(Courtesy Freed)

When Freed Hotels & Resorts launches sales for Freed Blue Mountain at Blue Mountain Village near Collingwood, it will represent the first major development at the popular Ontario resort in two decades.

The five-storey B+H Architects-designed development will feature 196 residential units ranging from 350 to 1,350 square feet as well as more than 18,000 square feet of retail space at grade. 

The project is the first significant residential development at Blue Mountain, which has approximately 1,200 hotel rooms and residences, in more than 20 years.

“There's a rental pool that exists now and our product will be the same,” Freed president Corey Shepherd told RENX. “You own your unit and use it when you want to use it and lose no sleep when you don’t. You close the door and it goes into a professionally managed rental pool.” 

Blue Mountain Resorts will be in charge of renting and managing the units on behalf of owners.

Freed Blue Mountain’s units and amenities

Floor plans and prices for Freed Blue Mountain units won’t be released until the on-site sales launch event begins at 11 a.m. on Nov. 16. There won’t be model suites but prospective purchasers can get an idea of what’s available through interactive virtual reality programs.

Freed Blue Mountain’s unit design will blend interiors by DesignAgency with furniture and finishes from Restoration Hardware.

Amenities will include a rooftop pool, a fitness centre, multi-purpose rooms, underground parking and dedicated ski/snowboard lockers since Freed Blue Mountain is located at the base of the resort property’s ski and snowboard hills.

While Shepherd acknowledges the last two years have been challenging for condominium sales, he’s confident that Freed Blue Mountain will go against the grain. Thousands of registrants have signed up since the project was first marketed late last year and hundreds have indicated they’ll attend the launch event, according to Shepherd.

“There's pent-up demand and dated product at one of the top tourist destinations in Canada,” Shepherd said. “The Blue Mountain-Collingwood area just continues to get more and more popular.

“In addition to the natural landscape, the resort operator has done a great job of creating a true four-season destination with summertime golf, biking trails and the biggest ski destination in Ontario.” 

Shepherd is confident sales will be strong enough that Freed Blue Mountain will meet its 2028 occupancy target.

Future plans at Blue Mountain, other resorts

Freed Blue Mountain will be the first phase of development for the company on the property. Approvals aren’t yet in place to move forward on the other sites it owns.

“We basically have all the excess development land that remains in and around Blue Mountain Village,” Shepherd said. “We've got three sites that are directly situated within the Village core, a fourth site called The Mountain Walk — which is the parking lot directly across the street — and another site just on the other side of the Monterra golf course.”

Shepherd said future development phases will likely be on a larger scale but similar to Freed Blue Mountain.

Toronto-based Freed, founded by Peter Freed, has been involved in developing condominiums, food and beverage ventures, hotels, resorts and commercial spaces for the past 30 years. It claims to be the largest owner operator of hotel and resort communities in Canada.

Freed has also made improvements to its three other Ontario resort properties: Muskoka Bay Resort in Gravenhurst; Horseshoe Resort outside of Barrie; and Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville.

Muskoka Bay included villas, lofts and single-family homes before adding a 62-room condo hotel. Another 88-room hotel with a rooftop pool, bar and enclosed restaurant will open next summer. 

A new golf course clubhouse was built four years ago. A skating rink and event space, which will have a roof but no walls, is under construction.

Horseshoe Residences — a seven-storey, 183-unit condo — is under construction at Horseshoe Resort.

Freed owns and operates Horseshoe’s ski operations and recently invested more than $1 million in improvements to them. It has also expanded the golf course from 12 holes to 18.

Freed recently renovated Deerhurst’s restaurant and will be renovating hotel guest rooms over the next year. It also invested in improvements at the Deerhurst Highlands golf course and is building a new golf clubhouse.

The company launched Freed Golf — which allows members to play at the Muskoka Bay, Horseshoe and Deerhurst courses and receive other perks — this past summer.

Other Freed activities

Freed launched sales for the 63-storey Freed Hotel & Residences, at Adelaide and Duncan streets in downtown Toronto, in March. 

The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed building will feature: 170 hotel rooms; 350 condo suites; a bar, restaurant and event space with 70-foot ceilings on the 63rd floor; and a 10,000-square-foot Katsuya restaurant on the second floor.

Suites are selling for more than $2,000 per square foot, according to Shepherd. While Freed hasn’t released sales figures, Shepherd said: “All things considered, with the market, we’re very happy with the progress to date.”

ANX — a 13-storey, 118-unit condo at 328 Dupont St. in Toronto — will be completed next summer.

“We continue to expand and continue to innovate our offerings and our different business verticals,” Shepherd said. “We've got our full resort and hospitality arm, our development arm, a construction arm (FirstCon) and our sales and brokerage arm (PSR Brokerage).”

Freed Income Fund II

Freed recently launched the Freed Income Fund II, a mutual fund trust that requires a minimum investment of $10,000 for five years into transit-oriented retail locations and parking garages in Toronto’s downtown core, as well as FirstCon, PSR and Freed Developments.

“We’re allowing retail investors to have access to ownership within private real estate offerings,” Shepherd said. “As we've grown, we've retained the ground-floor retail of many of our projects, in addition to the below-grade parking garages, and we've rolled all that into our Freed Income Fund II.

“We own 95 per cent and have offered the remainder to retail investors.”