Menkes Earns Canada's Top Builder and Best-Selling Project Honours For Second Year in a Row

Finance.yahoo.com
Feb. 10. 2022

Menkes Developments Ltd. (Menkes) is proud to share that according to new data released by Altus Group, a leading provider in real estate data and advisory services, the Company ranked as the number one builder in Canada for pre-construction high rise sales in 2021. Additionally, Grand Festival, Phase Two of its latest joint venture with QuadReal Property Group (QuadReal) is the best-selling new condominium project in Canada. Incredibly, the first phase of the project earned the same title for 2020.

In yet another year marred by so much financial uncertainty, this is a remarkable feat for the Company and a testament to its solid reputation as Toronto's premier builder, unique product offering, and to the strength of the fast-growing market in Vaughan. It appears the demand for high rise housing in both the City and the suburbs is growing at record pace.

Festival is a 5.15-acre mixed-use development located at Highway 7 and Highway 400 in Vaughan, a suburban municipality immediately north of the City of Toronto. Situated in the master-planned downtown district known as South Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), Festival will feature four condominium towers varying in height from 40 to 59 storeys, one of which will be the tallest in the VMC, standing tall at 190.5 metres in height. The towers will be anchored by 85,000 square feet of retail space and the focal point of the development will be a dynamic, retail-lined pedestrian mews that opens onto a public courtyard.

Phase One of Festival (Towers 1 and 2) comprised of 59 and 48-storey towers launched in Spring 2020 with 1325 units. Phase Two of the development (Towers 3 and 4) launched in Spring 2021 with 1145 units in the 55 and 41-storey towers, and sold out in a mere three months. Construction on the project commenced October 2021, with occupancies anticipated to begin in Fall 2024. The highly anticipated next phase of Festival will be launching this year.

"We are thrilled to see Festival's incredible success continue this past year," said Jared Menkes, Executive Vice President, High Rise. "Clearly buyers recognize that this is the most exciting mixed-use development in the GTA, with the exceptional quality and forward-thinking design that can only be delivered by an experienced builder like Menkes."

Menkes sold a total of 1,736 new condominium units over the past year, earning not just the top spot among high rise builders across Toronto, but across the country. In addition to Festival, Menkes achieved substantial sales at other condo projects in Toronto, including Adagio in Yorkville, The Whitfield in Downtown East and Sugar Wharf on the Waterfront. Currently, Menkes has over 5,000 units under construction across the GTA and another 15,000 units under development.

According to Altus, overall condo sales in the GTA for 2021 were 40% above the 10-year average, with 32,919 units sold, and over 52% of the new condo sales recorded were in the 905 suburbs.

"We see the growth of high rise development in the suburbs as a trend that will continue in the future, driven by affordability, desire for green space and population demographics. The 905 suburbs have matured and households from these communities, whether they are first-time buyers or empty nesters, don't want to move far away from their current home base for condominium living."

Menkes has a long history as a leader in the industry, including being one of the pioneering developers of the condominium lifestyle in Toronto in the 1970s. Aside from earning the top builder and best-selling condo project titles last year, the Company's Sugar Wharf -- the largest mixed-use community on Toronto's waterfront, was the best-selling high rise project in Canada in 2018, and Harbour Plaza Residences in the South Core Financial District, top-selling for 2013.