Le Solano phase 6, 19 floors, may start site prep next week.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/201...ing-in-a-week/
Buyers might have the upper hand in the Montreal condo market these days, but Solano developer Patrick Varin tells me Wednesday he isn’t just getting ready to open a sales office – he’s preparing to dig.
Translation: Varin says he will start construction next week on 139 condos, regardless of how many sell at the phase 6 launch of the Old Montreal project this weekend.
Sounds ballsy? Varin claims he doesn’t need to sell the usual 60 per cent of units to secure bank financing since well – he isn’t using a bank to finance the project.
“We hear that there’s a slowdown but we’re not feeling it,” Varin says of the project.
Lucky him. In Montreal, new condo construction is down by 16 per cent this year, and some developers have cancelled or are scaling back projects. Samcon’s new condo tower on Drummond St., for example, is being redesigned with smaller, less expensive condo units.
According to housing data from Altus Group – cited Monday by the Wall Street Journal – quarterly presales of new downtown Montreal condos have averaged nine units per project this year, down from 16 units in both 2012 and 2011. Ten new condo projects were announced in Montreal during the first six months of 2013, compared to 14 during the first half of 2012.
Varin said Solano has an advantage because of its location near the water and from limited competitors in the area. Interest from buyers hasn’t been as great at another project he’s working on in the city’s east-end.
“If I were building a condo around the Bell Centre right now I wouldn’t take the risk of digging next week because there’s so much going up,” he told me.
Not so for the Tour des Canadiens, another project that doesn’t seem to “feel” the slowdown. After selling out the first tower, developer Candere and partners are considering the launch of a second condo building near the Bell Centre.
What’s holding the developer back? Fear that the city will nix their plans to construct an overpass from the Bell Centre to the building that would be located south of Saint Antoine St.
Concern over a lack of buyers? Didn’t cross their minds.
alampert@montrealgazette.com
@RealDealMtl