New condo complex for Old Tuxedo

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This article was published 25/07/2016 (3396 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the oldest areas of the city — Old Tuxedo — will soon be home to one of the newest condominium developments.

Winnipeg’s Karma Development Corp. plans to built a five-storey, 68-unit condo complex on a 1.9-acre parcel of land on the southwest corner of the Asper Jewish Community Campus.

Construction is expected to get underway in spring or summer and will take about a year to complete, Karma president and co-founder Myles Kraut said.

That part of the 18-acre Asper Campus has been vacant since 2014, when a former provincial government office building was demolished to make way for what campus officials hoped would be a new multi-family development.

Campus executive director Curtis Martin said a request for proposals attracted about a half-dozen bids.

He said Karma’s bid was chosen in part because of the price it offered — significantly more than asking, although neither he nor Kraut would say how much more.

“And their willingness to essentially work with us and the community was one of the deciding factors,” Martin said. “They have an excellent reputation, as well.”

The exterior of Karma’s new building, to be called 139 Tuxedo, will feature the same type of granite used on the exterior of much of the Asper Campus building. Karma plans to offer each buyer a free two-year membership to the campus’s Rady Jewish Community Centre.

Kraut said the site’s close proximity to the Rady Jewish Community Centre and to the Assiniboine Park and Zoo and the Assiniboine River make it an ideal location for a multi-family residential complex.

He noted the Rady Centre boasts a large gym, an indoor swimming pool and running track.

Kraut said it would have been cost-prohibitive for Karma to include those kinds of amenities in its building. “So it’s all to do with the amenities and how safe it is living in that area of town. And there are no traffic issues.”

He also noted development sites rarely become available in Old Tuxedo.

“Because there is not a lot of development that goes on in Tuxedo, we’re really the only game in town,” he said.

Karma expects to start selling the condos in mid-October.

They will range in size from about 800 to 2,300 square feet and to range in price from $270,000 to more than $1 million.

Kraut said the smaller, less expensive units are expected to appeal to young professionals looking to buy a first home.

He noted at least 20 of the units will be in the 800- to 900-square-foot range, and priced at less than $300,000, to accommodate that type of buyer.

The larger, more expensive units will be targeted primarily at empty nesters.

“With this project being in Tuxedo, price really isn’t the No. 1 concern (for them),” he said. “They’re more concerned about the quality of the building. And they want to be in Tuxedo and have all of the amenities of the (Asper) Campus and the zoo and the park and the (Assiniboine) river walk and everything else.”

Kraut said Karma will need to pre-sell 50 per cent of the units before the project can proceed. But he doesn’t expect that to be a problem. “We already have 50 people who have registered on our website (www.139tuxedo.com) for more information.”

The complex is to be built with steel and concrete, and things such as hardwood flooring, stone countertops and stainless steel appliances will be standard features in every unit, he said.

A presentation centre also will be opening in mid-October that will feature a full-sized replica of one of the condos. That way buyers can see exactly what they’ll be getting, Kraut said.

Although the project hasn’t gone to tender yet, Kraut estimates it will cost roughly $40 million to build.

It will be Karma’s sixth condo project in the city in the last 10 years. Others include the Mosiac, Chancellor Gate, and Annex condo developments in Richmond West, and the Centennial Park condos in River Heights.

The Annex Condos, which was the company’s most recent project, involved a total of 300 apartment-style, bungalow-style and townhouse-style units.

Know of any newsworthy trends or developments in the local office, retail or industrial retail sectors? Let reporter Murray McNeill know at the email address below or at 204-697-7254.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca