Wind­mill Devel­op­ments plans to con­vert a red-brick, Neo-Gothic church at Perth Ave and Wal­lace Ave. into a condo that it has chris­tened Union Lofts.

Ryan Starr – Toronto Star

Devel­oper Alex Speigel strolls to the back of the vacant Perth Ave. church build­ing and sits down in front of a mas­sive old pipe organ. He pauses for a moment and then lays his hands on the key­board, pro­duc­ing a few pleas­ant chords and a bluesy pas­sage that res­onates delight­fully through­out the defunct house of worship.

His com­pany, Ottawa-based Wind­mill Devel­op­ments, plans to con­vert the red-brick, Neo-Gothic church at the north­east cor­ner of Perth Ave and Wal­lace Ave. (near Dun­das St. W. and Bloor St. W.) into a condo that it has chris­tened Union Lofts. (“Praise the loft,” the project’s brochure implores. “Pre­pare to be converted.”)

The church, most recently occu­pied by a Sev­enth Day Adven­tist con­gre­ga­tion, was designed by George Miller (of Glad­stone Hotel fame) and built in 1913.

The old organ, man­u­fac­tured in 1924 by Quebec’s Casa­vant Frères, a com­pany that’s still around, sounds divine. But find­ing some­one to take the impres­sive instru­ment — with 849 pipes, some which reach as high as 25 feet — off Windmill’s hands is prov­ing to be a major challenge.

“We’re try­ing to find a home for it,” explains Speigel, the company’s Toronto-based man­ag­ing part­ner, on a recent tour of the church build­ing, which cur­rently serves as the Union Lofts sales cen­tre. “We’ve con­tacted all kinds of churches and theatres.”

So far, though, no takers.

Union Lofts – 243 Perth Ave

For­tu­nately Wind­mill hasn’t had as tough a time gen­er­at­ing inter­est in Union Lofts.

Suites range from 550-square-foot one-bedroom units to 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom-plus den lofts. Prices start at $249,900 and go to $629,900.

The project, designed by Cari­cari Lee Archi­tects, will com­prise two sections.

The orig­i­nal church build­ing will be pre­served and recon­fig­ured to house 24 units, each of them with unique lay­outs owing to the shape of the exist­ing struc­ture. The top floors will have two-storey town­house–like units.

“It’s like build­ing a build­ing within a build­ing,” Speigel explains. “It’s pretty com­plex. We have to add floors and use all the exist­ing build­ing open­ings, because (the city’s her­itage preser­va­tion depart­ment) is con­cerned with keep­ing the look of the building.

“So the entire shell is being restored, and we’re also build­ing up and into the roof.”

Indeed, one of the top-floor lofts will extend up into a large church turret.

“Units in the exist­ing build­ing will be kind of like a Rubik’s Cube,” Speigel says. “They go up and over the other, and they interlock.

“The church units are all quirky,” he adds. “And peo­ple really like that.”

Next door, where the church park­ing lot cur­rently sits, a new 15-unit build­ing — the Vestry — will be built, with four con­dos per floor.

The new addi­tion will have brick that matches the church, but it will have a dis­tinctly mod­ern design, Speigel stresses. “When you mimic the old, it sort of cheap­ens it in a way. You want to see clearly what’s old and what’s new.

“So (the new build­ing is) clearly of our time and the church is clearly of another time. But the mate­ri­als and mass­ing are sympathetic.”

Union Lofts’ open floor plans max­i­mize nat­ural day­light, with a slid­ing door sys­tem that enables effi­cient use of open spaces.

Suites at Union Lofts will have a pri­vate patio, ter­race, bal­cony or Juli­ette bal­cony, with water hose bibs on the patios and terraces.

Kitchens come with cus­tom Scav­olini cab­i­netry, islands and Cae­ser­stone countertops.

Speigel, pre­vi­ously direc­tor of devel­op­ment for Con­text Devel­op­ment, has been involved with sev­eral Toronto con­ver­sion condo projects in the past, includ­ing The Loretto, Tip Top Lofts and Kens­ing­ton Lofts.

“It’s never the same thing twice,” he says. “That’s the good thing and the bad thing about them. It makes it very inter­est­ing but you just never know what you’re in for.”

“A lot of devel­op­ers don’t like to do con­ver­sions,” he adds. “They would rather just tear down and build new. It’s sim­pler and there’s less risk involved.

“But for me it’s the chal­lenge of work­ing with an exist­ing build­ing and it’s just great to save and pre­serve them.”

Speak­ing of sav­ing, one can only pray that the great old church organ finds a new congregation.

“Whether we find a home for it in a church is to be deter­mined,” Speigel cau­tions. “It’ll be expen­sive to take apart, and most churches have an elec­tronic organ now; they don’t have the room or the design for this much space.

“Still,” he says after noodling on the instru­ment for a few moments, “it’s quite fantastic.”

HOLY GREEN

Wind­mill Devel­op­ments, which claims to be “Canada’s green­est devel­oper,” is tar­get­ing LEED Plat­inum cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for Union Lofts.

All of Windmill’s past projects have achieved LEED Plat­inum, the top level of the sys­tem for mea­sur­ing green buildings.

Pre­serv­ing and re-using the exist­ing church build­ing will do much to help in this effort.

“You’re not send­ing all this mate­r­ial to land­fill,” says Speigel. “It’s still got all the embod­ied energy that was in it.”

There will be a geot­her­mal heating/cooling sys­tem installed under Union Loft’s new Vestry building.

Each unit at Union Lofts will have double-glazed argon-filled win­dows with low-e coat­ings, and come equipped with an ERV (energy recov­ery ven­ti­la­tor) sys­tem. An ERV sup­plies fresh air directly to indi­vid­ual suites, heat­ing and cool­ing it using energy drawn from the out­go­ing air.

Appli­ances at Union Lofts are all Energy Star, includ­ing a stack­able washer and dryer – and the suites come with For­est Stew­ard­ship Council-certified wood floor­ing in the main liv­ing areas and bedrooms.

Union Lofts

Loca­tion: 243 Perth Ave.
Devel­oper: Wind­mill Devel­op­ments Group, wind​millde​vel​op​ments​.com
Archi­tect: Cari­cari Lee Archi­tects, cari​car​ilee​.com
Size: 4 storeys; 2 build­ings
Units: 40 units; 550 sq. ft. to 1,200 sq. ft.
Price: $249,900 to $629,900

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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