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]

It's now in a class of  cities with booming tech industries and rapidly rising house prices, a new forecast says. Toronto's housing market has seen a marked slowdown since a new non-resident tax successfully pushed many foreign buyers out, but a forecast from real estate agency Engel & Völkers says a new phenomenon is about to take over as the driver of Toronto's housing boom: The tech industry. The influx of tech companies into Toronto's downtown core in... [read more]

It may not be a glorious sight, but the sight shows a bright future: Right now, Toronto has the most construction cranes in North America - which indicates massive development. Toronto has an estimated 97 active construction cranes as of July 2018, according to the recent Rider Levett Bucknall Index (RLB Crane Index). This means the city has more than double the number of cranes of Chicago, four times as many as San Francisco and about five times as many cranes as New York City. In fact,... [read more]

With due respect to the politicians, economists, pundits, journalists, builders, realtors, empty-nesters, first-time buyers, and others who have opined on the fragility of the condo market and whay they perceive will be the cause of its imminent crash... They've got it wrong. But, also a bit right. Let me explain. This market, despite its solid fundamentals, is at a higher degree of risk today than any time in its recent past. If we don't recognize that risk and do something... [read more]

It would be easy to mistake the lobby of the One o One condos in midtown Toronto for a nightclub or graffiti-splashed alley. Instead of the muted colours and cookie-cutter designs that fill many condo buildings, developer Camrost Felcorp hired Toronto artist Anthony Ricciardi to create seven murals splattered with bright paint and a rainbow of drip marks. The flashy pieces put the building in a growing group of condo complexes whose hallways, lobbies and outdoor grounds are being... [read more]