Office: 1-416-564-0245

E: baldo@baldominaudo.com

Real Estate and Business

For Sale: Townhouse in Heart of Toronto at Affordable Price

98 Carr St. Townhouse

You’ll find this bright, sun-filled, Multi-Level Townhouse in the heart of the City. Located near Alexandra Park, it’s on the edge of the Kensington-Chinatown neighbourhood. It is conveniently close to Kensington Market and the Fashion District.

Also, it is conveniently less than 3 kilometers from the financial district. This home is perfect for young professionals or investors in rental properties catering to high-income downtown professionals.

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Juliette Balcony
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98 Carr St.

This house is freshly painted & cleaned from top-to-bottom. Also, it has an upgraded kitchen with stainless steel appliances, wine rack and granite counter-top. Enjoy open concept living and dining with a wonderful Juliette balcony overlooking the courtyard. The large rooftop terrace with gas hookup makes for special summer experiences. Gather with family and friends, while taking in the incredible south facing view of the city and famous CN Tower. It is also close to shops, hospital, schools, and streetcars.

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The complex has 24-Hour security. Home comes with fridge, stove, built-in microwave, built-in dishwasher; stacked washer and dryer; all window coverings, all electric light fixtures and underground parking.

Do you want a townhouse in the heart of Toronto, close to the financial district and diversified neighbourhoods? Do you like being near young professionals and a happening atmosphere? This home is ready to move in and its affordable. Contact me if you’re ready to buy and would like to see the home.

ABOUT TORONTO’S CHINATOWN NEIGHBOURHOOD

Bustling Chinatown has a variety of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants offering a selection of cuisine from dim sum and pho to modern fusion. Animated Asian-style open-air markets and shops along Spadina Avenue offer fresh fruits and vegetables, along with herbal medicine and souvenirs. Chinese New Year celebrations and live stage shows, martial arts demonstrations and live dances draw tourists.

ABOUT TORONTO’S KENSINGTON MARKET NEIGHBOURHOOD

Kensington Market is a pedestrian friendly, walkable bohemian-type neighbourhood. No wonder that it draws artists and tourists to its vintage boutiques, indie shops, and arts spaces. In addition, the Market is home to a wide range of specialty grocers, bakeries and cheese shops. While hipsters frequent trendy bars, cafes and international restaurants, students and families fill the Victorian houses along tree-lined streets. As a result restaurants range from casual to fine dining experiences.

According to Toronto Life, Kensington-Chinatown neighourhood ranks 40th amonth Toronto’s 140 communities for quality of life. It was given a score of 100 for Shopping, 98.6 for Entertainment, 97.2 for Education, 95 for Transit, and 82.9 for Health.

ABOUT TORONTO’S FASHION DISTRICT NEIGHBOURHOOD

In the historic Fashion District, are old textile factories and warehouses which now house fabric stores, clothing boutiques, artists’ studios, offices, and condos. The neighbourhood has a mix of trendy international restaurants and old-school diners, which make for a busy dining scene. Also, King Street West’s dance clubs are known to draw late-night crowds. Colourful, frequently changing street art defines ‘Graffiti Alley’, a popular name for a long lane found in the neighbourhood.

ABOUT ALEXANDRA PARK

Alexandra Park is a compact district in downtown Toronto. Conveniently, lots of casual restaurants, cocktail lounges, and karaoke bars line the busy streets that outline the community. Enjoy some intimate live music venues, modern Canadian plays at the Theatre Passe Muraille. The park, who’s name defines the neighbourhood, contains a playground, outdoor pool with splash pad, and a winter ice-skating rink.

Ready to buy your home in Toronto, let me help you make it an enjoyable experience, the right decision for you. 416-564-0245.

For Rent: Upscale 1 Bedroom Flaire Condo Apartment at Shops at Don Mills in North York

Urban Lifestyle Living Within The Community At The Shops At Don Mills

Welcome to Flaire Condos at The Contemporary Urban Village at The Shops At Don Mills. 

This one bedroom unit on the 10th floor has one of the best views in the building. The South West Facing view captures the core of Toronto’s cityscape with the CN Tower and surrounding high-rises, the Yonge/Eglinton and Yonge/Sheppard clusters, and the expansive vista of detached homes and landscapes in between. The unit offers a clean layout with functional and elegant linear kitchen, state of the art ventilation system, and movable bedroom corner walls. This fashionably designed unit is ready for you to make your abode with your personal touch and character.  

