“22 Condominiums” at 22 Wellesley Street East is a beautiful new 23-storey condominium building a half a block east of Yonge/Wellesley.

Or should I say, it will be a beautiful new condominium….once it’s completed.

But owners have already taken possession of their units, and residents have moved in.

Is this building actually FINISHED?  Is it worth living in yet?

On Wednesday, I was taking two clients around the city in search of a decent condominium to lease beginning September 1st.

On our list was a unit at 22 Wellesley Street East, which looked fantastic….on paper.

For $2,100 per month, you get a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom unit that has never been lived in; appliances that have never been used and still have the owner’s manual inside.  The unit is over 900 square feet with another 75 square feet on the balcony, and features engineered hardwood flooring, exposed concrete walls & ceilings, and has a great floorplan with a split bedroom layout.

The building itself is in a dream location; right next door to Wellesley TTC subway station, and about a hundred feet from Yonge Street.  It’s as close as you can possibly get to public transit, and it’s in the heart of downtown Toronto on the street with the most action and culture.

Based on comparable condominium leases across downtown Toronto, $2,100 for a 2-bedroom of this calibur is a great price.

So what is my problem with this unit and this building?

22 Wellesley Street is not finished yet!

Walk through the front doors of the building into the lobby, and there is exposed drywall, wires sticking out of the walls, and an overzealous security guard that asks you to “sign in” on a pad of graph paper!  She stopped short of telling us to spell out our names using line graphs & bar charts…

Enter the elevator, with the rest of the construction workers, and try not to trip over the planks of chipwood that line the elevator floor.  Whatever you do, don’t lean against the walls of the elevator or you’ll be brushing soot and drywall dust off your shirt for days.

Once you step out of the elevator onto the 9th floor, you realize it’s not just the lobby and the elevator that is a mess—it’s the entire building.  The hallways on the 9th floor are a total mess; unfinished floors & walls, wires sticking out, missing light fixtures, tape on the floors & walls, cardboard & construction waste cluttering the floors, dust everywhere.

It kind of kills the ambiance as you prepare to enter a luxury condominium unit.

The interior of the unit itself is gorgeous.  Everything inside the front door is fully finished, not so much as a lightswitch cover out of place.  The unit is spacious, well finished, and worth the $2,100 asking price….if not for the rest of the building!

This situation simply begs the question: is it worth living in an unfinished building?

As we walked out of 22 Wellesley Street, I told my clients “You ladies do NOT want to live there.”  They weighed the pros and cons, and I let them have their say.  But as I explained to them, “Perhaps this building will be completed by the October 1st target, and perhaps you will get a terrific deal.  But the potential for nightmare exists.”

It’s a simple risk versus reward equation.

At the start of August, the building is a complete mess, and there is still construction going on at the top floors which are far, FAR from completion.  None of the amenities are completed, although you can see the hot tub sitting uninstalled out back of the building.  The gym, pool, and hot tub surely will not be installed until well, well after the final units are completed.

And how many condominiums in Toronto are EVER finished on time?

In my opinion, it just isn’t worth the headache to live in a building that isn’t 100% completed.  You can never be sure what problems will be encountered and what delays will occur on the path to completion.

Radio City is a very popular condominium complex at 281 & 285 Mutual Street.  But ask any of the residents there how they’ve enjoyed the year or so after they took possession and they’ll simply roll their eyes.  Trust me on this one, I have talked to enough of them!  Radio City advertised their 3-storey, indoor fitness facility as state-of-the-art and unheralded for condominiums, which is all true.  But it took almost TWO YEARS to construct the facilities, and residents were still paying for gym memberships across Toronto while at the same time paying high maintenance fees on their units at Radio City.

A few months back, I went to see a few units for sale at One City Hall at 111 Elizabeth Street near Bay & Dundas.  Unlike 22 Wellesley Street, the lobby at One City Hall was phenomenal.  Gorgeous in every respect, with marble floors, waterfalls, all the bells & whistles, including security guards that don’t get out a rubber glove when you walk through the door.  But same as 22 Wellesley, once we went through the doors towards the elevators, nothing is finished!  Drywall and wires sticking out, garbage in the hallways, and half the doors weren’t even labelled with unit numbers!  As residents moved in on the 1st through 7th floors, construction continued on floors 8 through 16.

I wouldn’t advise anybody to move into an unfinished building, especially one where construction continues on floors above you, and the corridors and other facilities are a complete mess every day of the week.

Personally, I just don’t feel like coming home to a war zone every night.

I’ll look forward to that once I’m married with kids…