It’s a new condo development that’s coming to the King-Spadina area, and, if it were a car, this building would be a Porsche.Set to be completed sometime around 2023, King Toronto will cost an estimated $700 million to build and will feature a pixilated design forming four mountain-like peaks. There are plans to have foliage running up the sides of the building, and units with tree-lined terraces. It’s being designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who is known for his unconventional creations.When units go on sale to the public this coming weekend, one-bedrooms will start at $660,000 and go as high as $1.3 million. A penthouse will list for $8 million and there are three-bedroom units ranging from $2.4 million to $4 million.Luxury condos in Toronto aren’t a new thing, of course. We have the Shangri-La hotel/condo highrise, the Ritz-Carlton, the Four Seasons residences, to name but a few.But as politicians, including Toronto’s mayor John Tory, academics, activists and members of the public are grappling with what many are calling Toronto’s housing affordability “crisis,” King Toronto comes at a controversial time.King Toronto won’t have any affordable units on site — units at or below average market rent in Toronto, now at close to $2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment — and neither will The Well, another new project, separate from but just south of King Toronto. The Well will have 1,700 condos and apartment rentals, and King Toronto, 480 units. Instead, both projects are setting aside development benefits for affordable housing elsewhere, in the case of King Toronto, $1.1 million toward affordable housing at Toronto Community Housing’s Alexandra Park neighbourhood near Bathurst and Dundas St. W.But housing experts ask why the massive projects won’t include any affordable units on site and who will be able to afford to live there.“It is good, certainly that at least investments w ...
|
