Costas Kivelos:
Welcome everyone. Sun is out, sunglasses, no jacket, that can only mean one thing. When the weather gets better in the early part of the year, it means we are about to jump into condo season. Yes, spring is when all the new and the latest condos come out, the newest and best opportunities for you, my investors, to make a lot of money in 2021 and today we are on location, south Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the VMC and we are here at Menkes Festival discovery Center, where you will see what is going to happen on over a hundred acres of land that is about to be developed. A brand-new city will arise from nothing, all brought to you by Menkes partnership with Cornerstone Sales and Marketing, the foundation of a great relationship and when you add First Access Condos to the mix, it’s a guaranteed recipe for success. Follow me inside and we’ll show you everything in person.
Welcome everyone to another week of condo investing with Costas and today, First Access Condos is lucky enough to be in this beautiful multi-million dollar Menkes Discovery Presentation Center in South VMC. I, today, have with me Johnson Cheng, one of the founding partners of Cornerstone Sales and Marketing and basically the driving force behind Canada’s greatest sales success last year. During the year of COVID, 1300 units sold out north of Toronto, not in Toronto but north of Toronto in the new Manhattan of the north. South VMC, Johnson, welcome. How are you today?
Johnson Cheng:
Costas I’m feeling good, feeling really good. Thanks for coming in.
Costas Kivelos:
Oh, it’s always a pleasure and how could you not feel good about this? We have over 160 acres, 100 owned by Menkes and QuadReal and they’re developing essentially, a brand-new city. They are building something from nothing. They had the vision many, many decades ago to buy this much land just north of Toronto when there was no Vaughan. So, what Johnson has been doing in Cornerstone, they have been working with Menkes for close to a decade, bringing us some of the best, the brightest and the most fantastic investment opportunities in Southern Ontario. So, tell us a little bit about Cornerstone, how you founded it with Shab. What was your vision and how it became a natural partnership with Menkes.
Johnson Cheng:
Well, it’s a natural combination. Shab and I we’ve been in real estate and we had a passion but we saw something was missing. We saw a lot of projects were being sold as commodity, just a condo but there’s actually a lot more opportunities to talk about what is the underlined thinking. What would underline values in terms of this future appreciation? And all those stories were being drawn up was not voice and so what’s Shab and I want to do is to turn the entire project marketing upside down. The name Cornerstone, it refers back to the very foundation of construction. The corner piece where you [0:04:24] entire house, that is the fundamental starting block and we think that the fundamental starting block in the project is this vision. What is the trying to do? What is it attempting to try to address in terms of the social issues? What is there? And that is the driving force and that’s why when we were able to partner with Menkes, we were ecstatic because now we’ve found a community builder that’s committed to building communities, homes, not just knocking off another condo and what they do is a that they thrive and really going for the opportunity to take a vast mass track of land and create something different and really create a lot of things that people have never even imagined. Let’s take for example, a couple years ago and you were part of that whole program, Harbour Plaza right into [0:05:16] financial core, they created this two towers plus an office tower plus the whole retail shopping arcade. Now, this is something bold because initially, the concept just do two residential towers and that was it but they had the ability to think outside the box and say, well, when you put residential, we also want put in jobs cause that’s what families want, that’s what people want when they actual living in the downtown setting is convenience at your doorstep and it’s not just talking about the restaurants and bars, it’s talking about the things that you do every day. So, be right next to one [0:05:54] right where the now Sun Life financial head office is, that’s beautiful. Those are the things that Menkes seek after and those are very things that makes the foundation of Cornerstone; that we tell stories, we look for values, we want to uncover and show to you and your buyers what is it like in the years ahead so that you can intelligently make informed decisions, say, yes, when I look at all this, when I see all this I think in the future. All things are equal, people want to live here, people want to be here, they want the families to raise up here as a result that drives up demand and the price will go up.
Costas Kivelos:
And that’s one of the beauties when you work with essential integral partners like Cornerstone and Menkes. At First Access Condos, what we always strive to do is we try to go dig deeper, we try to research more, find out better information to position our clients so that they can not only be in a fantastic investment but in truly a home and Johnson was right. For a very long time, condos were treated as a commodity. Essentially, you’re selling a piece of paper but what Cornerstone tried to do is they tried to do exactly what I based my business model on. We don’t just sell condos. We take people’s dreams and connect them to it and make them into reality.
