highly anticipated opening of the Ritz-Carlton. Crowned as the city’s first five-diamond hotel, the brand banked on its considerable reputation to create a space of 159 residences that would appeal to those seeking the ultimate in style and service.

highly anticipated opening of the Ritz-Carlton. Crowned as the city’s first five-diamond hotel, the brand banked on its considerable reputation to create a space of 159 residences that would appeal to those seeking the ultimate in style and service. Naturally, and not surprisingly, other prestigious hotel brands followed suit. This past April, amid some surprise and a few tears, the iconic franchise Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences shuttered its Avenue Road doors to make way this summer for a reportedly bigger-and-better successor down the street. Trump International Hotel & Tower just recently cut its ribbon, launching the country’s tallest condo tower: a whopping 65 storeys, boasting $6-million suites. And who could possibly ignore the tattle swirling over Shangri-La Toronto? Just as the name intimates, this utopian property —  based on the Asian principles of supreme hospitality — is rumoured to ascend them all, come August (80% of the $1-million to $9.3-million estate suites have already been sold).