The Guardian - March 3rd Presentation Centre Opens

[Travis Munroe]

Seems to be quite a bit of buzz around the tower.

1 bedrooms starting at 150k without parking
2 bedrooms starting at 313,900 with 1 parking stall
Nearly 78% of suites will be under 400k

If you are not going but want me to check on something for you just let me know!

http://theguardiancalgary.com/

[Temporary_User]

When is the building expected to be complete?

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Pricing for suite 9 floors 14-34. Thanks.

[Travis Munroe]

When is the building expected to be complete?

2 years from now.

[Travis Munroe]

Suite 9 will be the most popular IMO.
After speaking with someone else interested in suite 9 we figured that floor 10 would be around 370 with roughly 5k per floor on the way up.

[Bigtime]

Suite 9 is going to have killer views of downtown, plus that excellent west light. Just make sure you put in some blackout blinds behind the standard curtains if you want to watch tv!

Edit: Paramount suite 4 should be killer too. The SE view will allow a great vantage of the Stampede grounds and fireworks, although eventually you'd lose a lot of south exposure when the second tower goes ahead.

[Travis Munroe]

Second tower was supposed to start around 2015 if I remember?
ArriVa units facing mainly south or north are going to see a pretty decent return on their original investment once the guardian is complete.
Commercial space will finally be supported, east village is ready to take off, that underpass, stampede expansion......It will change the downtown and what is an area no one visits (unless leaving a flames game) will be something else in 3/4 years once the base for the area is set.

[Arsenal14]

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9458/guardianpd.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/guardianpd.png/)

I'm trying to figure out exactly where the Guardian towers are going. Does this look right?

Does anybody know if there are plans to develop the block to the north? I love the suite 9 plan and am trying to figure out if the view is going to be blocked in the near future. I know during the last major boom somebody was maintaining a map showing all of the proposed/ongoing developments around downtown. Is there a current version somewhere?

[Travis Munroe]

I would be willing to bet that the North and South views are the safest.

I was in ArriVa the other day and looking down, the Guardian takes up the entire west block. Perhaps they are building a podium and then your map will work.
They also own some pieces of land to the east but as discussed before, so does the stampede.

[Bigtime]

Your map is correct, I think you are safest with north and west views from the first tower (south views will be blocked by the second tower eventually). Years ago the block west had a Torode proposal called "arriVa west" that was two midrise buildings around 20 storeys. Of course all those plans are as good as dead as others picked up his properties when he went belly up.

I have heard of no major proposals for those two parking lots north of the block. They are planning a small vertical expansion of the Biscuit building directly north of arriVa.

Edit: just a clarification, the Stampede does not own any land north of 12th avenue. Remington developments owns a big chunk that they will eventually build their mixed use "Railtown" development on.

[Travis Munroe]

^^^ I too have heard about taking that property to the north of Arriva to around 6 stories at most.
When i said south and north facing....I was thinking of the actual Arriva building, :bag:

BigTime... you think that anything direct to the east of Arriva is bound to be safe for quite some time with no immediate plans of that railway?

[Bigtime]

Can't say with any certainty, Remington is apparently waiting until the time is right to develop the lands he holds there. I think as the East Village builds up then we will see demand jump across the CP tracks into this area. Could be 5 years, could be 10.

[bizaro86]

Seems like this project is going to be a success. I spoke with my rep there (I got on the list to go this upcoming weekend) and they have 80+ units sold to the developer's "friends and family" already. Some of the 1 bedroom floorplans that I asked about are sold out up to the 22nd floor.

In general the parking seems to add 40k per unit, how does that compare to other buildings in the area, about right or too high/low?

[Travis Munroe]

that is about right, I know parking in ArriVa sells in the 20-40k range depending on location.

[Arsenal14]

Only two left for the NW corner (suite 9). I think it was floors 25 & 29. Starting at $535,000 for those. I think the sales guy said they sold 80 units at the pre-pre-sale.

[Travis Munroe]

^^ thats crazy, I wonder what the East Village launch will be like.

