Condo Craze

It is common to see big high-rise multifamily projects going up but the Big News nowadays: low-rise concrete condos. They are generally as scarce as hen’s teeth because they usually come with an expensive price tag and a luxury reputation. “There is a definite price threshold when it comes to low-rise condos,” insists Peter Norman, director, Altus Clayton, a real estate research firm in Toronto, Ontario. “When the price range is up, then the builder can justify spending the money for concrete construction.”

Statistics now suggest a change in the wind. Between 2000 and 2005 the Portland Cement Association (PCA) figured a 26 percent increase in cement used in the multifamily sector. Even though that increase includes everything made of cement from foundations to driveways that is still a pretty significant increase, says Ed Sullivan, PCA’s chief economist. In sum, “We are absolutely using more cement in multifamily.”

Moreover, this luxury low-rise concrete condo trend is trickling down from Canada to the U.S. Case in Point: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Triangle Development is building a high-class, 128 unit concrete condo development called the Brownstones at Maywood Park. Crews started building the first 15 units this spring and will build the rest of the condo units over the course of the next five years. The tall and skinny insulated concrete form (ICF) condos are about 25 feet wide and 45 feet long and range between two to three and a half stories high. Each condo is more like an individual home than a condo with its own garage and a private entrance. The influx in luxury low-rise concrete condos is also happening in Hawaii and Florida, says Real Estate broker Douglas Soo, Vancouver, British Columbia. But he has seen more low-rise condo building owners choosing concrete over wood all over North America. “That wasn’t so a decade ago,” he says.

Soo has been selling strictly concrete condos for the past 12 years in Canada and he says he doesn’t see the market slowing there. Currently there are 16 housing projects going on in downtown Vancouver, with most of the projects over 60 percent sold. “I sold over 100 units last week,” Soo says. “Does that sound like a dead market?”

The Murano, a 44 story concrete condo project in Toronto, Ontario, is not even halfway built and is already 99 percent sold, says concrete builder Jim Dolente, Jr., Madison Concrete Construction, Malvern, Pennsylvania. Real Estate economist, Norman agrees Toronto is the place to watch. “Toronto is the biggest most significant area when it comes to monitoring Canadian housing,” he says. “Toronto has nearly 40 percent of all the housing starts in Canada.”

With that it isn’t surprising that Toronto is the largest condo sector with the highest marginal mix of concrete high-rise and low-rise condos. As you would expect, concrete is one of the main materials of choice for high-rise projects. About 30-40 percent of all the high-rise condo projects are concrete framed, says Norman. Like Canada, the U.S. sees more concrete high-rise condos in the big city pockets such as New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, all over California, Las Vegas, and Seattle. Soo estimates Seattle has twice as many projects going up this year as there were three years ago. “I would guess no fewer than 30 projects have gone up in downtown Seattle the past 12 months and 99 percent of those are concrete.”

But Dolente, back in Pennsylvania, noticed the concrete condo resurgence about seven years ago in his area. Projects were popping up all over in the eastern U.S. and Canada. Greg Fasano, Icon Structures, Fort Meyers, Florida, agrees. He has noticed a definite rebirth in concrete condo projects on the East Coast. Icon has a nine story in New York to start in six weeks and another 225,000 square foot condo building in Manhattan. But he also has a seven story condo project in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The project has eight buildings total with 20,000-square feet per floor.

He says while the East Coast is a hot spot for concrete condos, the inquiries are constantly coming in from all across the country and Canada. To him it just reassures that the concrete condo market is not slowing in the North America. “If anything, it has seemed to pick up,” Fasano says.