Riverwalk Condominiums a much bigger project than thought but it’s almost ready!

Amit Sofer President of the TVM Group and developer of the Riverwalk Condominiums  admits, the project has taken a lot longer than originally anticipated.

“This isn’t my first major redevelopment project but this one has presented the most problems for me” Sofer told SaultOnline.com at the site. “I guess we can’t hit a homerun every time and unfortunately this has been a stumbling block. The building required additional structural work beyond what we expected, we undertook  additional demolition than what we had planned to make sure we delivered a good solid project and at the end of the day I haven’t compromised on what we promised, it’s taken a little longer because we were stuck with more work than we thought we had”

Overall the project has progressed very quickly since the actual construction started just over a year ago. Most of the last three years have dealt with extensive demolition of the five floors of the former hospital as well as some other buildings on site. A year ago, none of the interior walls were in place and crews were busy building balconies for each unit as well as high-quality windows and door for the entire building.

Today, Sofer let us tour the building one year later and the transformation is like night and day. The 40 units are built although some finishing work is still be completed.

“We originally had some of the buyers moving in last Friday and Saturday but had to delay that because we’re still waiting for fire alarm verification. Sofer expects that later this week.

“While there has been a number of unhappy buyers, I fully understand and I empathize with them because they have made arrangements and plans and we have failed on our delivery dates, I have broad shoulders at the end of the day and it’s my responsibility but in many cases  these are items outside of my direct control. We hired people to do a job and they haven’t delivered as quickly as promised. Sofer recently was brought aware of another complication. The dry wall company hired from Southern Ontario failed to meet payroll last week and the union pulled all its labour from the site. A situation made at no fault of the TVM group Sofer said. Sofer has many laborers on site currently and hopes to arrange a new dry wall company shortly. That means some of the tapping and mudding on the first floor units still need to get done but won’t delay the occupancy of the 2 through fifth floor units who will start to move in within the next few weeks. Sofer believes the occupancy will be staggered over the next few months stretching into early January.

“I would far prefer to build it properly and deliver it late so people are happy with the finished product” Sofer said. “These units are nothing short of fantastic”

The units boast ample square footage with modern and customized kitchens finished in the highest quality materials. One, Two and Three Bedroom units all feature extraordinary views facing the river or on Queen Street. The units are bright with large windows and balcony doors. Despite the delay’s Sofer says none of the buyers have backed out but anxious to move in .

Phase two of the Riverwalk development will be to the direct east of the phase one project. Sofer admits that he hasn’t paid a lot of attention to that plan yet. “we’re in the final push of phase one but phase two is going to be just as nice, we’re about 25 percent sold there but we paused the marketing effort because we want to complete and deliver phase one before asking people to consider phase two, so we will ramp that back up early in the new year”

The TVM Group also purchased the building and property of the former General Hospital site. Sofer fully expects to re-purpose that property and building in the futire following the construction of Phase Two of the Riverwalk Development.