This unit is unfurnished and does include window coverings. Appliances include washer, dryer, stove, refrigerator, cooktop oven, microwave, parking and storage locker. Includes Heat, Water, Air Conditioning, Parking, Storage. Tenant pays for own use of Hydro and Cable/Internet.

Amenities

Flaire provides great amenities including: 24 hour concierge service, impressive upscale lobby, Gym, Cable, Internet/TV. Movie Screening Room, Rooftop Terrace with BBQ, party room, security guard and lots of visitor parking. 

Step outside into the Shops at Don Mills with its upscale shops, restaurants, cafes, VIP Screening Room Cineplex Theatre, Centre Square and the wonderful seasonal sculpture and events. Take a walk to discover nearby walking trails, parks. Very close to DVP and TTC.

Lifestyle

This unit is perfect for the young professional looking for lifestyle in a diversified community of fashionable professionals of cultures from around the world. Great place to make new friends, stay at the forefront of innovations and develop your network.

Whether you’re a corporate executive, professional, entrepreneur, writer, artist or social media influencer, this building and this neighbourhood will provide you with both the inspiration and environment to produce, relax and excel. For more information on the neighbourhood visit Living At The Shops At Don Mills

Only $2300 per month!

If you’re a AAA tenant, don’t miss this exclusive listing opportunity. Application form, credit check, proof of income and/or employment is required.

Listed through Baldo Minaudo, MBA, Broker, Real Estate Homeward 416-564-0245

*** Not intended to solicit clients under contract with a broker***

Interested in Real Estate Investing?

Interested in Real Estate Investing? Join me at our VIP Client Event on Delta Hotels (formerly Novotel), 3670 Hurontario St., Mississauga (Burmanthorpe & Hurontario) Wednesday, Feb. 26. We’ll teach you about building wealth through investing and you’ll get VIP access to an amazing, turn-key investment that I think is great for my friends and clients. Positive cash flow within as little as 30 days. PLUS you get a chance to win a free Condo when you attend.

If interested email me at baldo@baldominaudo.com.



#EasyInvesting #investmentrealestate #rentalproperty

Lowe's Closing of 34 Stores in Canada and What They Should Do

It is no surprise to me that Lowe’s is closing 34 stores across Canada. This morning Lowe’s reported Third Quarter sales and earning results in which it announced it will be closing 34 stores. You can get into the financial symptoms of why the decision is being made, but I’m going to jump to the fundamental source of why those stores have done poorly and what could have been done better.

Background

The financial statements are a result of decisions and plans that were created and implemented from years ago when the Lowe’s acquired RONA. Combined, Lowe’s now had 539 stores. That’s almost three times more than Home Depot’s 182 Canadian stores.  In a news release dated May 20, 2016, Lowe’s highlighted previously stated commitments as part of its acquisition of RONA, including:

  • headquartering the Canadian businesses in Boucherville, Quebec;
  • maintaining RONA’s multiple retail store banners;
  • enhancing distribution services to dealer owners;
  • continuing RONA’s employment of the vast majority of its current employees and maintaining key executives from RONA’s strong leadership team;
  • continuing RONA’s local and ethical procurement strategy and potentially expanding relationships both Lowe’s and RONA have developed with Canadian manufacturers and suppliers; and
  • continuing to support Canadian communities through RONA and Lowe’s charitable and environmental initiatives.

Analysis of Lowe’s Operations

From my perspective a a business consultant with expertise in locating operations, commercial realtor, residential property manager and homeowner, I have much more to share about Lowe’s than I’m going to publish in this post. Overall, I’m grateful for Lowe’s and RONA and would shop there more often if the stores were better located or if the online ordering process was better. However, I can share the generalities of what I’ve seen of Lowe’s and examples from others experiences:

  1. Lowe’s Distribution Network – instances where online orders take up to 2 weeks for delivery, distribution centres not knowing what store to ship to, re-routing of shipments,  product sent to stores that aren’t closest to the destination. All these result in greater operating costs and damage to reputation among frequent purchasers of hardware items. Here are some examples of these consequences: Nov. 2, 2019, Nov. 13, 2019Nov. 18, 2019,
  2. Product Offering – products in stores often don’t match the demand for those products in that area. This indicates that whoever is doing the ordering for those stores isn’t in touch with the local market.
  3. Retail Locations – great discrepancy in success of different locations. Some locations are inconvenient to get too. Some pulling areas are concentrated, while others are too distant.
  4. Corporate Decisions – Lowe’s decided to have their headquarters in Montreal rather than the economic headquarters of Canada and where there is the greatest economy for renovations and construction. This also impacted the ability to attract top management talent and operating efficiencies. The preservation of retail banners also impacted the ability to leverage marketing and consumer behaviour.

