They were the Pan Am athletes' dorms. Here's what they look like as condos
“Welcome to my home,” says Hanley Koo, grinning widely as he strolls into his new digs at Canary District Condos, a midrise building at the corner of Cherry St. and the extended Front St. E.
It’s Koo’s first time seeing his place. The 491-square-foot suite first served as a home to athletes during last summer’s Pan/Parapan Am Games. The unit — with a balcony and stellar west-facing views of the nearby Distillery District and downtown skyline beyond — has since been converted into a sleek condo, complete with grey mist oak flooring, imperial coffee shower tile, and stone grey- and eggshell-hued Caesarstone countertops. “I wanted to keep the finishes light and neutral, nothing exotic, in case I want to rent it out in a few years,” Koo says during the pre-delivery inspection, or PDI, of his unit.
Koo is accompanied on his tour by representatives from the Canary District development team. They’re on hand to ensure everything in the suite is in working order and meets the purchaser’s expectations. Deficiencies are noted to be repaired before occupancy — a hairline nick in his wall, for instance, is promptly filled during the visit. The PDI is an opportunity for the builder to walk the buyer through vital suite-operation matters, like how the heating and air conditioning system works, and how it should be used and maintained. All appliances are turned on and demonstrated.
“The average person may not know all the things to look for as they take occupancy,” explains Harvey Barth, project manager for Dundee Kilmer Developments. He oversaw construction of the Canary District in preparation for the Pan/Parapan Am Games, and is now leading its transformation into a mixed-use community of midrise buildings, with retail shops on the ground floor lining Front St. E. “Some of the purchasers are first-time homeowners and we want to ensure they have an opportunity to ask questions and are satisfied with their suite.”
The neighbourhood’s main promenade, Front St. E., now stretches east to Bayview Ave., which has been extended south into Canary District. The retail, a roster of health-and-wellness focused shops and services, are now starting to open. A YMCA launched last year, and Canary District also has a George Brown College student residence.
Koo says he loves that so many community pieces will be in place when he moves into the condo in a few weeks — that it feels like a self-contained city within a city, but that he’ll also be within walking distance of downtown. He’s happy about all the green space at Canary District, especially Corktown Common, an 18-acre community park that’s a gateway to the Martin Goodman and Lower Don River trail networks. And by summer, a new streetcar spur will be operating down Cherry St. “It’s great to have all that on my doorstep.”
The PDI is actually the second final inspection of the units. Months earlier, the development team did an initial post-Pan Am-conversion walk-through of the suite. Known as “the pre-PDI,” the goal, Barth explains, was to flag any issues — such as chipped drywall edges. Then, during the purchaser’s PDI, workers can reference a tablet-based list to check that the concerns have been addressed and also additional requests noted.
“When we walk in we don’t expect to find anything we found before,” stresses Barth, noting that hardly any of the finishes in the condos were in place during the Pan Am Games: The kitchen cabinetry, appliances, closets, flooring and baseboards (floors were painted concrete for the Games), as well as ceiling finish and painting are all new. Blinds were installed (a must-have for napping athletes), and remain in place.
“We were concerned the post-Games process might be even more challenging than putting up the actual buildings,” Barth says. “We had promised our purchasers a delivery date and it is our intention to meet every one of those dates”.
Completing 810 suites in five months is a fair amount of work. And judging from Koo’s reaction to his space, they nailed it. “I was a bit nervous picking finishes out of a booklet,” he says. “But it’s all come together nicely. So I’m feeling pretty good right now.”
Breanne McNamee and Andrew Salmon were also feeling positive during the PDI of their post-Pan Am place, a 724-square-foot suite, including balcony, at Canary Park Condos on the corner of Front St. E. and Bayview Ave.
“We’ve been thrilled the entire time,” says McNamee, an education director at Oxford Learning. “The kitchen is about two times the size of ours now.”
The couple is planning to start a family in the near future and intends to use their suite’s den as a dining room initially, and then a nursery. Having Corktown Common, with a kids’ playground and water features, right next door, will be a huge upside.
Salmon, a digital communications manager, is eagerly anticipating the eateries and retailers opening this spring. He’s also hoping that a heritage industrial structure across the street from their building might eventually be turned into a large grocery store. “That would be amazing.”
