City plays Donald Trump—Doug Ford gets excited, Adam Vaughan is not enthused

The City of Toronto is looking to get in on some of that sweet condo boom action, launching a Donald Trump–esque foray into the high-rise real estate market. Build Toronto, the city’s real estate corporation, is teaming up with developer Tridel on a project that will produce a 75-storey condominium tower at York and Harbour streets. The project is projected to net the city over $40 million—but, of course, development is never that simple. For starters, Build Toronto vice-chair, city councillor and Ferris wheel aficionado Doug Ford is awfully excited about it—often a bad omen—and Adam Vaughan is concerned about the logistics of the agreement, which will have Tridel and the city holding 80 and 20 per cent stakes in the development, respectively. Because building a condo requires jumping through municipal hoops, the city is poised to act as both “regulator and developer.” Clearly, this is complicated stuff. No wonder Trump seems so pissed off all the time. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »