Concord Adex

Concord Adex is the Toronto operating arm of Concord Pacific, described as Canada’s largest master-planned community builder. The group was formed in 1987 to develop Concord Pacific Place on the former Expo 86 lands in downtown Vancouver, and is led by president and chief executive Terry Hui.

Its Toronto work began in 1997, when it acquired the downtown rail lands at the foot of the CN Tower.

The largest residential community built in downtown Toronto in the modern era: roughly 7,500 homes on 18 hectares of former rail land between the CN Tower and the waterfront.

It was built out over roughly two decades and was substantially complete by 2018, finishing with its two tallest towers at 59 and 69 storeys.

CityPlace is worth understanding as a case study rather than only as an address. It is the clearest example in Canada of a single developer taking a large piece of derelict downtown land and building an entire neighbourhood on it, with all the strengths and the criticisms that approach attracts.

Concord Park Place at Sheppard and Bessarion in North York, a second master-planned community built around a transit station and a central park, plus more recent downtown towers.

The pattern is consistent across both cities: acquire a large parcel, plan it as a whole, build it in phases over fifteen or twenty years, and deliver the parks, community centre and public realm as part of the project.

Three things. First, the neighbourhood you buy into in year three is not the one that exists in year fifteen, so ask what is approved for the remaining blocks and at what height.

Second, your view is only protected if something other than a future phase sits in front of it. Ask specifically.

Third, the amenity and public realm that make the sales material appealing often arrive with later phases. Ask when each piece is scheduled and get it in writing rather than from a rendering.

Because Concord has an unusually long completed record in Toronto, use it. CityPlace buildings from 2005, 2012 and 2018 are all standing and all resell, so you can look at how the earlier ones aged, what their maintenance fees did, and what the buildings trade at now.

That is far better evidence than anything in a brochure, and it is public.

Then the usual: deposit schedule, parking and locker, what is standard rather than an upgrade, interim occupancy terms and the closing timeline.