Let’s try this again.

Remember when I wrote about my attempts to purchase a condo at 2 Gladstone in the Queen West area?

Well Streetcar Developments will be launching Sync Condos this week and I’m bringing my cheque book, my patience, and a lot of elbow grease…

I honestly can’t explain my obsession with Streetcar Developments.

Maybe it’s because when I was a child, my mother forced us to ride the streetcar in Park City, Utah all day and all night.

It was called “Main Street’s Historic Trolley,” and we did the touristy-thing and caught a ride.  But one ride became two, and two became ten, and even though my Dad had enough and wanted to get off, my Mom wanted to keep riding it.  I’m pretty sure that’s why my parents ended up getting divorced…

Streetcar Developments is changing the face of Corktown and historic “King East” as we know it.  They are simultaneously building THREE condominiums within arm’s length in the King & Sumach area, all under the umbrella of their “Corktown District” development:

Building #1: 52 Sumach Street – 5-stories, 44 units.

Building #2: 549 King Street East – 6-stories, 48 units

Building #3: 569 King Street East – 6-stories, 46-units

Building #4: 510 King Street East

The fourth building is still in “proposed” status, whereas the other three buildings are currently under construction and are probably no more than six to eight months away from being completed.

It took a while to get the development off the ground, but it’s finally happened, and I expect to see pleasant results.

I wrote about my experiences trying to buy a condominium at 2 Gladstone back in October.  That post can be seen here.

My attempts were rebuffed by a questionable pre-pre-pre-sale of the majority of the smaller units to the developer’s close family, and the prices were just too high to justify to begin with.

I went back to the sales centre in November and tried to re-work the numbers to see if I could make a profit down the road.  I just couldn’t see the upside potential, and I put the development out of my mind.

Now the new Sync Condos is being launched on Tuesday, only this time there are no appointments, no lineups, and no “doormen” out front of the sales centre to stop me from going inside and purchasing over-priced real estate.

Prices start at $179,000, and I can say almost unequivocally, that I’ll buy whatever they are selling for $179,000.

You can’t find real estate in this city for $179,000, and for that reason, and that reason alone, I think there is value in this project.

Of course, I don’t know if this is a 400 square foot bachelor or a 585 square foot 1-bedroom.  That remains to be seen.

But assuming this is at least a 460 square foot bachelor condo, that would put the price per square foot at $389, and I see value there.

Compare this project to Edge Lofts across the street and you’ll understand why I see value.

Edge Lofts has been selling rather well on the resale market over the past six months, and prices have pushed $500 per square foot.  The very “special” units have sold as high as $530/sqft, which is pretty good considering this building is on the very edge of the Don Valley Parkway and in an area that is under-developed and has little infrastructure.

“Riverside” is an up-and-coming neighbourhood that doesn’t seem to have any defined boundaries, but if history is any indication, we know that people assign more value to a property if it’s in a neighbourhood.

The term “Davisville Village” was definitely invented by a real estate agent within the last decade simply to pump up the neighbourhood and give it some character.

One experienced agent in my office told me a few years aso, “Leslieville isn’t so much a neighbourhood as it is an idea.”  Tell that to the scores of residents that tell their friends, family, and co-workers, “I just bought a beautiful house down in Leslieville.”

So now that “Riverside” finding its way into the mainstream, I see large potential for the real estate on Queen Street in the area just east of the DVP.

As for the project itself, Sync Lofts gets its name from the supposed technological advancements within the building.  The tagline for the project reads, “The latest technological advancements within a boutique loft residence.”

Here is a little cut-and-paste of a part of their marketing campaign:

I understand everything but the “24/7 Streetcar service” since I don’t know what that had to do with technology.  Our TTC streetcar system is one of the most archaic methods of transit on the planet, but I’ll leave that as a topic (read: rant) for another day…

These features sound all well and good, and I’m sure built-in speakers and “HD-ready lofts” are features we could all benefit from.

But let’s not forget the timeline for this project.

I don’t care what the developer says, this project won’t be completed until after the town of Sochi, Russia hosts the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.  Oh, I’m sure the target possession date will me……hmmm…..Summer, 2012, but that’s just more sales-speak.  We know developers can and will say whatever they bloody-well please…

So what do I like about this project?

Why am I committed, sight-unseen?

I like the price, or at least the potentially low(er) price.  That’s all I really care about.

But I also like the area, and even though there is a massive strip-club on the corner of Broadview/Queen that will probably never go anywhere, I like the Queen Street strip as it extends into Leslieville.

The downtown core is so expensive and expanding so rapidly that people are seeking out residences on “the other side” of the downtown limits, ie. the Don Valley Parkway and The Don River.

Leslieville and South Riverdale residents are a quick streetcar ride away from downtown, and few would say that crossing Queen Street from Riverside into the downtown core is like taking the Queensboro bridge from Queens to Manhattan…

Well, I have my chequebook ready and I’m willing to give this a shot.

Tuesday at 3:59PM I’ll be licking the glass from the outside of the sales centre at 630 Queen Street in anticpation of being let into the building for what will surely be a bunch of Realtors throwing elbows and spilling Starbucks on eachother’s pin-stripe suits.

I’ll let ya know how this all pans out…