Much ado about amenities
From dog spas to gardens, condo perks hit new heights
When Kait Jackson returns home from walking her golden doodle Gussy, she heads to the dog spa in her condo building at the York Harbour Club.
Finding a home within the Fort York neighbourhood she serves with her Gussy & Company Dog Walking business was important to her and husband, Wes Clark. Their townhouse at York Harbour Club fit their location criteria; the condo’s dog washing area with two standup shower stalls and a pet tub has been a bonus.
“Not having that amenity wasn’t a deal breaker when it came to buying a home, but that’s not to say I don’t love the dog spa,” says Jackson. “I take my dog there every day to wash his paws before I bring him into the house. It’s the amenity I use most often.”
While price and location are still top of mind for most condo buyers, amenities can influence their decision-making. When Tsehaie Makonnen moved back to downtown Toronto two years ago from suburban Milton, the last place she imagined living was in a highrise condo.
“My sole condition of moving back to the city was I had to be able to garden. I wanted a real garden, not a balcony gar- den,” says Makonnen, a communications professional. While working with a West African dance and drum festival from an office in Regent Park in 2013, she noticed the One Park Place condominium under construction. When she learned individual garden plots and a community garden were part of its amenities, she bought a fifth-floor suite and moved into it in January 2014.
“There is a good gym, basketball and squash courts, a media and entertainment room and they are all very nice, but for me, it was all about the garden,” says Makonnen.
In her plot, she grows vegetables such as onions, squash, beets, arugula, and callaloo from her native Jamaica, and helps tend the community garden.
Garden plots and dog spas have been among the popular amenity trends of the last five years. Stylish lounges, party rooms, first-class gyms and landscaped rooftop terraces have become standard.
But in Toronto’s competitive condo market, developers search for the next amenity trend that will resonate with buyers.
The Daniels Corporation has been an amenities innovator. It pioneered the condo gardening concept with “urban agriculture” plots at its Limelight condos in Mississauga six years ago, and has included them in every project since, including Makonnen’s building.
Daniels’ standard amenity fare includes party rooms and commercialgrade fitness centres but Dominic Tompa, broker of record for City Life Realty, Daniels’ in-house sales company, says other amenities are tailored to the neighbourhood and type of buyer.
Daniels’ High Park Condominiums, for instance, caters to an active lifestyle with a rock climbing wall, a bicycle borrowing and maintenance program and dog washing area.
Full-court gyms have gone over well at Limelight in Mississauga and Cinema Tower in the Entertainment District.
Amenities at the Lighthouse Tower Condominium Residences at Daniels’ City of the Arts mixed-use development at Queens Quay E. and Lower Jarvis St. will reflect the arts and culture theme of the community.
In the works are an arts and crafts studio; a jam studio, where musicians or aspiring musicians can play; and a kitchen library, where condo residents can borrow items such as blenders or crock pots, and learn about the culinary arts.
Education is a component of Daniels’ amenities. Makonnen has appreciated having a garden coach visit at One Park Place to give residents tips on growing vegetables in their plots.
At Lighthouse, residents will be able to take painting, sculpting, or cooking seminars or music lessons.
Liberty Development Corporation is bringing the first condo rooftop observatory in North America to its Cosmos Condominiums in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, where residents will be able to study the stars through a high-calibre tele- scope. Liberty senior vice-president Marco Filice says his team wanted to introduce an amenity that would fit with the “futuristic” theme of the condo and have longevity.
Luxury buildings often have indulgent twists on amenities and the 200 Russell Hill project by Hirsh Development Group in the Spadina Rd. and St. Clair Ave. W. area, where suites are priced from $3.2 million to $12 million, is no exception.
Among its high-end perks will be the services of a sommelier/mixologist and a wine lounge, where residents can store their collections.
With more people choosing to raise children in condos, amenities geared to young families is a trend that’s just emerging.
Jackson, mother to an infant son, says she and other parents in Fort York are concerned about the lack of kid-friendly amenities in their buildings and in their neighbourhood. But Jeanhy Shim, president of Housing Lab Toronto, an independent condo research and consulting firm, is helping developers see the light.
She is raising her own daughter in a condo and has been an advocate for more child-friendly features.
Recently, Shim consulted with the Rockport Group on George, a midrise condo in Leslieville. As well as larger two- and three-bedroom suites geared to families, the project includes the Urban Yard by Rockport — oversized balconies (some as large as 200 square feet) with barbecues, porcelain-tile floors and decorative privacy screens. Kids won’t be confined to playing in their families’ suites, either. The seventh floor of George will have an outdoor play area, where kids can take their trikes or draw on outdoor chalkboards.