Expect more downtown Toronto condos. City planners in the area are allowing for more and more density in the Entertainment District on King St W, making developers so hungry for land that they are looking to build more the outlining areas as the neighborhood gets built out.

Rumors are that land owners are taking bids with short due diligence periods. This means developers don’t have much time to determine how many units they can build on a site, which is instrumental in determine how much the land is worth…this will lead to more aggressive developers as they will pay a premium for a site hoping they could make the money back with extra density (read: speculating and faster increase in price for existing units).

Here’s a few tweets made by super smart industry folks that is leading me to these conclusions:

It started like this:

Drinks with an industry veteran on Friday night... There is A LOT of overpaying for res land going on in the GTA right now. Not good.

January 16, 2012 3:48 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JeanhyShim

Jeanhy Shim

@JeanhyShim Interesting. How do know they are overpaying? (I tend to agree, but not sure how to prove). What would you point to?

January 16, 2012 1:55 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@BenRabidoux

Ben Rabidoux

@symmetrydevelop Either new players have deep pockets or they will be in for big shock when they can't get financing and/or make no profit!

January 16, 2012 3:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JeanhyShim

Jeanhy Shim

@BenRabidoux @BrianPersaud @JeanhyShim Piece of land that sold at Blue Jays Way & King St West - although modeled for hotel portion

January 16, 2012 2:02 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JShamess

Jeremiah Shamess

@JShamess @BenRabidoux @BrianPersaud It's the "planning wild west" in that area right now, so who knows what height/density they will get!

January 16, 2012 3:40 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JeanhyShim

Jeanhy Shim

This has lead to some Push back by lenders:

@JeanhyShim agreed. Evident by conventional financing leverages lowering on land deals. Some are flat out refusing to lend on land alone.

January 16, 2012 2:34 pm via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@FrankMargani

Frank Margani

As a result,here are a few projects that will add some extra variety to your traditional Entertainment District Condos or King W Condos. Since the pricelist is not out, its impossible to determine if the builder “overpaid” or they paid a good price so a buyer could make some money from it.

Fashion District Condos (Queen West Condos)

170 Spadina:

Builder: Tri-Win International. 17 Storeys and 175 units, designed by Wallman Architects. Signifiies development is starting to move Westward from the Fashion and Entertainment District.

Fabrik 431 Richmond St W, Toronto, Ontario:

Builder: Menkes. 16 Storeys and 209 units. Set to be the first launch of 2012. Building designed by Giannone Petricone and is a concrete slab styled building (vs all glass).

219 Queen St W

Builder: Camrost-Felcorp. 23 Storeys and 212 units. Current proposal calls for with retail at grade and one floor of commercial office space.

Near Entertainment District Condos (Condos close to King W)

156 Front St W

Builder: Cadillac Fairview.  65 Storeys and 620 units. Set to have a 54 storey office tower as part of the same project. Designed by Zeidler.

Expect the Entertainment District expansion trend to continue….hopefully these projects will yield a good return