Four Seasons Open in Toronto - Expect the best in Luxury

The luxury hotel group is to open a two-tower hotel and residences complex in the Yorkville district of Toronto, the city where it all started for Four Seasons 50 years ago this week.
The Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Toronto is scheduled to open next summer, and will be located on the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue.
The new property is just one block east of the existing Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, which will close in April 2012, and which is itself the third incarnation of Four Seasons in the city. The original Four Seasons hotel opened in Toronto in 1961, as CEO Kathleen Taylor explains:
“It was a motor hotel on a street called Jarvis Street which was the heart of the red light district in Toronto. It became famous because it was across the street from the CBC and in those days the intelligentsia worked for a lot of the government agencies and CBC was no exception. It became one of the most famous places for people to go for a drink after work and it was very successful.
“The second was the Inn on the Park which was way out in what was then farmland. As the city grew it became very successful because the area around it changed and it became like a resort within a city.”
The current Four Seasons property opened in the 1970s (having previously been branded as a Hyatt), and the buildings housing the first two hotels have since been demolished.
Next year will see the opening of the fourth Four Seasons hotel in Toronto, a new-build property comprising a 253-room hotel (a room count which is actually significantly down on the current 380), and over 200 private residences, spread across the 26-floor East Residence and 55-storey West Residence.

The top floor of the West Residence will house the 840sqm penthouse residence, while the hotel will take up the first 20 floors of the buidling. Features will include a first-floor restaurant with “celebrity chef concept”, a ground floor bar, and a 2,600sqm spa with a skylit indoor pool, whirlpool, treatment rooms and fitness centre. There will also be two ballrooms measuring 325 and 650sqm.

General manager of the current Four Seasons property Dimitris Zarikos is also overseeing the new development, and described the décor of the new property as being “minimalist, with muted tones and plenty of contemporary art”.

This week sees the 50th anniversary of the opening of the first Four Seasons property, and to celebrate the group has launched a new Living Values website highlighting Four Seasons’ global CSR efforts in its three focus areas of Supporting Sustainability, Building Communities and Advancing Cancer Research.
Four Seasons has planned openings for Marrakech, Guangzhou and Baltimore this year, with further properties slated in Baku and St Petersburg. The group also recently reopened its property on London’s Park Lane following extensive renovations (see online news January 31), and has also announced a third London property, to be located close to Liverpool Street station (see online news January 12).
Visit fourseasons.com, livingvalues.fourseasons.com, and for specific information on the new Four Seasons development in Toronto, visit yorkvilleresidences.com.

Toronto is Still Hot !

During the first 14 days of July, Greater Toronto Realtors reported an increase in sales and the average selling price compared to the first two weeks of July 2010. The number of sales through the Toronto MLS® system was up 35 per cent to 3,609, compared to 2,672 last year.
“Low mortgage rates, rising incomes and good news on the jobs front have kept consumers confident in purchasing a home in the Greater Toronto Area. In fact, home buyers are much more confident than they were this time last year when concerns around the HST, interest rate hikes and new mortgage lending rules had temporarily put a damper on home sales,” said Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) President Richard Silver.
Tight market conditions in the GTA drove a strong rate of price growth through the first two weeks July. The average selling price was $464,277 – up 9.6 per cent compared to the average of $423,773 in July 2010.
“Enhanced competition between home buyers continued to drive strong price growth through the first two weeks of July,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “While new listings were up year-over-year in the first half of the month, seller’s market conditions were sustained as sales grew at an even greater rate.”

Toronto Still going Strong !

Greater Toronto Realtors reported 7,922 transactions through the Toronto MLs® system in July 2011, representing a 23 per cent increase over July 2010. Total sales through the first seven months of this year amounted to 55,863 – down by 1.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2010. After adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, the July figure continued to point to an annual sales result close to 90,000 – in line with results from the previous six months.
"Strong home sales continued in July, with a substantial rebound over last summer’s slow-down brought about by higher mortgage rates, new lending guidelines and misconceptions about the HST. The greatest rebound was seen in the condominium apartment segment in the City of Toronto," said Toronto Real Estate Board President Richard Silver. "If the current pace of sales holds up, we could see the second best year on record under the current TREB market area."
The average selling price in July was $459,122 – up by almost ten per cent compared to the July 2010 average of $418,675.
“Tight market conditions have boosted the annual rate of price growth this year. However, the listings situation is starting to improve. A better supplied market later this year and into 2012 would lead to a more sustainable rate of price growth,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.