Johnson Cheng:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
And when you buy into a Menkes product, you are really buying into a community because just like down at Harbour Plaza, they didn’t just build two residential towers, they thought beyond that, they said, let’s bring some office space here so that the people that work in the office space can live in close proximity, the people that invest in the residential towers can have a potential rental pool, again, in close proximity. They also built retail and dining options so that the people living there, whether investor, end-user or tenant or owner, they can actually enjoy…
Johnson Cheng:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
Their property and their choice and we don’t see this anywhere in its purest form than in comparison to here, what we are seeing with over a hundred acres being developed by Menkes and QuadReal. So, now that we’ve spoken about Cornerstone and their name says it all the cornerstone, the foundation of a structure, okay? That is the perfect name for what Shab and you have created but then we’ve also spoken about Menkes, a developer that’s been in the business for decades, a developer that had the foresight of thinking about where to build a community decades before there was even a Vaughan in any way, shape or form, as we know it. Johnson, if you could enlighten us on how Menkes had a vision to buy so much land north of the GTA.
Johnson Cheng:
Well, the passion to build communities is the very fabric of what makes Menkes and their family passion about real estate is that you are creating homes and I remember the Alan Menkes talking to me about the projects that he really had the passion. It’s not in single tower. It’s actually in North York where he put in two towers and three towers, able connect all these towers together and I said, “Why is that exciting?” He said, “Now I’m seeing that the entire North York community is really flourishing because I’m enabling people to go within the North York corridor, able to go from one building to another building.” and he created his own half system.
Costas Kivelos:
And that’s true.
Johnson Cheng:
And that is something that was revolutionary. What we’re doing here in the South VMC is something even more bold. It’s not underground system but what we’re doing is that we’re connecting all the communities in all the lands that we’re developing here all the way from the lake, from the tracks, from the basketball, from the volleyball courts, all of these things connected by over 17 kilometers, what called the multiple users PATH system. That is an extension, diversion 2.0 of a sidewalk where multiple users can use it. Meaning the family could take a stroll, the kids could be on the bike, they could be on rollerblades, [0:09:59] scooters and they could all be enjoying the time together. It brings back the very essence of what the Menkes believed in is the very character and core value of family. We all know that, we all embrace it now because we, in the last 12 months, have been knocked to our knees and really [0:10:17] and say, what does living really means? It’s family. It’s not how much money you have in your pocket, it’s a quality time we built. So, what they’ve done is to re-programmed the entire community and say, I want to have more activity areas for families. That’s why, what used to be just a lake is now entertainment by the lake, it’s picnic by the lake, it is activity in the lake. Again, family going back to very, very basic fundamentals is what really drive this community and we find that is so basic but yet is stands the test of time.
Costas Kivelos:
And that’s the truth and that’s what really happens here when you’re buying into a Menkes community. Menkes designs and plans it out for ease of living, for quality of life, to improve your life. Now, when people think about condos, the original fundamental aspect of why you bought into a condo was for location and it was for quality of life increasing, not having to commute as far, being able to walk what I like to call the Euro lifestyle, where you can walk every day and buy the items that you need for the day.
Johnson Cheng:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
Where you don’t have to go to Costco which is a North American atrocity in many parts of the world.
Johnson Cheng:
Yes.
Costas Kivelos:
You look at it with disgust, okay? But the reason we do that is because we don’t have enough time to do this daily but imagine if you lived or imagine if your tenants could live in a community connected by 17 kilometers of walkable path where they can do athletics, they can go shopping, they can hang out with the family and we will touch further and up with Rachel Galway, Johnson’s Senior Sales and Marketing Manager later on in the episode and we’ll go into depth but here’s the gist of it. Wrap your head around this: Menkes has created a product, a city, a community, not just for families to live but to enjoy, for couples to walk, enjoy a movie in the outdoor theater, go play sports, spend time with your children, whatever you want to do, even go shopping. It is right here at your doorstep and it’s connected by a walkable path system. Johnson, it’s always a pleasure talking to you.
Johnson Cheng:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
We’ve been working together for years. You bring some of the best quality product in Canada to us year over and now we’re looking forward to selling out. Hopefully we can match last year.
Johnson Cheng:
We will.
Costas Kivelos:
Number one selling product in 2020 was the first phase of Festival called Festival. Now, 2021, Grand Festival.
Johnson Cheng:
Yeah.
Costas Kivelos:
I’m going to say it, best-selling project of 2022. Thank you, sir.
Johnson Cheng:
Awesome. Thank you very much.
Costas Kivelos:
Guys. We’ll be right back. We’re just going to go to a short commercial break, give you a couple of minutes to absorb all this information and I’ll see you in a few minutes. Thank you.
Costas Kivelos:
Welcome back everyone. Costas Kivelos, First Access Condos and we are back in the Menkes Discovery Center here at Festival in South VMC and I have the pleasure of having next to me, Rachel Galway, Sales and Marketing Manager for Cornerstone. Welcome.
Rachel Galway:
Thank you so much for coming in today, Costas.
