TORONTO—With Toronto developers so fixated on selling smaller condo suites in recent years, families looking for places to grow have been vastly underserved. Ditto empty-nesters seeking to right-size their living situations. Not to mention young professionals who want a spacious pad in the heart of the city.
“There’s a shortage of well-designed larger spaces out there,” Cresford Developments’ sales and marketing president Maria Athanasoulis tells Epoch Times in an interview at the builder’s midtown office. “There’s really been no product out there.”
So the release of the Signature Penthouse Collection at Casa II—a 56-storey building designed by Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance that is the second tower in Cresford’s Charles Street condo community—has come “at a very opportune time,” she reckons.
The penthouse collection—suites on levels 47 to 56—range from 919 square feet to 1,750 square feet. Units are priced from $969,000 to $1.99 million. (Cresford is also releasing a collection of smaller suites at Casa II. Also located on levels 47 to 56, the units range from 492 square feet to 679 square feet; prices start from $479,900.)
The penthouse units have 10-foot ceilings and engineered hardwood flooring throughout, with floor-to-ceiling windows and wraparound balconies.
Open-concept kitchens, designed by Scavolini, come with islands; pantries; a choice of granite or Caesarstone countertop; and Gaggenau integrated appliances including a 36” refrigerator, BOSCH dishwasher, gas cooktop, and wine fridge.
Bathrooms, also by Scavolini, will have marble or Caesarstone countertops with under-mount sinks; marble tile flooring; frameless glass showers; and free-standing bathtubs with marble tile surrounds.
The penthouses will have in-suite laundry rooms with full-size front-loading washer and dryer, undermount sinks with Caesarstone countertops, and porcelain flooring. Suites come with gas fireplaces as well.
Athanasoulis notes her team had young families in mind when designing the penthouse collection at Casa II. “We think that families want urban living, especially with home prices now becoming so unaffordable. They want to buy something that’s fully done without having to pick up a hammer, and they like having lifestyle right at their doorstep.”
With a host of quality private and public schools and daycares in the area, not to mention some of the city’s best shopping and dining offerings, Casa II is proving “attractive for young families,” she says. “And I’m a big proponent of designing space that allows them to live in the downtown core.”
Casa II’s 20-foot lobby and amenity spaces are furnished by Missoni, part of an affiliation Cresford has had with high-end fashion brands in recent years. The lobby for Casa III—the latest phase in the community, which is sold out and currently under construction—will have furnishings by French designer Hermés. And the lobby and amenity areas of the first Casa building are decorated by Armani (Other Cresford projects feature furnishings by Diesel Living and Fendi.)
Casa II will have two levels of amenities: an outdoor infinity saltwater pool with furnished deck; multi-purpose area with catering kitchen; fitness centre with yoga studio; spa, and lounge; two guest suites; a billiards and games room with adjacent media room, and a Wi-Fi lounge.
The Yonge-Bloor corridor is the place where haute couture, luxury, and hustle and bustle converge, notes Athanasoulis. And though there’s lots going on in the area, she points out that Casa’s south-of-Bloor location “enables you to be part of the neighbourhood but also enjoy some quiet time on a tree-lined street.”
The sidewalks in front of the Casa buildings will be redone in black granite, tying in this stretch of Charles Street with the rest of the Bloor Street Transformation Project, which included the addition of granite sidewalks, decorative street lighting, new trees, and raised planting beds along the Mink Mile.
The Casa II and III buildings interlock on the site they share, and a courtyard running between the two towers will allow for mid-block passage from Charles north to Hayden St.
Slowly but surely, Cresford’s vision for the Casa community is coming to fruition. And Athanasoulis notes that those who get in early to purchase units there stand to be rewarded for their foresight.
“You’re benefitting from buying ahead of time,” she says. “Especially with anticipated launches by other developers in the area—and the price points they’re going to be coming out with—this is a true value proposition.”
Ryan Starr is a Toronto-based freelance journalist.
