
Anyone know what the 2 bed/2 bath/den/2 parking stalls was originally selling for at Waterfront?

They are now still selling large 2 beds+den for 800K plus, I own 2 2bed suites and bought it for 550K each(including GST)

[flipstah]

Originally posted by Frankie88


They are now still selling large 2 beds+den for 800K plus, I own 2 2bed suites and bought it for 550K each(including GST)

Damn, that's a hefty increase. Still <$300 condo fee?

[Frankie88]

Originally posted by flipstah


Damn, that's a hefty increase. Still &lt;$300 condo fee?

sr

Sorry I should have been a little bit more precise, the price actually dropped. My 2 suites are both 914 SQ, were selling @ 600K something on grand openning and it started to drop, they dropped another 75K the week before I bought it since they need to start phrase 3 in this spring.

my condo fee is $498/monthly for each unit

[flipstah]

Six and 10th 2 bedrooms+den start at $400's

[Elipses]

Any news on Brad Lambs project, last I heard they were having a hard time with sales?

[vengie]

What's everyone's thoughts on the keynote development??

[Mys73ri0]

i was looking in that area recently...

just a couple of quick notes...

the bottle depot is right beside 6th & 10th. Some people will see this as a major downside. Rumour has it their lease isn't up until 2020. The new mustard is supposed to be built 1 block from Keynote.

When I went to take a quick look at 6th & 10th I'd say about 30% of units had the red dot.

Also, 6th is really close to the train tracks - I lived in Vantage Pointe previously, and I seem to remember the area by th 6th & 10th was the area that the trains always honked their horns

either way, I've seem to find that with any of the new developments I'm paying a huge premium for self closing cabintets and granite.

[rob the knob]

Condo project, bottle depot on collision course

High-end building could become uneasy neighbour

BY JASON MARKUSOFF, CALGARY HERALD OCTOBER 9, 2012

4

STORYPHOTOS ( 2 )



Glen earns about $80 from three days of working laneways in Bankview. The Uptown Bottle Depot he uses is next to a planned condo tower.
Photograph by: Stuart Gradon , Calgary Herald
CALGARY — Glen files out of the Uptown Bottle Depot, with his giant plastic tub fixed onto an empty stroller frame and $80 from three days of working the laneways in Bankview. After his disability benefits cover rent and some food, this is money for his tobacco and cat food for his six pets.

A Drop-In Centre shelter resident walks in with a bag of mostly Bow Valley Lager empties, and emerges with $2.05 toward his next six-pack.

Next door sits a new building, sleek and glassy on every side but the windowless edge facing the depot. Inside, tidily dressed reps sell units for the stylish 31-storey condo tower will soon rise on that site, whose developer aspires to lead a high-end transformation of that stretch of 10th Avenue S.W.

The venerable linchpin of the bottle-pickers’ economy next to the latest symbol of Calgary’s gentrification and inner-city renaissance: Can two such unlikely next-door neighbours last?

The depot’s landowner doesn’t see why not, with a 10-year lease good until 2020 with a rent adjustment in 2015, when the highrise named 6th and 10th is set to open. Moving it elsewhere in the core would be extremely difficult in a city where new communities greet new bottle depots with the same unease as a halfway house or drug addiction treatment centre.

But to Brad Lamb, the condo project’s Toronto developer, the progress he’s helping bring is a wave that will dislodge the lower-end business next door.

“People can’t be so narrow-minded to believe that a business that makes its money from redeeming bottles is going to have the economic strength to stay in an area where there’s a $100-million building going in next door, there’s a $100-million office building going one block east, and there’s about a $1-billion development across the street,” Lamb said.

“Of course the sheer pressure of humanity is going to force that to go.”

He’s asked about buying the bottle centre, but Lamb said the price was prohibitive. He said condo dwellers will have to decide whether they’re OK living for at least a while next to an ultimately safe and benign facility.

Inside the 6th and 10th sales centre, however, some would-be buyers are told a different story.

Depot owner Mitch Gagne said at least two customers have come in from the showroom saying the bottle depot “won’t be here for too long.”

“I just find it strange that their salesman would say something like that to potential customers when it’s not even true,” he said.

