Riding the streetcar today east on College St., I noticed signs of life at the late, lamented N-Blox condo site.

Behold its successor project: Cube lofts!

Here's an image of the original project:

To my layman's eye, the original is the more eye-catching design. However, even if I had had the $800,000 for an entry-level condo there (about $727 per square foot), I could have bought a very nice house in a funky area (I don't consider Davisville "funky" :) ).

If one went further east to the Europa Condos project at Palmerston and College, the condos there were in the $400 per square foot range, based on the bachelor's units they're still trying to flog.

But whenever I go by that building, I'm left thinking it did nothing architecturally uplifting for the neighbourhood. The project looks like an office building without the character, which amuses me considering the website bumpf says how romantic the neighbourhood is. :)

Now we have a second project to the west that will undoubtedly be more affordable than N-Blox, but to me, doesn't have any excitement to it. However, if people aren't willing to pay the premium to be part of an exciting development, that leaves pedestrian as the fallback option, doesn't it?

Anyways, kudos to the ears of the anonymous commenter from Aug. 5 who said: "I heard a rumour that there will be a re-launch with a more sellable product."

Update

An entry-level suite is $280,000. The top price is $1.3 million..