Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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Tag: development

  • Q4-2018 high-density land sales in Toronto

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    Bullpen Research & Consulting and Batory Management just published their Q4-2018 High-Rise Land Insights Report for the Greater Toronto Area. 

    Above is a mapping of the estimated per square foot buildable prices for the land that traded hands specifically in Toronto last quarter. 

    The average is $178 per square foot. And the projected average sale (condo) price is $1,097 psf. That sounds right. You basically need that kind of end pricing to make the math work with today’s costs.

    Across the GTA, the average spread between zoned and unzoned land was almost $40 psf. $159 psf versus $120 psf, respectively.

    A full copy of the report can be downloaded here. 

  • The geography of gyms

    Richard Florida and Patrick Adler recently looked at the geography of gyms across the United States. They analyzed 17 different fitness chains, over 10,000 gyms, and nearly 5,000 zip codes. Full article over here at CityLab.

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    The findings probably won’t surprise you, but it’s still interesting to see some of the data. Gyms and fitness studios tend to concentrate themselves in affluent neighborhoods with a high number of college graduates.

    The median household income of the average zip code with a gym or fitness studio is $72,720. This is compared to $56,694 for all zip codes. And when it comes to zip codes with an Equinox, SoulCycle, The Bar Method, or Town Sports Clubs, the median income jumps to over $100,000.

    Above is from the second post in the two part series they are doing on “the geography of fitness.” For the first one, click here.

  • Risk game

    “Francis is one of the most decisive people I know. He made a commitment to invest in our first venture capital fund in a five-minute cab we shared to work one morning.”

    —Fred Wilson, Co-Founder, Venture Capitalist, and Blogger, Union Square Ventures

    Francis Greenburger, who is founder and CEO of the real estate investment and development firm Time Equities, recently appeared on Barry Ritholtz’s Masters in Business Podcast.

    They touch on a number of topics, including why development sometimes produces more bankruptcies than billionaires; why development margins are compressed in Toronto; and how Francis popularized the co-op in New York. 

    Francis is also the author of Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur. So if you like the podcast – which is a great listen – there’s also a book for you. Click here for the podcast.

  • Director, Real Estate

    The University of Toronto is looking for a Director, Real Estate to manage their tri-campus portfolio of income producing real estate, as well as the development opportunities that they have on and adjacent to their three campuses. The downtown campus alone is over 120 buildings across 130 acres.

    A good friend of mine is helping with this search; I went to the University of Toronto (twice); and I believe that institutions, such as U of T, play an important city building function. So I’m sharing this opportunity with all of you today. For more on the University’s development strategy, click here.

    They are looking for someone with 10+ years of experience. The salary will be competitive and commensurate with this level of experience. And you would be reporting directly to the Chief of University Planning, Design & Construction. 

    If you’re interested, you can apply here. You have until January 25, 2019 to do that. I hope the position gets filled with a star. Also, sorry if this post isn’t relevant to you. Regularly scheduled programming will resume tomorrow.

  • Toronto condo market outlook

    BNN Bloomberg just published this article on the Toronto condo market. It is based on a roundtable discussion that was held at their Toronto office last week with Jim Ritchie of Tridel, Jared Menkes of Menkes Developments, Shamez Virani of CentreCourt, and Jane Renwick of Diamond Kilmer Developments.

    The overarching theme is that, after a couple of frenetic record setting years, the market should settle down in 2019, which is likely a good thing. Hopefully that will also temper construction cost inflation. We have been seeing double digit increases over the last few years (hence some of the cancelled projects).

    But as Jared points out, the fundamentals here are still strong and there are a number of supply constraints creating upward pressure on pricing:

    Jared Menkes, executive vice president of high-rise residential at Menkes Developments was unwavering for the future. “There’s a lot of red tape that’s slowing down bringing more product to market,” Menkes said. “I promise you, pricing is going up.”

    For the rest of the article, click here.

  • One Delisle unanimously supported at Design Review Panel

    One Delisle was at the City of Toronto’s Design Review Panel today where it received unanimous support. For those of you who may not be familiar with the process, at the end of every DRP session the panel members – who are all independent design professionals – vote on the project. They can support it, support it with conditions, or they can not support it and send it back for a redesign. One Delisle received 100% support.

    There were a number of positive comments around the need for more projects like this, and for better design in general, here in Toronto. That was really nice to hear. I also liked the comment that One Delisle feels like a tall building that one might find in London. And since every tall building in London has an endearing nickname – Gherkin, Walkie-Talkie, Cheese Grater, and so on – this too deserves one. 

    So let’s find a name. I have one in mind, but I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

  • Photoblog: Sunrise at Ten York

    This morning I watched the sun rise from the the roof of Ten York Condominiums, some 735 feet up. This is what that looked like (the sky initially had a purple hue to it):

    It was cold as all hell, but sometimes you have to work for your photos.

    Some of you may also remember that I wrote about this building a few months ago. Tridel, the developer, is calling the project its first “smart condominium.”

    Regular scheduled programming will resume tomorrow.

  • Sidewalk Toronto releases draft site plan for Quayside

    Yesterday Sidewalk Toronto released its draft site plan for Quayside. Here’s what it looks like:

    There’s a big emphasis on people-first streets and on the public realm. I like the idea of a waterfront plaza at the tip of the Parliament slip and of a floating walkway bridge to Promontory Park (bottom right hand corner of the above image).

    There are also a number of more enclosed pedestrian laneways and courtyards, which I am sure will result in more favorable microclimate conditions. That matters, especially on the water.

    Here are some high level project stats:

    • All mass timber construction
    • Five “sites”
    • Buildings ranging from 3 to 30 storeys
    • 68% residential (40% of the residential will be below-market, with 20% being affordable and 5% being deeply affordable)
    • 20% commercial
    • 15% flex space (retail, production, arts, community)
    • ~2,500 residential units

    A full copy of the draft site plan can be downloaded, here.

    Image: Sidewalk Toronto

  • Increasing housing supply in Ontario

    The Government of Ontario is currently working on a Housing Supply Action Plan that they hope will address “the barriers getting in the way of new ownership and rental housing.”

    Through initial consultations, they have already identified 5 key themes (my words below):

    1. The approvals/entitlement process for new housing is too slow
    2. There are too many restrictions on what is allowed to be built (that is, we should be encouraging more “gentle density” and “missing middle” type infill)
    3. Development costs are too high
    4. Tenants need protection; regulation is making it increasingly difficult to be a small landlord
    5. Overall housing innovation

    The province is also looking for public input and is currently running this online survey. It is open until January 25, 2019. And I would encourage all of you to complete it and help shape the action plan.

    My understanding is that the plan should be ready by Q2-2019.

  • The tallest residential building in the world

    Earlier this month, Extell Development Company announced the launch of sales for its Central Park Tower – which it is calling “the definitive New York skyscraper”, as well as the tallest residential building in the world. 

    The project is located on Billionaire’s Row in NYC and it will be 1,550 feet tall when completed. That puts it well into supertall territory.

    According to Curbed, the smallest apartments start at 1,435 sf and the largest will be an estate in the sky at around 17,500 sf. 

    The projected sellout for the project is, or at least was, $4 billion back in 2017. That will set all sorts of records upon completion. At the time of the above filing, the average price was pegged at $7,106 per square foot.

    If you’d like to read up on the project’s capital stack, you can do that here. And for those of us who are used to having to pre-sell condos before digging, you may find it interesting to know that this project started construction in 2014.

    I wonder how much a parking spot costs (assuming there is even parking).