Of course, significantly impacting the situation is the prolonged devastation to the Albertan economy from the collapse of oil prices. Reflecting this is Lowe’s higher per capita closure of stores in Alberta compared to other provinces. Further impacting the situation is the economic circumstances in other provinces. Had Lowe’s considered the cyclical nature of the Albertan oil-based economy and looked at the situation with the Tar Sands projects and price of oil, they would have acted more quickly. The question in my mind is who was responsible for looking at such significant considerations and why didn’t they hire someone like me to help with the research and analysis?

Here’s What I Would Do If I Were Running Lowe’s

  1. Take a more rational and efficient approach to distribution and logistics. With increasing trend to online purchases, improved online ordering and processing systems. This includes the integration of AI into marketing programs. Rather than push out discount notices to the buyers, use phone apps and client data to recommend purchases and locations in real-time. Many property managers, trades people and realtors, who account for much of hardware store sales. They are frequent and volume buyers who in many cases purchase on a daily basis and must do so in between meetings and tasks. Integration of AI into real-time marketing and co-ordination with supply-chain and logistics will not only provide competitive advantage directly with consumers, but also create powerful operating efficiencies. Improve on product handling and delivery!
  2. Get to know the customers better, especially by buyer types, but also by local community. Having the right product in the right place is the KEY to any retail success. Online buying is one thing, but if I’m dealing with a leaking faucet or flooded basement and I need to get some supplies right away, I just can’t wait for next day (or longer). I’m also willing to pay extra for those products at that time. Some neighbourhoods are more prone to flooding or icing in certain  months. Make sure that the store managers and purchasing managers are aware of these trends. Also, make sure the distribution system can act quickly so that it can have the product in the store when its needed. For example last year there was a major icy snow storm and for two weeks de-icing salt for pavement was completely sold out across the GTA. I, and others, would have gladly paid double the price to have a supply available. There isn’t any reason why supplies or inventory couldn’t have been re-routed to have product in store the next day. Once in store, I would likely pick up other items that I may need, like a new pair of work gloves, windshield wiper fluid, etc. These are items I’m picking up anyway from whatever store I’m in.
  3. Hire an expert to help with locating stores. Locational Analysis is a necessity that U.S. retailers entering the Canadian Market either fail to conduct or don’t have the expertise to properly undertake. This is painful for me, someone trained in urban economics with experience in locating operations, to see. Yet, by  hiring someone like me to conduct this work, it will make the difference between failure or success to foreign retailers in Canada. Retail Locations are the  most important for most end-use consumers. When I’m picking up a new wire for my weed-wacker which ran out in the middle of trimming my lawn or oil for my motorcycle, I’m going to want to go to the nearest retailer. Also, trades people don’t like to go out of their way when picking up supplies, so they tend to go to locations near highway entry points. Many trades will pick up items in the morning on their way to different jobs. So, locate stores where these trades people tend to live. I know neighbourhoods that are heavily populated with trades people who would do just that, but with no hardware store nearby.
  4. Always make corporate decisions based on ability to best identify and service customers, followed by operating competency and competitive advantage, and finally with an eye on operating efficiencies and profitability. Make sure it’s all in that order because each one relies on the previous consideration. Of course to have the right expertise with knowledge of key markets, like the Greater Toronto Area, requires you to hire someone in that market or with extensive experience in that market.

How Can I Help?

When Wal-Mart bought out the Woolco Stores, I worked with Bank of Montreal to analyse the impact it would have on the remaining Canadian retailers from their sales and operations to their financial performance. In a matter of weeks I had dissection and analyzed the impact on every major retailer across Canada and translated that into the impact on their financial performance. How I did this is for another much more detailed post.

In short, I analyzed every single retail outlet of every major retail chain which included: 1) consumer threshold, 2) product-mix overlap, 3) local pricing sensitivity, 4) psychological and geographical traffic boundaries, 5) traffic flows and much more. Then I cross indexed the information and translated it into the financial performance. Finally I conglomerated the data by retail chain to product financial projections for each one. The report went up to the Bank of Montreal Board of Directors and the information was then used to dictate risk appetite and credit exposure among the major retailers.

As part of my analysis, I drew two powerful conclusions, one of which was contrary to what Bank Executives were expecting at the time. If it were not for that analysis, the bank would have made different decisions, created different lending policies, which would have significantly affected Canadian retailers and their employees.

What Should You Do Before You Locate or Acquire a Location in Canada?

