The most boring part of constructing a high-rise, like One Delisle, has got to be installing the shoring piles. Sure there are big rigs moving about on site but, for the most part, there's almost no visible progress. That is, until you start excavating. Then you get to see said piles and you also end up with a big hole, which is something.

Thankfully shoring works are now complete at One Delisle and we have started on the big hole part (see above photo from our rooftop cam). The next major milestone will be our "bottoming out," and that's when the tower crane will go up and our massive raft slab foundation will get poured. Visible progress is certainly more fun.

This afternoon a few people from our team toured two of Fitzrovia's recently completed rental apartment buildings here in Toronto. For those of you who may not be familiar, Fitzrovia is a relatively young company, but they have quickly become one if not the most active rental developers in the city. They are also ushering in an approach to purpose-built rentals that is more common in the US, but that is still fairly nascent in Canada. Part of this has to do with the fact that Canada took a few decades off from building rental apartments and instead focused on condominiums.

One of the first things you'll notice is that they have programmed all of our lobbies with a coffee shop and bar called No. 10 Dean. This is their own brand. They operate it. And it serves as both an amenity for residents, as well as a cafe for the general public. This really helps to animate their lobbies, particularly at The Waverley, which is situated next to the University of Toronto and feels more like a co-working space in a cool boutique hotel than the lobby of an apartment building. I like this idea a lot. But it's also an idea that is a lot easier to execute in an apartment building than in a condominium building.

Some of their other usual amenities include a rooftop pool (called LIDO), a gym (called The Temple), a signature amenity terrace (called STOA -- which I'm assuming is a Greek architectural reference), and a pet spa (called Beauty for the Beast). When we went through this afternoon it was raining pretty heavily, but the pool was so great that I still felt a deep urge to pose and take multiple selfies. That's how you know it's doing what it's supposed to. But perhaps more importantly, these amenities are all consistent brand offerings. Go into any Fitzrovia building and you'll find a LIDO (pictured below).

Generally speaking, real estate companies usually aren't as good at driving their brands in the same way as other consumer-facing companies. So it's great to see this kind of design-forward and consistent brand offering being developed here in Toronto. Thanks for the tour and for hosting our team, guys.

Today, Slate Asset Management announced its latest condominium project: Corktown. Named after its neighborhood, Corktown is located in downtown Hamilton just south of the GO Centre station.

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you might remember that I first wrote about this site a few years ago when we were just starting community engagement.

Since then, the design has evolved to include a tower on the southeast corner of the block (pictured above) and a mid-rise building along John Street South. This site is also now fully zoned.

So it's go time. Phase one, called Corktown East, will launch this summer and condo pre-registration is live as of today. To register, head over here.