[Bigtime]

I'm cautious about these massive amounts of "pre-sales", especially since the word is they went to friends and family. We saw this happen with a lot of developments during the last boom, allowing the building to hit the percentage it needs for bank financing to start construction. Once that is underway the friends and family "sell" the units back to the developer so they can put them back onto the market (usually at a higher price).

Long story short, I would look to see a lot of the 9 suites come back onto the market later during the construction process, or even closer to completion.

[Bigtime]

that is about right, I know parking in ArriVa sells in the 20-40k range depending on location.

During construction Torode was charging $20,000 for an extra parking stall. There were plenty for arriVa since the underground parking was the full North-South of the development on P2. On P3 and P4 is started to reduce from the south. In the end there was still a lot of extra parking available. The city assesses the parking spots at about $10,000 each for taxes.

[Travis Munroe]

I was referring to the most recent sales I had heard about.
With stampede parking rates, rent it out for 1 season and its almost paid for

[bizaro86]

Your map is correct, I think you are safest with north and west views from the first tower (south views will be blocked by the second tower eventually). Years ago the block west had a Torode proposal called "arriVa west" that was two midrise buildings around 20 storeys. Of course all those plans are as good as dead as others picked up his properties when he went belly up.

I have heard of no major proposals for those two parking lots north of the block. They are planning a small vertical expansion of the Biscuit building directly north of arriVa.

Edit: just a clarification, the Stampede does not own any land north of 12th avenue. Remington developments owns a big chunk that they will eventually build their mixed use "Railtown" development on.

Pricing seemed to bear out the north views being better than the west views, as the north units were ~20k more expensive than the south units (roughly, as the comparables he gave me were on different floors). The south units had many more that were sold however, so maybe people aren't realizing the difference in view or aren't willing to pay that much for it.

[Bigtime]

I was referring to the most recent sales I had heard about.
With stampede parking rates, rent it out for 1 season and its almost paid for

Rent it to who though? A fellow resident? No problem. Rent it to someone that doesn't live in the building? The condo board is going to be all over you with fines (and will lien your property if you do not pay). It is a security and building access issue to allow non-residents access to the parking and lobby/podium levels.

[Travis Munroe]

fair enough....I have parked down there on multiple occasions without the owner ever having issues.
It was in green text for a reason.

[Bigtime]

Parking down there using a residents pass every now and then probably isn't a problem, it is renting out the stall to a non-resident that is the issue.

When I was president of the board those first two years we clamped down on that pretty hard, plus any other violations that were occurring.

[Travis Munroe]

I just heard that of the 321 units at the guardian, 13 are left.

[Bigtime]

That is just insane, now let's see if they can build it.

[Fueled By Fire]

That is crazy...

I wonder now whether they'll start building tower two soon.

[Bigtime]

That is crazy...

I wonder now whether they'll start building tower two soon.

The opportunity could certainly present itself, since they have to build the entire podium for the first tower it would be easy enough to start construction of the second tower after that if the sales stay strong and they have the financing to do it.

[Bigtime]

I just heard that of the 321 units at the guardian, 13 are left.

Does this mean they released all units in the building to sell?

If that is the case than my theory of the "friends and family" sales being nothing more than a way for the developer to hold onto units until later on is probably true.

[bomba]

Seems improbable that so many units have sold so quickly. I think you are probably right on your theory Bigtime

[Travis Munroe]

And I have also heard the rumor that discussions/planning of tower 2 is under way.
Take it for what it is.

[Bigtime]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but they will already have a development permit approved for both towers, so there should be no bureaucratic hurdles to jump through to expedite the second tower.

[stampsx2]

Is the second tower suppose to be similar in height, higher or lower? Is the design suppose to be the same?

[Bigtime]

Exact same height and design.

[Free Ben Hur!]

I read that there is going to be combination living / commercial suites in the podium. Any thoughts re: how many, typical sq. ft., layouts? Would these be like street access commercial suites with second floor living kind of thing?

[troutman]

I'm cautious about these massive amounts of "pre-sales", especially since the word is they went to friends and family. We saw this happen with a lot of developments during the last boom, allowing the building to hit the percentage it needs for bank financing to start construction. Once that is underway the friends and family "sell" the units back to the developer so they can put them back onto the market (usually at a higher price).



Smells like mortgage fraud.