I’ve always been a fan of Christopher Hume’s weekly column as the Toronto Star’s “Condo Critic.”

I met Christopher last year at the Toronto Real Estate Board as he was our guest speaker for one of our TREB Condo Task Force meetings.

I’ve been waiting for him to review London on The Esplanade, and alas, here it is…

CONDO CRITIC: Esplanade Appeal Easy To Understand

Christopher Hume

September 12th, 2009

Like so many streets that started life as industrial arteries, The Esplanade has since become a place to be, an urban destination. Many cities have such a district – think of Vancouver, Montreal and even Winnipeg – and in Toronto’s case, there are several such areas. The best known is probably Spadina, but now we also have the Distillery District.

The Esplanade has the advantage of having become the main street of a new area, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood, east of Church St. Planned in the 1970s, this was one of the great exceptions to widespread blight of “urban renewal” visited upon cities at that time.

West of Church, The Esplanade is a more downtown sort of street than it is east of Church, and especially Jarvis St., where it becomes more residential, with a park running along its south side.

Closer to Yonge, and close to several theatres, The Esplanade is lined with hotels, restaurants and bars, and now, condos.

Though the street is a just bit south of the core – Front St. seems to be the cut-off in these parts – the appeal of the area isn’t hard to figure out. It doesn’t help having the railway tracks and the Gardiner Expressway so close, but everything else feels close, too.

Condo Critic

London on The Esplanade, 38 The Esplanade: It’s true, it’s true, this remarkable new complex is still under construction. But that hasn’t stopped people from moving in. Despite the presence of hoardings and workers in hard hats, it’s abundantly clear that this project contributes positively to the neighbourhood. Indeed, it’s one of the best things to happen to The Esplanade in some years.

Occupying the north side of the street one block east of Yonge, London has been fitted into its site with rare sensitivity. The garage entrance has been put on Scott St., which serves as the western boundary of the development, leaving the front, which faces onto The Esplanade, free to go beyond the mundane. And so it does; in fact, the south frontage reads like three facades.

The westernmost is a five-storey limestone-clad box that pays homage to the Sony Centre next door. From there all the way west to Union Station and The Royal York Hotel, the dominant material is limestone. To the east, however, it’s the same red brick incorporated into the east end of the new condo. A section in the middle, made of dark glass, mediates between the two edges.

The main tower, which sits near the corner of The Esplanade and Scott, is set back far enough that it has little presence on the street. The fear that it would loom over the district ominously turned out to be unfounded. The designers also set the heights of the podium to match those of existing structures. This further enhances the sense that London belongs in its specific context, even that it seems somehow inevitable.

Of course, many details have yet to take shape; but so far the attention to material quality and the elegance of the basic architecture inspire confidence. In this instance, one can’t help but feel things will only get better.

Grade: A

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Here’s a story…

My friends and I used to go to The Bier Market every August for my birthday, starting in 2001.

The first two years, we had no problems getting a reservation for ten of us on the patio outside.

The third year, we were allowed a reservation inside, and once we had arrived we were permitted to wait for a table on the patio.

The fourth year, they seated us inside as per our reservation, and then told us that our group would be too large to seat on the patio and thus we’d have to make do inside.

And then came the fifth and final year.  Some over-entitled ass who made $8 per hour told me on the phone that not only could we not make a reservation for the patio, not only could we not make a reservation inside, but he wouldn’t allow twelve guys to “take up space” inside for dinner.

I asked him just what the hell he was talking about, and he told me that “guys are easy to attract to The Bier Market; they’re a dime a dozen.”  He said he wasn’t going to waste the space on us because if we didn’t show, then twelve other guys would take our place.

The Bier Market became too-cool-for-school about 3-4 years ago when the quaint beer pub became the apple of the Woodbridge crew’s eye and Saturday nights turned into a contest to see whose black leather jacket could reek of the most cologne.  Lines stretched around the block and were 200-people deep, the doormen became bouncers and got fatter and balder, and going for dinner became a fruitless task.

The Esplanade has become a big-money epicenter for many of the young downtowners, and thus it’s no surprise that a $500-per-square-foot condo was recently built with an Esplanade address.

The buildings (including 1 Scott Street) are spectacular, and once completely finished will be a top-five condominium in the area.

The location is prime – next to Union Station, Yonge Street, and the St. Lawrence Market, and if you make too much money on your investment at 38 The Esplanade, you can always go buy some $9.00 pints at The Bier Market.

I just guarantee you won’t see me there…