Loren Ackerman thinks Toronto needs more high-end homes to rent.
At the moment, with the conversion of the
Benvenuto into condos, there's
Minto Yorkville,
50 Prince Arthur, the
Colonnade and very little else. So with some funds from the sale of a family commodities trading company, Ackerman, along with his father, Hy, and his sister, Ivy (who's with the operation part-time), has been buying up big homes and small multiplexes and converting them into places people with $3,000-$10,000 a month might like to live. Each conversion, Ackerman says, falls into the $1-million range.
At least to begin with, Ackerman figures his tenants will be mostly transients. "People who've got terms in Toronto," as he puts it. People who are here on contracts, or who have sold one house and have yet to find another. When asked about the possibility of people living in his places, branded
Rue de Lux, more permanently, paying rents that aren't unusual in other cities, he says, "No one's approached us about that, but of course it's something we'd entertain."
So far, Rue de Lux has one house, divided into two properties, completed at the corner of Admiral and Bernard, within a couple of houses of both Margaret Atwood and Galen Weston Jr's new pad. It's that kind of address that he's putting his mark on in Rosedale and Forest Hill as well, with the help of William Ryan Design.
In addition to the Annex property, part of which is called Bernard House, the other bit Admiral Suites, Ackerman is working on The Garden House at 73 Forest Hill Road, Chestnut Park Suites at Chestnut Park and Roxborough, and Thornwood Suites at 9 Thornwood, which is the next scheduled for completion, sometime in May or June.
The unfurnished rentals themselves range from 1,000 square feet to 4,500 square feet.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Loren Ackerman
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