This Herald reporter, posing as a curious customer, visited the office late last month to hear the pitch himself. A rep cautioned she couldn’t say for sure whether the depot was leaving, but urged me not to worry.

“My knowledge of the neighbourhood (is) I know that nobody wants them there and neither do the people that own it,” the agent said.

They can say what they want, remarked Dave Custer, the depot property’s co-owner who ran the facility for more than two decades.

“We have no problem with the bottle depot being there. We fully intend to honour the lease, and for that matter we’d probably look at an extension,” Custer said.

Told about what the Herald heard, Lamb said what reps were instructed to say — and what she probably meant to say — is that in areas of transition, things like the bottle depot won’t survive economically.

“We’ve told them very clearly what can they talk about,” the developer said. “I think sometimes it’s possible sales people say more than they should.

“The reality of the situation is, I can virtually guarantee you that bottle depot’s going to be gone eventually.”

On that point, Custer can’t say never. If a lucrative enough offer does come, he’d be open to it. “He could very well be right,” he said of Lamb.

The landowners were close to selling during last decade’s boom, Custer admitted. But there wasn’t any place for one of Alberta’s busiest bottle return facilities to move in the downtown area, so the depot stayed.

“This location is so ideal,” Gagne said.

Unless council authorizes an exception, a bottle depots are mainly in industrial areas or on some major roads.

“Ideally, industrial uses would be in industrial areas, but still convenient to residential so that one can bring in their recyclables,” said the Beltline’s Ald. John Mar.

“The industrial nature of it eventually will be phased out of the downtown, whether it be five years or 10 or 20, I do see that eventually switching out.

“I don’t know if I would call it incompatible, but I would say it’s an endangered species.”

The province’s Beverage Container Management Board mandates that no bottle drop-off can be located within three kilometres of another one. Since the Inglewood centre shut in 2009, the closest ones from the Uptown are the Moneyback Container Shack on 37th Street S.W. or another in Manchester industrial area.

“That’s too far away. Nobody would — what about the winter weather?” asked Charles McLean, the Drop-In shelter resident.

“It takes 100 cans to make 10 dollars. It’s not an easy thing, but it keeps a lot of people out of trouble, and I think the city likes that.”

Gagne said his shop has a zero-tolerance approach to intoxicated clients. Lamb, on a recent visit, didn’t notice any harm either.

“You saw once an hour a guy wheel by with a shopping cart. He’s (wasted), he can barely walk. But they’re harmless. They’re not doing anything to anyone.”



Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ca...#ixzz29IGRQOOt

[haunt]

That article presents such a bag stigma for 6th and tenth, as well as the builder, brad lamb. It's such a David vs. Goliath story.
No parking for units <768sq.ft. Well forget about parking on the street, because that guy wheeling by with the shopping carts will look at lot less harmless when you make his livelihood 5km further to walk to.
Even I feel some resentment for these guys. The article makes them come off as though they regard the bottle depot and its clients as more of a stain than a business and real people.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by rob the knob


...

But to Brad Lamb, the condo project’s Toronto developer, the progress he’s helping bring is a wave that will dislodge the lower-end business next door.

“People can’t be so narrow-minded to believe that a business that makes its money from redeeming bottles is going to have the economic strength to stay in an area where there’s a $100-million building going in next door, there’s a $100-million office building going one block east, and there’s about a $1-billion development across the street,” Lamb said.

“Of course the sheer pressure of humanity is going to force that to go.”

...



Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ca...#ixzz29IGRQOOt

Cocky, much?

[adamc]

On another note, anyone have any thoughts on the Guardian building underway over in Victoria Park?

[XylathaneGTR]

Originally posted by vengie
What's everyone's thoughts on the keynote development??

I have a friend who lived there, and I also looked at their new phase when I was shopping around.

Pricing and fees seemed in line with the market, and the finishing in the show unit wasn't bad. If I recall correctly, the 'baseboards' around the pillar were white plastic and looked like the cheap shit we had in my elementary school that was built in the 70's. The pillar in the show suite did also cut into the usable space in the bedroom, but it could be lived with.
The area might turn people off a little, since the Alpha house, train and the Seed are all close by...as well as the proximity to the Stampede.

