The Unitri cube houses, a Toronto landmark located a minute north of Matrix Mortgage Global’s office in the Canary District, are for sale. To be more precise, the little pie shaped plot of land above which the three cubes hover, is for sale: the cubes themselves, possessing little more than sentimental and anecdotal value, will likely be demolished in favour of new development at the 1 Sumach Street address. When architect Ben Kutner built Unitri in 1996, 1 Sumach Street, sandwiched between two thoroughfares and tucked under the Gardiner Express way, was derelict land. In 2002, the land sold for $265, 000, cubes included. Now, according to sales representative Arthur Crapopoulos, it’s being privately marketed to select developers for an undisclosed amount, but the Toronto Star estimates that the property is going for as much as $4 million CAD.

Kutner’s Unitri was an experiment in sustainable design for the future. Kutner hoped to demonstrate that one could build highly habitable structures on marginal land by building vertically rather than horizontally. The inside is light and airy, thanks to nine foot ceilings and ample windows, and, apparently, one barely notices the rush hour congestion or relentless whiz of traffic directly in front, behind and above the cubes at all other times of the day.  Ironically, to make 1 Sumach Street an economically viable development site with it’s projected price tag, Kutner’s three cubes will have to be replaced by as many units as possible. Unitri, which Kutner thought was an ingenious use of negligible land in 1996, because it maximizes available space and light, will give way to dozens of units. Kutner’s vision predicted a Toronto in which there is a ton of marginal land lying around waiting for smart development. In reality, potential buyers are snapping up all available properties at top dollar.

The Canary District is a prime example of new development projects that provided a much needed increase in housing supply. All we can say is that we are glad we snapped up Matrix’s office space, located just down the street from Unitri in the Canary District Condos, when we did. We would love to help you make some equally wise real estate investments for the future in today’s red hot real estate market.