Ground has been broken on the first of three towers at Forêt Forest Hill, Canderel’s master-planned 1,300-plus-unit condominium community at the corner of Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West in midtown Toronto.

The 35-storey middle tower, which will have approximately 420 units, is the first to go up after pre-selling just under 300 of them. 

“We're not in a rush to sell out the building. We've got enough sales to secure the financing,” Canderel president and chief investment officer Ben Rogowski told RENX.

“We want to make sure the pricing is reflective of what we think the project demands, so we’ve offered very limited incentives here and there, but nothing really material.”

RAD Marketing is the sales company for Forêt Forest Hill. Prices for the least expensive units in the first building began in the $500,000s.

Financing the project

Securing financing was a challenge with the depressed state of the condo market, but it eventually came from a consortium led by CIBC that also includes National Bank, TD, Desjardins and Laurentian Bank.
 
“Condo is a bit of a bad word, although it's not as bad now as it was a couple months ago, so it just took time,” Rogowski explained. 

“But the banks really embraced the project and embraced us, and the hoops we had to jump through were far fewer than more than 15 years ago when we were going through a similar situation.”

What Forêt Forest Hill will offer

Forêt Forest Hill is conveniently located on the St. Clair streetcar line and not too far from the St. Clair West subway station. The Forest Hill, Cedarvale, Wychwood and Casa Loma neighbourhoods are near the long vacant site.

The unit mix will be: 13 per cent studios; 13 per cent one-bedroom; 41 per cent one-bedroom plus den; 25 per cent two-bedrooms and two-bedrooms plus den; and seven per cent three-bedrooms. The average unit size will be 630 square feet.

The community will have a geothermal heating and cooling system and will deliver a new public park, a childcare centre, community space, privately owned and publicly accessible space, and new retail at the base of the towers.

There will be approximately 50,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities, including: a two-storey fitness centre; indoor and outdoor swimming pools; a sauna; steam rooms; a juice bar; children’s recreation spaces; a pet spa; private dining areas; and various entertainment spaces, including a wine lounge.

The top nine floors of the eastern tower will offer exclusive boutique suites with a private lobby and elevator, dedicated amenity spaces and ultra-high-end finishes. Typical suites will reach up to 2,000 square feet, with options to combine them to create much larger and more unique living spaces.

Project team members joining Canderel for Forêt Forest Hill are BDP Quadrangle for architecture, II BY IV Design for interiors and Site/C for landscape architecture.

Construction schedule

The first units are expected to be delivered in the second half of 2029. An underground parking garage that will accommodate all three buildings is part of this first phase, which will shorten the construction cycle for the subsequent 37- and 41-storey towers. 

“Our hope is to be building these as concurrently as possible,” said Rogowski. “We've probably got 20 or so months of below grade construction before we need to make a determination about when the second and third buildings would be built. 

“We're cautiously optimistic that it will be a much better market environment in two years time than it is now. We've already started to see some improvement just over the last few months. 

“So, in an ideal world, our market continues to improve and we complete enough sales there to just keep going with everything.”

Rogowski is unsure when sales will launch for the next building.

Since there are very few new condo projects starting and most under construction are nearing completion, few new residences will be coming online in 2029 and 2030.

“Some buyers appreciate that and they're trying to get ahead of it by buying now because, as we get closer to that supply cliff, pricing will go up,” said Rogowski. 

“That’s not because, as developers, we're going to get greedy. But the cost of construction will go up and we'll have no choice but to keep pace with it.”

Other Canderel multifamily projects in Toronto

Montreal-headquartered Canderel was founded in 1975 and has been involved in more than 81 million square feet of owned, managed and developed properties since then. That represents more than $22 billion in acquisitions, development and management projects.

Canderel and KingSett Capital recently completed a 12-storey, 116-unit condo at 900 St. Clair Ave. W. in Toronto, where about half-a-dozen units remain unsold.

There are also a handful of unsold units remaining at a recently completed 238-unit condo and townhouse community at 625 Sheppard Ave. E., where Haven Developments partnered with Canderel.

A 12-storey, 173-unit condo at 908 St. Clair Ave. W., another partnership with KingSett, is being enclosed and occupancy is expected to begin late this year.

Alberta development projects

Construction has begun on the first phase of an Edmonton mixed-use development at 95 Avenue and 87 Street, signalling the start of what could eventually become a community of 1,900 new housing units. 

The initial phase includes 183 purpose-built rental units in two six-storey wood-frame buildings, a public plaza and neighbourhood retail.

The project is a partnership involving Canderel, Rockwell Investments, Nearctic Properties and Westlake.

Canderel also has a partnership with the Tsuut’ina Nation for the development of a 1,200-acre site called Taza adjacent to the southwest border of Calgary. 

“It's a 20-year project that will encompass many millions of square feet upon completion,” said Rogowski. 

“We're about three or four years into active development on that with all different types of real estate, including small retail, big box retail, an auto dealership, self-storage, office and all different types of residential for rent and for sale.”