Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 481

Perhaps the two most distinctive features of Montreal's low-rise architectural landscape are (1) lots of exterior stairs and (2) lots of balconies. (Their density is, of course, also noteworthy, particularly in a North American context.)

The exterior stairs are somewhat curious to outsiders given all the snow the city gets. But it's maybe a good case study and follow-up to yesterday's post about 1925 Victoria Park Road and its proposed exterior corridors.

As for the second feature, the Globe and Mail recently published this wonderful little ode to the Montreal balcony . It is a great reminder that, when designed well, people really do love balconies and exterior spaces.

This is an ongoing debate in the world of multi-family development, and the outcomes often vary by city and sometimes by housing tenure. But at the end of the day, I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't appreciate getting outside in the summer.

A recent development proposal at 1925 Victoria Park Road (Toronto) by Well Grounded Real Estate (developer) and Partisans (architect) is noteworthy for a number of reasons:

• The 12-storey, 168-suite residential mid-rise building is proposed to be built out of mass-timber.

• It is targeting Toronto Green Standard Tier 4, which is a voluntary, difficult-to-achieve, and expensive sustainability target. It is the equivalent of net-zero and I believe the only projects to date that have achieved this level in the city are public projects.

• The circulation spaces are exterior single-loaded corridors that face an internal courtyard. This approach is very common in some cities, but almost non-existent in Toronto. Usually because someone will cite our winters as being a problem and because double-loaded corridors are typically the most efficient (rentable area / gross construction area). But the benefits are that you don't need to heat/cool these corridor spaces and you open up the possibility of suites with windows on both ends.

• The design doesn't generally follow the typical " pyramid-shaped confection " that has come to define Toronto mid-rise buildings, though it does seem to generally conform to the 45 degree angular planes that we love to obsess over. Instead, it is starting to resemble a typical European courtyard building. Good. For some more commentary on this, check out John Lorinc's recent piece in the Globe and the Mail.

This is unquestionably an ambitious project. And ambition is what cities need. So I am pleased to write about it today on the blog. If you'd like to learn more, check out their project website .

Image: Partisans

Back in May, I wrote a post about time to market and managing costs in condominium projects . What I wrote then remains true and equally, if not more, important today. But given all the uncertainty that we are continuing to see in the market, I thought I would elaborate on a few points.

It used to be the case, when I first started working on condominium projects back in 2007 or so, that you would go pens down on your design drawings while you launched pre-sales and worked toward meeting your construction financing requirements.

Once you hit 50% sales, or maybe once you completely reached your financing hurdle, you would then call your architect back up and kindly ask them to get started on working drawings.

And the reason you did it this way was because working drawings are kind of expensive and so you wanted to make sure that your sales were going to be there. You were also trying to push as many of your costs out to after you had your construction loan in place so that you had a lower peak equity requirement.

You can't do this today.

Since the beginning of this year, we have seen average high-rise construction costs increase by about 12% in the Greater Toronto Area and, for the balance of this year, some are predicting as much as 4% per month. What this means is that if you wait like the old days, you will likely see costs run away from you and you won't be able to finance your project based on the sales you do have in place.

So what you want to do is not go pens down. Keep going on drawings. Start buying construction (i.e. tendering). And work toward locking in as many of your costs as possible.

How much is ultimately up to you and the exact market conditions at the time. But I know a number of condominium developers now targeting at least 50% tendered, which means securing most of your key contracts: formwork, concrete & rebar supply, windows, M&E, and so on.

A lot of us are hoping that costs will eventually come down and follow certain commodities in the near term. But as our cost consultant effectively said to me this week, "just because the price of cold-formed steel has come down, do you really think you'll be able to walk into a BMW dealership and ask for a deep discount?"