Contact me to have someone on your side who can help with every aspect of what needs to be done. But, most importantly, who can get you the right information, with proper analysis and solutions so you can make the best decisions for your business success!

My Starbucks Community

The saying ‘What goes around comes around’ showed itself to be true at Starbucks. Last week, I dropped into my regular Starbucks location for lunch and work on a file. As I’m sitting down, my attention is drawn to a young south Asian man. He seems drunk as he lowers his pants and lifts his shirt while repeating ‘stomach empty, hungry’.

It appeared that the Starbucks customers were getting disturbed and didn’t know how to deal with this man approaching them. I mentioned it to Starbucks staff who seemed to be taken aback and also weren’t sure how to handle the situation. To manage the situation before it escalated, I approached the man and asked, “How you doing?”.

Stomach Empty, Hungry

The young man’s reply was the same line ‘stomach empty, hungry’. I straight out asked him, if he had been drinking, to which his reply was the same as before. I pulled out some money, looked at him in the eye and said ‘take this and buy yourself lunch across the parking lot. Make sure you take care of yourself.’ He was very grateful and kept thanking me. I repeated, ‘Just take care of yourself. Go. Go take care of yourself’. I had to repeat it a couple of times.

As he was leaving, I realized that I had seen that man around the neighbourhood before. In fact, a few years ago, I had given him some money to help me with some handy work on a property.

The Community We Build

I had forgotten about the whole incident. Then, yesterday, I found myself at the same Starbucks. As I’m ordering my sandwich, the supervisor, Bonny comes over. Calling me by my first name she says, “I want to thank you for what you did last week. The manager was here and we saw the whole thing.”. At first I didn’t realize what she was talking about.

Then she reminded me about the incident. I wasn’t expecting her to say, “You handled that situation really well for us. Richard (the manager), didn’t think you should have to buy him lunch, so he wanted me to give you a free lunch and drink”.  I may not be getting every word exact, but it is basically what she said and she went on to explain how it made a big difference to the other customers.

It left me speechless. Not only hadn’t I realized that anyone really noticed, but that it would affect anyone beyond the hungry young man. All I could say was “thank you, but you don’t have to pay for my lunch”. Bonny wouldn’t have it any other way and insisted that the lunch was on Starbucks.

 

We Are A Community

That’s when I realized the extend to which Starbucks is wanting to build a community, an environment of support, in which customers can come and feel that Italian ‘piazza’ atmosphere. A place where you can feel free to talk about anything and build relationships with others that may rely on Starbucks for their morning jolt, snack, temporary office station, meeting point or just to get out of the home or office.

Over the last day, I’ve thought about all the friends and business acquaintances I’ve met at Starbucks. Some I’ve done business with, others I’ve exchanged wisdom. They’ve included aspiring authors, film producers, e-commerce entrepreneurs, students, teachers, crypto-currency traders, business owners, and many more that don’t come to mind right now.

It is up to you and I to build our community or communities and we need to be engaged and pro-active to make it happen.

Starbucks:

It happened at Starbucks
Where the hungry young man stood

A Glass of Water in The Dessert

One of the lessons I’ve learned in life is that you can give a glass of water to two different people and the impact can be totally different between the two. Give a man in a river a glass of water and he wouldn’t appreciate it. However, give a man in the desert a glass of water and he will remember it for life. It may have saved his life.

The glass of water is an analogy for needs that those around us may have. That young man in the Starbucks had a need for lunch because he was hungry. To him it was the most important thing, something he needed to go on. To everyone else, perhaps it would have been unneeded calories.

For the Starbucks staff, my gesture was needed because they may not have been equipped to handle the situation without escalation and potentially bad publicity. For that they were greatly appreciated.

And for me… my glass of water was being recognized by name and acknowledged for making a difference to others. You see, I needed that this week, perhaps as much as that young man  needed his lunch. We all have a tough time when we question the things we do and the value we add to others. Sometimes, getting acknowledge is our glass of water in the desert. Remember that today, look around you, and ask yourself who needs a glass of water!

That is the main reason why I’m sharing this with you. Another reason is that as important as this sort of thing is, the main street media will not likely mention it. At a time when our attention is being diverted to political mud-slinging, scandals, shootings and other discouraging activities, we need to see more of these unspoken acts.

Thank You Starbucks Community

I thank Bonny, Richard and the wonderful staff at the Kennedy Commons Starbucks (in Agincourt) for their service, support and importantly their glass of water in the desert.

 

 

#CBC #GLOBALNEWS #GLOBALNEWSTO #CITYTV #AM640 #CP24 #TORONTOSUN