The pair are slated to move into their condo in early May, just days after McNamee’s 30th birthday, she points out.
And they’re already dreaming of drinks on their balcony. “We talk about that every day.”
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Canary District at a glance
Developer: Dundee Kilmer Developments LP, a joint venture between Dream Unlimited Corp. (formerly Dundee Realty) and Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Ltd.
Cost (to date): $800 million (pre-Pan Am Games construction cost $1 million a day).
Scope: 35 acres; six buildings at full build-out, designed by four firms: architectsAlliance; Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects; Daoust Lestage Inc.; MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects. The second mixed-use neighbourhood in Waterfront Toronto’s West Don Lands redevelopment precinct; River City was the first:
Condos (so far): 810 units. Canary District Condos (two towers, 8 and 11 storeys); Canary Park Condos (two towers, 11 and 15 storeys).
Affordable housing: 253 units at build-out
Retail: 30,000 sq. ft. along Front St. E. So far: Gears Bike Shop, Sukhothai, Tori’s Bakeshop, East Side Meats, Dark Horse Espresso Bar, Fuel Plus, OpusGlow Concept Spa, Pizza e Pazzi, Tabule Middle Eastern Cuisine, The Running Room, Think Fitness Studio.
Community amenities: Corktown Common (18-acre park); Cooper-Koo Family YMCA (82,000 sq. ft.); George Brown College (175,000 sq. ft.); King St. streetcar extension down Cherry St.
Sustainable: Buildings designed to LEED Gold standards. Green roofs, low-flow fixtures, Energy Star-rated appliances, bicycle storage and parking, car-share program, electric car recharging stations.
Connected: Waterfront is powered by Canada’s first open-access, ultra-high-speed broadband community, via Beanfield Metroconnect.
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A remake of athletic proportions
Harvey Barth and his team at Dundee Kilmer have guided the Canary District’s creation — from being the Pan/Parapan Am Games athletes’ village through to its condo metamorphosis:
Q: You converted this community from an athletes’ village to the Canary District in just five months. How?
A: It is pretty complex. We received the buildings back in September 2015, and walked through every suite with the T.O. 2015 Organizing Committee, noting any damages and imperfections. In October we started with finishes. It is a labour-intensive process. We installed 810 pre-manufactured kitchens at a rate of up to 15 a day. Kitchen services had already been installed behind walls with water, drains and power in their precise locations. We then only just had to open walls to make the final connections.
We had to remove some walls added to the standard suite layouts to accommodate the 10,000 athletes and coaches, in spaces where 2,500 will ultimately live. Some washrooms that were built big enough to accommodate the accessibility requirements of Parapan Am athletes were reconfigured, with the extra space becoming a walk-in closet for the adjacent bedroom.
Q: What kind of pressure was involved with the Pan Am Games?
A: We had to be 100 per cent confident that nothing would fail — we didn’t want the problems that other athletes’ villages have had in the past. We were very successful. This athletes’ village has received wonderful reviews and we are told it is now the benchmark for future athletes’ villages . . . they were designed and built very robustly.
Q: So, were there any big problems?
A: Part of our mandate was to do facility management during the Games, so we had a team of 20 people on call should anything happen: electricians, locksmiths, elevator service people. Facilities staff would record an issue and we’d have someone there within the hour … The biggest issues we had were clogged toilets, and keys broken off in locks. And one time a sprinkler head went off in a garage, because two security guards were kicking around a soccer ball and managed to hit it.
Q: What’s next for Canary District?
A: By early August (2016) everyone should be moved in to the first two condo buildings, Canary Park and Canary District. Front St. E. opened on April 7, and the new retailers are soon opening, with 11 of them scheduled to be open by summer. The new TTC service (a spur of the King St. streetcar line that runs down Cherry St. to the Gardiner Expressway and loops back up) was announced to operate starting June 19. The next phase of development will be a market condo building with 170 suites and retail on the ground floor, located beside Canary Park Condos (at Bayview Ave. and Front St.). That will launch later in 2016. We have about 1,200 units still to build at Canary District on three sites.
