After months of COVID-19 delay and a years-long public process, the Kingsley Square condominiums at 693 Davis Dr. are open for sale.
Briarwood Development Group began its marketing campaign Sept. 23, selling to the local public before opening up to realtors this week, according to principal and vice-principal of developments management Fausto Saponara. The condos will feature two 15-storey towers with 344 units at 693 and 713 Davis Dr., 25 per cent of which are mandated to be affordable.
Assuming sales go well, Saponara said they plan to begin construction in fall 2022, with the first occupancy in fall 2024. This is later than a planned spring 2022 construction start date, which he said was a pandemic-related delay.
“Because of the uncertainty as to what kind of environment we would be faced in launching, and we didn’t want to launch in a lockdown environment," he said.
The condo project faced some public pushback over concerns about traffic congestion and greenspace loss through a years-long approval process, but has received the municipal green light to proceed. To get to this point, Briarwood has had to agree to expand neighbouring Patterson Street to address traffic concerns and contribute $500,000 toward a public park to be built on the adjacent town property, which once contained the Hollingsworth Arena.
“We’d like to think that we truly listened, and we’ve not just paid lip service to the concerns that were expressed,” he said. “Both as a developer and as a community, we respected each other's aims and concerns, and the Town of Newmarket has worked with us."
The company has launched a website with updates for those interested and prospective buyers, as well as a presentation centre on-site. Besides providing 86 affordable units starting at the “low $500s” to rent, individuals can also purchase larger condos ranging from $490,000 to $1.1 million.
“We have to meet some affordability criteria that (York Region) sets,” Saponara said. “It’s very challenging in today’s construction and development environment to deliver homes of any kind — whether it's low-rise or high-rise — at reasonable prices. But we’re doing our best, and we’ve sized a number of units of one-bedrooms to try to make them as affordable as possible.”
The developer said he would have liked to have taken less time to get to this stage, but it is typical of a public process.
“We’ve gone through it, and we’re ready now to build.”
