Curating a lifestyle by the waterfront
Daniels’ City of the Arts aims to become a cultural nucleus in East Bayfront
Mingling with Hollywood stars at the Toronto International Film Festival. Rocking out at the North by Northeast music festival. Achieving cultural enlightenment through an Artscape workshop.
All of it will be possible for residents of Daniels Waterfront — City of the Arts, a 1.3-million-square-foot mixed-use community currently under construction at the foot of Lower Jarvis St. and Queens Quay.
The first condo at Daniels Waterfront, Lighthouse Tower, goes on sale this month. Designed by Giannone Petricone Associates, the 45-storey tower at the southeast corner of Jarvis St. and Lake Shore Blvd. will have 434 suites.
And the occupants of those suites can take advantage of the City of the Arts connectivity package, getting tickets to TIFF events and screenings, passes for NXNE shows, and access to Artscape events, workshops and gallery tours.
“Because we’ve set up the connectivity package between three organizations, we’re giving residents the ability to choose which arts are most interesting to them,” explains Dominic Tompa, the broker leading the sales team for the Daniels Corp. development, which he says has generated more interest than he’s seen on any other project he can recall.
Lower-level units at Lighthouse range from 349-square-foot studios to 792square-foot two-bedroom suites. And there are four levels of larger upper-floor units, with four suites per floor as large as 2,394 square feet. Prices start at $279,900 and go to more than $1 million, and occupancies are slated for summer 2019.
Built on the first privately owned plot in East Bayfront, Daniels Waterfront will be a gateway to the burgeoning precinct, where two other major mixed-use condo projects are now under construction as part of the Waterfront Toronto master plan: Tridel and Hines’ Bayside, and Great Gulf Homes’ Moshe Safdie-designed Monde.
City of the Arts will live up to its name. The community will be anchored by a
“We’re giving residents the ability to choose which arts are most interesting to them.” DOMINIC TOMPA DANIELS CORP.
creative industries hub, a 150,000square-foot space — designed by RAW Design — where Artscape Toronto will be relocating its headquarters. (Other tenants include entertainment law firm Taylor Klein Oballa LLP, music company Last Gang Entertainment, and youth-focused arts organizations the Remix Project and Manifesto.)
Atop the creative industries hub will be 280,000 square feet of office space in two towers (13 and 10 storeys) along Queens Quay. Daniels itself will be moving its head office there.
Public realm will be a priority at Daniels Waterfront, with more than 25,000 square feet of retail space, primarily shops and eateries lining a mid-block pedestrian promenade called the Yard.
Inspired by London’s Brick Lane, the Yard will be a link between Lower Jarvis and Richardson Sts. and, if all goes as planned, a place where residents and workers will want to mingle around the clock.
There’s also Sugar Beach North, a public space at the southeast corner of Queens Quay and Lower Jarvis St. that will be landscaped by original Sugar Beach designer Claude Cormier, plus a restaurant and patio.
The vision, Tompa says, is for Daniels Waterfront to become a hive of activity day and night, which is a distinct possibility given the estimated 2,500 people who will work there, the 1,200 residents who will live there and the countless students attending George Brown College just across the street.
Lighthouse Tower residents will have additional opportunities to connect with arts and culture via unique building amenities.
Building amenities include an arts studio and a music jam studio programmed by Artscape.
“They’ll have introductory classes with guest instructors covering visual arts, writing, literature, music, singing, theory lessons,” Tompa explains, noting there will be several workshops a month. “We’re not just providing a space here, we’re curating it.”
Lighthouse Tower will have a kitchen library, providing residents access to implements they likely won’t have room for in their condos, such as a professional blender, slow-cooker or bread-maker — “Higher-end unique appliances that, if you’re a culinary enthusiast, you really want to have but you can’t keep in your home,” says Tompa.
There’ll be training classes for the appliances, as well as food and nutrition seminars.
“That’s unique,” he says. “We’ve never put something like this into a condo before.”
The building will also have community gardening plots and an indoor gardenprep studio with space for four-season planting.
In all, Lighthouse Tower will boast more than 25,000 square feet of amenity space on two levels, including a fitness centre and party room with catering kitchen, media room, outdoor lap pool, lounge with indoor-outdoor cabana suites, and barbecue zone. There’ll also be an outdoor tennis court as well as a lawn bowling court.