Costas Kivelos:
It is always a pleasure working with Menkes and Cornerstone and when they get a chance to interact with Rachel, it’s the highlight of my day. Now, I’m not just saying that but there’s reasons behind this and Rachel’s going to get into it but what we’re going to talk to is, we’re going to talk about now, we’re going to talk about the meat and potatoes, the inside scoop, the numbers, the foundation of what makes Grand Festival here in South VMC a spectacular opportunity for my investors and the end users alike. Now, earlier we had Johnson Cheng with us and he is one of the founding members of Cornerstone Marketing. He was telling us about Cornerstone, the relationship with the development powerhouse, Menkes, and how Menkes had the forethought to be ahead of everybody else and purchase over 100 acres here in South VMC decades ago before there was even a Vaughan. Now, Rachel, we’re going to talk about the four towers that make Festival and more specifically, the two that make Grand Festival. Now, tell me a little bit about this phase of this 100-acre master-planned community.
Rachel Galway:
Absolutely. So, last year we launched the first two towers which was Festival, the phase one 1300 units. Sold out in a very short time span. I know we worked closely with you on that. It was actually the best-selling project in all of Canada 2020.
Costas Kivelos:
And I was going to bring that up. It was the number one selling project, quickest amount of time for sales, most amount of units in Canada. That’s a national award and recognition and congratulations on that.
Rachel Galway:
Well, it’s certainly an equal partnership, the support of the agents and of course, all of the clients who believed in the vision of this new downtown and so Menkes really wanted to make sure that we could come to market, let’s not have people wait any longer with the next phase which is the Grand Festival towers. That is a 61 and 47 story high rise, 1200 units. So, that’s 1200 opportunities to buy into this development and Grand Festival is really more like the landmark of this new south Vaughan Metropolitan Center. It’s going to be the tallest towers in south Vaughan Metropolitan Center and sitting on top of 70,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities. I mean, they’re called Grand for a reason.
Costas Kivelos:
That’s fantastic and when we hear ‘grand’ a lot of times it reminds you it’s… because us Canadians, we like to go south for the winter and get away from this cold, we haven’t had the chance but when you hear ‘grand’, it kind of reminds you of at the all-inclusives that we book when we go on vacation, the upper, the more luxurious version of a resort and that’s what you really have here in South VMC’s Festival condos. Grand is that upper level.
Rachel Galway:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
The upper tier of the four-tower phase. Now, you said 61 and 47 stories if I’m not mistaken.
Rachel Galway:
Correct.
Costas Kivelos:
When we hear those type of heights, we usually think Toronto proper and down in the core and now we’re seeing it in Vaughan. Now, this is really being started in the last few years and Menkes was one of the founders of this; to bring these mega towers north of the city and is taking Vaughan and the South VMC more particularly and elevating it on par with Toronto. Tell us a little bit about how they had that vision and how we’re seeing 60 plus story towers north of the 407. It’s truly phenomenal.
Rachel Galway:
Absolutely. Well, you made a great comparison to downtown Toronto and what Vaughan is doing here with Menkes and QuadReal as the driving forces is this is going to be a world-class downtown.
Costas Kivelos:
It is.
Rachel Galway:
We are standing in front of a context model that represents 160 acres and in addition to having, like any good downtown core, that tier one mobility hub that, subway access which is not the promise of a new subway, it’s an existing functional line one subway, three-minute walk from Grand Festival but you also have all the supporting infrastructure coming like any good downtown. You’ve got 2.6 million square feet of new office space which Menkes will play an active role in developing as very prominent developers of commercial and office space. You also have about 430,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor shopping. So, you’re getting all of those key ingredients to a downtown core transit, shopping, job opportunities, these are high quality jobs in triple A tenanted office towers and then what you’re also getting and this is truly unique is that any resident of Grand Festival is surrounded by 45 acres of active outdoor spaces.
Costas Kivelos:
So, this is truly a well-planned out master-planned community. Now, the reason I like the master-planned communities and our clients like master-planned communities is that First Access Condos looks at the big picture. When we hear master-planned community, sure, in one phase of this 160-acre mega project, we have 2,500 units but that is billions and billions of dollars to develop this but what happens is, you need to also spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and you are essentially getting a new city. There’s going to be new sewers, new parks, new schools, new transit, Rachel already commented: the subway is here. When we were talking about these… in 2019, Rachel and I were talking about Mobilio and it was about in 2018 when we started planning the sales process and I didn’t know that there was a subway in Vaughan yet and I was asking, when is it coming?
Rachel Galway:
I remember that.
Costas Kivelos:
And everybody was really confused but that’s really when we started to focus and transition to the suburbs of the GTA because we always trying to find the best opportunities for you and after that, I became an expert on the area and the topic because what happens is when you build these communities, these brand-new cities essentially, transit, infrastructure, it comes along at the same time. So, you’re not just getting first into a community but first into a brand-new city and imagine the opportunity that poses for our investors. Now, let’s talk a little bit more specifically about the unit mix and how it differs from the first phase of Festival and how there’s even greater opportunity now for more investors and end-users alike.