What I really disliked was the balcony. the building design reduces the outdoor space to basically a smoker's perch...and I really didn't care for that.
My friend had no complaints, but left pretty shortly for a larger unit in another building.

Adamc: I really didn't mind guardian at all. They didn't have a lot left when I looked a couple of months ago, though. I'd prefer Guardian to Keynote because the layouts seemed much more functional.

[adamc]

Yeah I haven't been to the sales center but the layouts look pretty functional for small units.

Finishing are nice too. Would love to hear from anyone that decided to buy over there.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by adamc
Yeah I haven't been to the sales center but the layouts look pretty functional for small units.

Finishing are nice too. Would love to hear from anyone that decided to buy over there.

I know so many friends that bought at The Guardian. The layouts are good and not full of weird shapes (Keynote).

They're also building a hotel and fitness complex nearby.

[vengie]

Originally posted by XylathaneGTR

I have a friend who lived there, and I also looked at their new phase when I was shopping around.

Pricing and fees seemed in line with the market, and the finishing in the show unit wasn't bad. If I recall correctly, the 'baseboards' around the pillar were white plastic and looked like the cheap shit we had in my elementary school that was built in the 70's. The pillar in the show suite did also cut into the usable space in the bedroom, but it could be lived with.
The area might turn people off a little, since the Alpha house, train and the Seed are all close by...as well as the proximity to the Stampede.

What I really disliked was the balcony. the building design reduces the outdoor space to basically a smoker's perch...and I really didn't care for that.
My friend had no complaints, but left pretty shortly for a larger unit in another building.

Adamc: I really didn't mind guardian at all. They didn't have a lot left when I looked a couple of months ago, though. I'd prefer Guardian to Keynote because the layouts seemed much more functional.

Well I ended up purchasing in Keynote, The floor plans are definitely interesting, I bought the Acoustic floorplan (same as show suite).

I also talked to The Guardian and the new condo being built beside Vetro (having a brain fart, can't remember the name).

The reason I went with Keynote was the fact it was a very established and well funded builder. They used their own funds in the development of the project which was impressive. Also in the 2 years since the first phase went up, condo fees only increased $50, which is also quite impressive for a new development. Also the sales center estimated the building is 85-90% occupied by owners, keeping the renters out of the building (renters tend to be rougher on things, more pride in an owner based condo).

My huge qualm with the Guardian was they seemed extremely pushy for the sale, and had a superiority sort of attitude. Also most of the money going into that building is from foreign money, meaning it will be a huge renter building. I did however like their floor plans.

I should be taking possession in June/ July, this is my first home purchase so we'll see how it goes!

[S-FLY]

I used to own a 1 bedroom in keynote. It's definitely a great building and it's convenient because Sunterra and Starbucks are in the bottom. Finishes are better than others (Nova) and it's so close to stampede grounds and walking to work.

I sold that 1 bedroom suite this year and used the money to buy a place in Tower 2 (Vintage floor plan). I agree it does have some weird angles, but I made it work decent with my furiture.

Even though the Mustard Seed is a few blocks away, I can't say that I've ever had any issues with homeless people while living there. Unlike my old places in Connaught and Mission and my friend's place at Vetro.

Welcome, neighbor!

[vengie]

Originally posted by S-FLY
I used to own a 1 bedroom in keynote. It's definitely a great building and it's convenient because Sunterra and Starbucks are in the bottom. Finishes are better than others (Nova) and it's so close to stampede grounds and walking to work.

I sold that 1 bedroom suite this year and used the money to buy a place in Tower 2 (Vintage floor plan). I agree it does have some weird angles, but I made it work decent with my furiture.

Even though the Mustard Seed is a few blocks away, I can't say that I've ever had any issues with homeless people while living there. Unlike my old places in Connaught and Mission and my friend's place at Vetro.

Welcome, neighbor!

Thank you sir!

I do have a question for you! Where do you have your guests park??

[max_boost]

Originally posted by vengie


I should be taking possession in June/ July, this is my first home purchase so we'll see how it goes!

Congrats! Exciting times for you.