By ChangingCity

We first mentioned this Chinatown building three years ago. It is a 9-storey, 26 unit residential building with retail and parking at grade. The lot it’s built on is only 25 feet wide, but the building sits next to a lane, looking onto the back of a parkade.

The design, by Birmingham and Wood with ASIR Architects has a grey and yellow palette (a refreshing change from the ubiquitous Chinatown red) and a contemporary take on the Chinatown balcony/screen idea.

Construction has seemed at times to be painfully slow – the construction method is unusual (and we think it’s the first time it’s been used in the city). A series of hollow metal frames, a storey high, form the party wall with the building to the east. Reinforcing rods run vertically through the frames, and concrete was pumped into the frame, creating a solid flank wall. The outer wall was built with similar frames but those didn’t have the concrete liner.

The original design showed some greater variation on the flank wall, with yellow window surrounds. Instead there are random yellow and cream vertical panels.

We assume that once the building is occupied the owners won’t necessarily keep the yellow shutters closed …read more

Source: Changing City

Taken by 604 City. July 9, 2014

By Paul Brent

Real estate investors have been the beneficiaries of a two-decade decline in interest rates but with rates expected to trend upward again, buyers need to be pickier and focus on operations even as the prospects for landlords are improving along with the U.S. and Canadian economies.

That is one of the conclusions that can be drawn from Jones Lang LaSalle‘s recently released report on Canada’s debt market Commercial Property Financing Renaissance. (The adjacent table is sourced from JLL Debt Capital Markets and referenced in the report.)

“Rates have been declining pretty much every year for 25 years and going forward we are looking at a reversal of that,” said Amar Nijjar, vice-president and practice lead with JLL Canada‘s Toronto office. “Borrowers will have to have some readjustment: buyers will have to see a different type of financial modelling and rely more on income growth than just cap rate-related appreciation.”

The JLL executive said the pressures behind rising bond yields and interest rates are also good news for real estate operators in general.

“They are rising because inflation is getting up and unemployment levels are going down. Those are the …read more

Source: RENX