Rachel Galway:
Absolutely. Well, Menkes, there’s a reason why they’ve been developing for nearly 70 years; is that they know how to evolve with the times. They really were very thoughtful in this new phase about how to look at what the response was from the first phase. What kind of product people were looking for and in the last year, a lot of buyer behavior has changed. I think a lot of people living in high rise communities are starting to reassess what they need, not just in their condominium community but also in the space that they’re living. Needs are always changing.
Costas Kivelos:
And we’re trying to see… almost seeing a conversion where people are wanting a little bit more space and they’re willing to pay the little bit extra to have it. Now, you had told me before we got on camera that we’re going to see more two-bedroom units here, please elaborate on that.
Rachel Galway:
Of course. So, one thing that Menkes did is that they saw that there was a lot of demand for those functional efficiently designed two-bedroom, two bath product. So, they have made changes to the [0:22:05] to basically double the amount of two bedroom product being offered. So, understanding that people are, like you mentioned, they’re starting to want a little bit more space because they know that that could be a home office. Around 700 square feet, you know that there’s a lot of efficient designs in there. So, hopefully people are very happy with the change of product but we’re also still making sure to give you those beautiful one bedroom plus dens with one and two bathroom, that beautiful in-between product and a variety of one bedrooms between about 450 to 500 square feet.
Costas Kivelos:
And that’s really the sweet spot when you look at condos in the greater Toronto area; is the one bedroom’s around from 450 to 500 which is a great entry point which allows people to get into the market either as a renter or an owner where they might not be able to have product was always over 600 square feet. Now, Rachel quickly, 70,000 square feet of amenity space. Let’s touch on that.
Rachel Galway:
Yes, quickly I’ll do my best. Indoor amenities, in order to make sure that people who are again, living in high rise communities still have spaces for their children to be social and for them to also interact with, you know, other people in the community, they’re including spaces like a music rehearsal studio, an artist room, a children’s play rooms of course. That’s something that Menkes has incorporated and essentially all of their condominiums in the last, I’d say, seven or eight years. Very, very important but the outdoor amenities, I think, are truly special. An outdoor movie theater which, I think, definitely now more than ever, people like to be outdoors, a lot of outdoor dining and there’s also a dog activity area.
Costas Kivelos:
Which is fantastic.
Rachel Galway:
Yeah. So, it’s a dedicated space for people in the high rise community to bring their dogs and play with the other dogs in the condo and then, of course, once you step outside of Grand Festival, you are in the center of the European inspired retail promenade. Cafes, restaurants, triple A tenanted retailers and then this beautiful downtown is just outside the door.
Costas Kivelos:
And see, that’s what I talk about when I say about master-planned communities and doing it right, essentially, developers are creating a new city from dust, okay? and when they do that, it’s not just condos, it’s not just transit but it’s to make the space livable. You need retail, you need restaurants, you need a place where you can shop and enjoy your time and that’s what this master-planned community is. There is from soccer fields to outdoor basketball courts to, as you said, fine dining, retail shopping and more importantly, Menkes has always been on the forefront, as Rachel mentioned, of incorporating these type of family friendly amenities for their clients for nearly a decade now. They were one of the first to create children’s playrooms and to create dog parks and washing areas for their pates.
Rachel Galway:
Absolutely.
Costas Kivelos:
And what happens is, people now have the ability to raise families in condos which is common across the planet but fairly new and in its infancy here in the greater Toronto area. Rachel, thank you so much. We look forward to working with you again and if it wasn’t for COVID, I’d give her a big hug.
Rachel Galway:
Thank you so much Costas.
Costas Kivelos:
Thank you for joining us another week of condo investing with Costas and today we talked about what’s happening here in the South VMC, how Menkes and QuadReal are bringing from nothing, a brand-new master-planned community. It’s actually more like a master-planned city, a city of the future, where everything is planned out. It is going to be a fantastic opportunity for people to live and invest. A great place for families, singles, young couples or just people looking to live in something that’s brand-new. Now, again, this project is just about to start selling. Our allocations were received a couple nights ago. By the time this airs on Sunday, you guys will be seeing this. We already have units, we just got them, they’re hot off the press literally. Don’t delay. If you want to get in first which is the only time to buy, contact me, Costas Kivelos, at 416-662-5701 or email us at [email protected]. Remember last year, Festival towers one and two, fastest best-selling project in Canada. 1300 units sold in a matter of a few weeks. Now, we’re coming to 1200 units. Grand Festival, towers three and four, 1200 units, tallest towers north of the city of Toronto and these are going to sell out in record time. Don’t delay. This could be one of the best opportunities of the year. Contact us [email protected]. Time to make some money. Thank you.