Touring Trump Residences Toronto with Neil Labatte

Newinhomes.com recently had the opportunity to tour the model suites at Trump Residences Toronto and chat with Neil Labatte, President & CEO of Talon International Development & Talon Luxury Collection about his experiences in the Toronto market and to learn more about the remaining residential suites at the five-star hotel.

Neil Labatte

With a resume like Labatte’s, he has held a number of corporate positions that have prepared him to tackle the competitive Toronto market. “When I first got out of school, I had a development responsibility - I was project manager for 2,000 acres of land in the US. I was in the US at the time because I went to school there after I played hockey,” Labatte explained. “Project management is all about priorities and sequencing and understanding your objectives. I’ve done a lot of development as project manager and an investor, so this is something I've done for many years. I’m not sure there is a certain position that prepared me to develop here (Toronto), but rather a culmination of different experiences.”

Labatte is understating his experience when he says “many years” and “played hockey.” He has over three decades of experience working with different development and investment companies in Canada and the US, and when he played hockey, he played in the Central Hockey League and for the St. Louis Blues in the NHL. When it comes to the Leafs’ cold season, he doesn’t have high hopes, but wishes them well. Even though he played in the NHL, Labatte is far more concerned about Toronto’s luxury hotel and residential scene than if the Leafs can make a comeback (that may not be entirely true, considering he was just appointed to the Board of NHL Alumni as Treasurer).

One of the things that makes Trump Residences Toronto stand out in Toronto is its five-star rating. “There are different attributes to a five-star hotel. One is physical quality, so you have to have certain physical attributes - you need four-fixture bathrooms, certain types of features - you need all that to qualify. The finishes here are the best in the country in my opinion; ceiling heights, size of rooms, quality of the carpets, furnishings and the like,” Labatte said. “Then you have the operating attributes. It tends to be more subtle, like looking somebody in the eye and saying hello, saying a person’s name when they check in and out, there’s a whole to-do list that differentiates four-star from five-star. You need all the amenities, like a health club, a pool, a hot tub, a high quality restaurant, but how they’re serviced and maintained is the most important.”

So, what does it mean to own a residence in a five-star hotel? Exactly what you think it means. Labatte explained, “You get the same level of service in the residences. There’s a 24-hour doorman, someone leading you to the elevator, there are people meeting you at the Sky Lobby (residential lobby on the 32nd floor), and there’s even 24-hour room service and cleaning service available from the hotel. Again, then you have access to the quality of all the five-star amenities.”

The amenities and services at the Trump Residences Toronto aren’t the only things to get excited about. Located at Bay and Adelaide in the Financial District, the residence is as central as you can possibly be. “It’s the best corner for a hotel in the country, certainly in Toronto,” Labatte believes. “You have access to the PATH, which has 4 million square feet of retail, you have close to 8 million square feet of office space around here, and there’s 4 million square feet under construction. Over the last five years, there have been restaurants coming in in a big way, and a lot of services. You have the benefit of a downtown location, and a lot of the amenities you would get in a typical neighbourhood.”

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The suites at Trump Residences Toronto

There are just over 50 suites available at Trump Residences Toronto, starting on the 32nd floor. The first few floors all have six suites per floor and they range from 1,300 to 2,200 square feet. Then there is a collection of larger suites where there are only four per floor, and they range from 2,800 to 3,200 square feet. The largest suites on the upper levels are 4,200 square feet, and there are only two per floor. Prices start at $1.7 million.

Then there’s the Super Penthouse, an 11,000 square foot, three-level residence at the very top of Trump Residences Toronto. What’s on the price tag? A cool $37 million. The interesting thing about the Super Penthouse, aside from its size and impressive cathedral-like soaring ceiling on the third floor, is that it’s unfinished.

Super Penthouse third floor

“The super penthouse is such a unique property that someone will have their own positioning as to how they want to finish it,” Labatte commented. “It’s a global product, so we don’t know whether it will be a Canadian, American, or Asian, or European, or Middle Eastern buyer - they could come from anywhere around the world, and there are different tastes. For us to preempt what they would actually want doesn’t make sense.”

Words of Wisdom

We’ve never had the pleasure of chatting with a developer who was also a former professional athlete, so we had to ask if there are any character traits that crossover into both worlds. Labatte left us with three inspirational messages for all the young athletes and aspiring business people:

“You have good days and you have bad days, but there’s always a new day. You need to have a selective memory in some ways so that you don’t carry bad news with you. But you have to learn from unfortunate events, and use that to move forward."

“Being optimistic is critical to business and sports. If you’re negative, you’re never going to proceed to any level of success.”

“With hockey, players come and they go, so you move to a new team and a new environment that you have to get accustomed to. It’s like when I moved here two years ago, I didn’t know any of the people, so it was like a new team. You show up, get to know everyone, figure out what their skills are, figure out how you fit in, and then work with them to be successful.”

For more information regarding the suites at Trump Residences Toronto, visit TrumpToronto.ca. See below fore more photos of the model suites.

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