Luxury apartments currently under construction at the corner of George and Murray streets in Peterborough won’t be available to rent for about another year and half.
Renters received a notice in the mail and aren’t too happy about the delay, as they were initially promised a move-in date of this spring.
“They were supposed to be ready for me in April coming up, and then I got a phone call and said it got pushed back six months,” said prospective tenant Tim Anthony.
“I’m in construction; I know how things go sometimes. But then, just recently, I got a letter in the mail saying that now it wont be ready until July 2020.”
Anthony is just one tenant waiting to move into the $50-million project by Atria Development. The Toronto developer is converting the historic downtown YMCA building into about 140 apartments.
“I gave my first and last months’ rent and they say I can only get half of that back if I want to back out of it,” said Anthony.
Global News Peterborough spoke with Sharon Dawson, the director of marketing and sales with Atria Development on Tuesday. Given the circumstances, she says Atria will offer full refunds to those who wish to opt out of the rental.
“Anybody, where this doesn’t work for them, time-wise, we’ve been considerate of that and have let a few of them out,” said Dawson.
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Dawson says the main cause of the delays was finding parking spots.
“We finally got an approval actually Friday last week for the additional parking,” she added.
Terry Guiel, executive director for Peterborough’s Downtown Business Improvement area, says the situation isn’t ideal, but the end result will be worth it.
“There will be some delays. I think everybody knows with a building like this there will be some hiccups,” said Guiel.
Anthony, meanwhile, says he isn’t sure what he’ll do next.
“I went and got a new place now,” said Anthony. “I don’t even want to be in that place, and come a year and a half, I don’t even want to be in Peterborough anymore. I’ve been waiting two and half years by the time I get in there.”
As an alternative, Dawson says Atria has a building at 100 Bond East in Oshawa with about 20 vacancies.
“A brand new building,” Dawson described. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the only other option that we can suggest.”
The interior of the old building has been gutted and work is now expected to resume within the month.
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