PART 1: Canary District is 75% Complete and on Budget

There’s no drama at this athlete’s village. With the Pan Am Games quickly approaching, you can feel the excitement from the Canary District site emanating from the east end, flooding the Distillery District, flowing through the streets of St. Lawrence Market, and settling in the heart of Toronto’s downtown core.

We recently caught up with President of Dundee Kilmer, Jason Lester, to learn more about the construction progress, what needs to be completed in time for the games, and Canary Park, the second phase of the Canary District master-plan.

Construction at Canary District

Lester explained that construction is 75% complete, and the entire project is on budget and on time. In fact, they are ahead of time. The provincial government has given them a strict deadline, something most developers usually don’t have to deal with. Canary District has to be ready for the games by January 31, 2015, and Lester believes the buildings will be game ready by the end of 2014.

The last crane at Canary District just came down, and by the end of April, every building will be completely closed in, meaning all the windows, brick, and glass will be installed and the only work left will be on the interiors. For the athletes, all the drywalling, bathrooms, and common areas will be completed, as well as office spaces for each country’s administrators.

After the games, Dundee Kilmer will remove temporary partitions in the buildings, install kitchens and final flooring in the units, and complete all the other finer details that end-users expect in a new condo.

Lester said that they have been incredibly fortunate over the last two winters because the weather was so mild, and now that we’re experiencing possibly the most dreadful winter in recent history, the majority of the exterior work is near complete. Even this winter, EllisDon has braved the cold with a 600-strong construction crew.

“I have to hand it to the construction team at EllisDon and Redcore. They’ve just done a fantastic job. We’ve worked extremely well with Infrastructure Ontario, our third party stakeholders, the YMCA and George Brown,” Lester commented. “On a collective basis, if you ask anyone who’s been a part of this project, they’ll say it’s definitely one of, if not the most successful projects they’ve been a part of.”

Who’s buying in the Canary District?

“This project is appealing to more end-users than any downtown project that we’re a part of, and I think quite frankly, that most people are a part of” Lester stated. “We have a mix of first-time buyers, the odd move-up buyer, people who have bought in the Distillery District who have said ‘okay, this is great, but now I want a certain kind of unit and I can’t get it in the towers in the Distillery; I want to be overlooking a park.’ There’s no question that we’re going to have empty-nesters, particularly coming from the 905 circle around Toronto. They may have a 2,000 square foot house and want to downsize, their kids may be already living in Toronto and they want to be close to them. It’s really a community for all people.”

It’s not very often that you get to purchase a new construction home and have it be ready a year later. Another amazing thing is that you will be able to see the actual buildings when trying to decide whether to purchase or not. Normally, grand openings occur months or even a year before construction commences, but Canary Park will already be standing! Getting a glimpse of a master-planned community before anyone has even moved in is a rare occurrence, and we think it will definitely contribute to the interest in future market condos in the neighbourhood.

Learn more about Canary District today

For more information on Canary District, visit the Presentation Centre at 9 Mill Street in Toronto (south of Parliament and Front Street East), or call 416-603-7576.

Check out PART 2 of our interview with Jason Lester, where we discuss the second phase of the Canary District master-plan, Canary Park.