Construction is well underway for Almega and Brixen Developments’ 12-storey, 308-unit purpose-built apartment building at 824 Sheppard Ave. W. in Toronto’s North York district.

The project has secured a $146-million conventional construction loan led by BMO and syndicated with another Schedule 1 lender. Oakbank Capital Group was the mortgage broker for the transaction, which closed late in 2025.

“This project will be ready in mid-2028, which means that we're going to have some of the only new inventory in North York, which is an excellent time for us to be bringing product to market,” Almega chief executive officer Basem Hanna told RENX.

Almega acquired the site, which contained two older commercial plazas, from a private owner for approximately $12.2 million in April 2020. It took the property through the entitlement process and brought in Brixen in 2023 after seeking a builder partner that wanted long-term co-ownership.

“There's one thing to hire a third-party construction manager,” Hanna observed. “It's another thing if the construction manager is your partner, they own a piece of the business and they're highly motivated to ensure this building gets executed correctly.” 

The partners waited until market conditions started to become more favourable, then found a window of opportunity to launch the project last year. 

What 824 Sheppard will offer

The Architecture Unfolded-designed apartment building will offer an approximate mix of 10 per cent bachelor units, 40 per cent one-bedroom units, 40 per cent two-bedroom units and 10 per cent three-bedroom units serviced by three elevators. The average unit size will be just under 700 square feet.

Amenities will include a gym, party rooms, outdoor terraces and other outdoor space, as well as a small retail component at grade.

The location is a 15-minute walk east of the Sheppard West subway station. It’s located approximately midway between Downsview Park and its nearby development activity to the west, and Earl Bales Park to the east.

“We think this is an area that's up-and-coming — more so than it already is, because this is already a very wealthy area,” Hanna said.

The path to “Almega 2.0”

“Sheppard is the first example of what I would say is Almega 2.0,” Hanna said, explaining that the company sold the portfolio of older and smaller Toronto apartment buildings and commercial properties it had acquired in the previous decade and used the proceeds to buy land to take through the entitlement process for future development. 

“If we had a few hundred units before, we took all that cash and now we're building 1,200 units from the ground up. It's a continuation of a strategy that we've been implementing successfully since 2011 but now, as the company is growing and maturing, we're taking on more responsibilities and doing more vertical integration by building ourselves. 

“We already did our own property management and it made a lot of sense for us to bring on partners like Brixen, who share our long-term vision and can add a ton of experience and expertise to an area that’s very critical to us right now, which is construction and taking projects correctly through the development process.”

Mississauga development will be next

Almega’s next development will be on a 2.65-acre site acquired in 2021 at 60 Dundas St. E. near Hurontario Street in Mississauga. It’s occupied by a commercial plaza that will be demolished and approval has been granted to build 32-, 31- and 16-storey apartment buildings totalling 780,000 square feet.

Almega and Brixen have again partnered for the project along with Windsor Private Capital.

Construction of the 32-storey, 325-unit first tower is to begin in July, with the next one to start a year later and the third one to begin a year after that.

“We’re extremely excited, we’re well-positioned and we don't have legacy projects,” Hanna said. “We sold all of our old inventory and all of our pipeline at the last true peak of the market before starting Sheppard and Dundas. 

“We've been chewing what's on our plate over the last four or five years to get these projects to where they need to be so that we can start building this new set of inventory.”

Building now saves costs, beats the rush

Almega’s developments were budgeted at 2023 and 2024 prices when interest rates were higher than today. Now that construction has slowed across the Greater Toronto Area and trades aren’t as busy, prices are coming down.

Those factors, according to Hanna, will enable these new projects to be built for eight figures under their bank- and cost consultant-approved budgets.

“I think there will be a massive rush in late ’26 and 2027 because anybody that's been sitting on their hands for two years has land sites that they need to build on,” Hanna said. “All the guys that are slowly converting from condo to rental will have their projects approved by their various municipalities, so being ahead of that rush makes me very happy.”

Almega’s acquisition strategy

Almega has changed its acquisition strategy from purchasing raw land to income-producing properties with development potential. Those decisions are made by using this criteria: 

• the price must be below replacement value;
• it must be bought with all cash and no debt;
• it needs upside potential;
• and it must be in a Tier One location.

“We’re actively acquiring and we're actively raising capital,” said Hanna, noting Almega became an Exempt Market Dealer in 2024, which has enabled it to raise capital more quickly from accredited investors and structure deals without the help of a third party.

“Almega’s goal is to be an institutional owner of income-producing properties in Canada,” Hanna said. “Our investors and our management team are solely focused on producing long-term cash flow for ourselves, and that really guides our decisions.”