SOTTO SOTTO HOW A SMALL RESTAURANT BECAME A 'SECOND HOME' FOR A-LISTERS On Christmas night, a still-unexplained fire destroyed the building at 116 Avenue Rd., home to Spuntini restaurant on the top floor an the aptly named Sotto Sotto (Italian for underneath) in the basement.  Many Yorkville residents were tipped off to the three-alarm disaster via the throngs of smoke and screaming sirens. Ninety firefighters worked to put out the blaze, which officials... [read more]

ONTARIO TRIED A SPECULATION TAX ON PROPERTY AND THE MARKET COLLAPSED OVERNIGHT For decades, Barry Lebow has kept a scapbook of one of the most traumatic business days in his life. There are some dates you always remember, and for the Ontario real estate industry it's April 9, 1974. That is the day the province shocked the sector by announcing a 50% land speculation tax.  "We had no wind of this," said Lebow, now 69. "I was 27 years old and I owned 53 houses... [read more]

NEW 59-STOREY TOWER PROPOSED FOR SCOLLARD ST. IN YORKVILLE A residential tower has been proposed by the Cityzen Development Group for the southwest corner of Yonge and Scollard Streets in Toronto's tony Bloor-Yorkville area. Designed by the highly regarded Bruce Kuwabara of KPMB Architects, the 59-storey structure with a marble and white concrete-clad exoskeleton is meant as an architectual gateway to the Yorkville area from the north. 1 Scollard is proposed as a slender tower of... [read more]

PRE-CONSTRUCTION CONDOS: SHOULD YOU USE A REALTOR? Should you use a realtor when buying a new pre-construction condo? The answer for this is a definite YES. Toronto Realtor Matt Smith, who specializes in helping buyers navigate through the complicated process of buying new condos, has shared with me the many pitfalls and disadvantages of buyers going at it alone when dealing with the builders' sales staff. Above all else, realize that the builder's sales team works for... [read more]

WHAT YORKVILLE WILL LOOK LIKE AFTER THE CONDO BOOM? The transformation of neighbourhoods by rapidly rising condominiums is happening all over Toronto, but some areas are set for dramatic overhauls that will leave them as entirely different places. Such is the case with Yorkville. There are more than 10 massive condominium and mixed-use projects planned for the small area near Bay and Bloor that will completely revamp it over the next decade. Yonge and Bloor, which serves as one of the... [read more]