“What a gorgeous boutique condo,” said the uninformed, naive buyer as she browsed through the leaflets and promotional material for Promenade on The Danforth in 2007.

“What a great location!  And it’s going to be built by 2009?  I’m sold!”

Not everything works out as promised.

Here’s a neat little video I shot on a freezing December day…

While I did my first take of this video, two cars smashed into eachother on Warden Avenue.

I captured the whole thing on film!

Anyways…

I don’t regret what I said about Icon Developments in the video.

For a complete list of every project they’ve been involved with, click HERE.

For those of you too lazy to click on the link, I’ll spell it out for you: they’ve only ever been associated with one development: Promenade on The Danforth.

I think it goes without saying that any first-time developer presents a serious risk to the buyer, but quite often, one of the developement “team” members will have experience elsewhere.  If there are four principals in “XYZ Developments,” and one of them has built a dozen condominiums with “ABC Corp.,” then they’ll likely promote that in their marketing materials.

But when you have first-timers who are really green and have zero experience, I would likely shy away from the project no matter what.

I’ve driven by this site at Danforth/Warden a few dozen times since I first approached the locked-doors back in early 2007, and not once did I ever expect to see a hole in the ground, a crane, or a bunch of construction workers.

Stories like this are common, but I don’t think they get told nearly enough…