Familial thread in Rush condos
Alterra CEO Rob Cooper, right, with designer Kelly Cray, centre, and buyer Alex Johnson. Cray put in black-and-white graffiti feature walls in Rush condos’ common areas. In 1951, Cooper’s uncle had a tailor shop at Bathurst and Dundas Sts.
Builder part of transformation in downtown area where his family set up shop generations ago As a boy, Robert Cooper would visit his grandfather’s pants manufacturing company in Toronto’s old Garment District centred on Spadina Ave.
“I saw people from all different parts of the world working in his factory,” he recalls. “It was their first job, after coming here to make a better life for themselves.”
Cooper, now 60, didn’t know it then, but those experiences helped lay the groundwork for his development company’s downtown residential projects.
Before they build, says Cooper, president and CEO of Alterra Group of Companies, they study the neighbourhood “from the ground up” to get an in-depth understanding of its amenities, attractions and services and of the people who live and work there.
With their latest project, Cooper has, in a sense, come back to where he started Alterra’s new midrise project, Rush condos, is at 520 Richmond St. W. between Spadina and Bathurst Sts., right in the heart of his childhood haunts.
Playing a role in the area’s transformation is particularly gratifying, he says. “These great neighbourhoods you see downtown today — immigrants started out there. That’s what makes Toronto so interesting and diverse.”
After creating communities in the GTA for more than 30 years, he and Alterra “really know the city well,” the developer says, relating more “vivid memories” of his urban adventures.
“I grew up riding the subway. My friends and I rode it end-toend for 10 cents on Saturday mornings,” he recalls. “We’d always try to get in the front car” for the best vantage point.
Back then, the Spadina and Queen Sts. area was a magnet for workers in the needle trade who endured a “rough and tumble” life, he says.
He speaks with pride about his Polish grandfather, Abraham Cooper, whose successful garment manufacturing business operated from the 1920s until the late ’60s. Eaton’s department store and Tip Top Tailors were among his customers.
“He did okay. Put two sons through university and created quite a legacy,” Cooper says of the patriarch who died in 1988. “There are 80 of us (in the family) now.”
With the influx of young professionals living in the downtown core, “it’s come full circle,” Cooper says of housing trends since his grandfather’s time.
And Alterra is in that loop with Rush Condos, whose suite sizes, layouts and amenities should be right up their alley.
“They’re on-brand for what I’m looking for,” says Alex Johnson, a 31-year-old IT professional who’s just bought a onebedroom, 490-sq.-ft. unit for $608,000.
“It’s a great area, where the action is,” he says, referring to the vibrant arts and entertainment scene where he’s lived for a decade.
Nowhere is art more visible than famous Graffiti Alley, extending for several blocks parallel to Richmond St. W. and behind the condominium site on the lane that shares its name with the new development. The colourful corridor was the backdrop for CBC personality Rick Mercer’s popular walking rants on his weekly TV show, recently ended after 15 seasons.
In a nod to the urban artists who created the murals, Alterra is incorporating black-andwhite graffiti feature walls in Rush’s public areas.
RUSH from H1
The two tones will bring “high-contrast energy” to the lobby, party room, fitness centre, says interior designer Kelly Cray, creative principal at design firm U31 Inc.
The contrast theme continues through the common areas with the use of exposed concrete, warm woods and white marble, says Cray, who describes the look as “sleek, sophisticated with refined industrial accents.”
While the building will interest a mix of buyers, it will be especially appealing to cyclists and walk-to-workers, according to Cooper, himself a committed two-wheeler.
“For me personally, there’s no better way to get around the city and neighbourhoods,” he says, pointing out that Rush will have just 23 parking spaces but 125 bicycle storage lockers — one for each unit. There are also plans to provide a bicycle repair and maintenance station.
For non-cycling days and forays, public transit is just steps away. Purchaser Johnson needs a car for work but welcomes the walkability features of Rush’s location.
“Walking is key,” says Johnson, who’s also enthused about Rush condo’s climbing wall — “an unexpected bonus” — as well as a new YMCA community hub opening across the road in 2020.