Riz Dhanji possessed a palpable sense of pride as he held forth in the posh penthouse atop Canada’s tallest condo tower, Aura at College Park.
“This is the finale,” Canderel Residential’s vice-president of sales and marketing told Epoch Times during a recent event to showcase fully furnished top-level suites at Aura, the 80-storey, 275-metre mammoth at Yonge and Gerrard that cost $645-million to develop over nearly a decade.
“A lot went into making this construction marvel happen, and we’re excited to see the end of it.”
Designed by Graziani + Corazza Architects, Aura is the city’s first super-tall condo tower, comprising 1.2 million square feet of total space, including 994 residential units and a podium housing 180,000 square feet of retail.
The base is anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshalls, and a branch of Madonna’s Hard Candy Fitness chain (membership is included for Aura owners). Along Gerrard are Red’s Wine Tavern, Duke’s Refresher + Bar, and Scaddabush Restaurant, and there’s 51,000 square feet of retail on the complex’s subway level.
Aura’s three available penthouses range from a 2,201-square-foot unit to the 3,055-square-foot suite where Canderel celebrated the building’s completion. It’s the biggest—“the creme de la creme,” said Dhanji—and it costs a cool $3.7 million.
All penthouses have 12.5' ceilings and wide-plank wood flooring throughout, with limestone tile in the foyer. Kitchens come with custom cabinetry, marble slab countertops and backsplash, and an island counter with under-mount sink. There’s a stainless steel Sub Zero fridge and wine cooler, and a Wolf gas cooktop, oven, and microwave.
The master bath boasts a limestone feature wall, custom-designed vanity with marble slab countertop, and heated marble flooring. It also has a Kohler free-standing tub and frameless glass shower stall with rain shower-head and wall-mounted body sprays.
Amenities at Aura include party rooms, a bar and catering kitchen, dining room, games room, theatre, and billiards room. There are three guest suites, nine high-speed elevators, and an underground parking garage. The building has a 24-hour concierge, and its two-storey sky lobby, adorned with public art, overlooks College Park’s three-acre green space, which is being redeveloped by Canderel.
What’s got everybody buzzing, however, is the new lighting feature at the top of the city’s tallest condo, a total of 1.2 km of LED strips of varying lengths, designed “to recall the form of the tower we see by day at night,” noted project architect Barry Graziani.
