Project to transform Queen Street storefronts into lofts
Since Les Mallins jumped from accountancy into converting old buildings to lofts, the pace of his life has picked up - a lot.
“It’s crazy,” he admits. “The phone never stops.”
He recently launched his second project, Beach House Lofts, at 1842 - 1848 Queen St. E. It will transform four, two-storey storefronts into 10 loft units along with retail and commercial uses along the street, including a Starbucks coffee house.
After the first weekend, seven units are sold, says Mallins, who is undertaking the project with business partner, architect Bill Hurst, of WHA Architects.
Through their company, Streetcar Developments Inc., they have already finished much of the work on one storefront to demonstrate how the conversion will be done.
By adding another floor, plus a mezzanine level, to the buildings, Mallins and Hurst will create units ranging from 620 Square feet to 1,760 square feet, with 10-foot to 20-foot ceilings. Each has a balcony or large deck. They were priced from $199,900 to $599,900, although the cheapest one now available is $349,900.
Costs range from $330 to $350 a square foot, Mallins says. The units will come with stainless-steel appliances, hardwood floors and stone countertops.
Lockers are an extra $2,500, and a parking space in the two-level stacking system, is priced at $15,000 a spot. Mallins used the system, imported from Germany, in his first project and he says it has worked out well.
“If I could choose, I’d want underground parking, but on these sites it’s an impossibility,” says Mallins. “The stacking system has become popular in major U.S. and European cities.”
Streetcar Developments’ first effort, the Academy Lane Lofts at 1850 - 1852 Queen St. E., converted what has been a bowling alley and dance hall in the 1920s into lofts.
“It was marginally profitable,” he says of the loft conversion, launched in late 2002. “You hire professionals and cost consultants and structural engineer, but on those types of buildings, you never know what you’ll find.”
The latest project looks more promising, he says. “This one is going well, and it’s been well received by the public. That takes a lot of the pressure off.”
Mallins has his office at Academy Lane Lofts, while Hurst will move his office into Beach House Lofts when it’s complete.
The retail component is an important aspect of these small conversions, Mallins says. A patisserie occupies a storefront in Academy Lane Lofts, but Mallins hastens to say he got the OK from a similar business in the neighbourhood before signing up a competitor.
Similarly, the owner of a local coffee shop didn’t object to a future Starbucks at Beach House Lofts, because he plans to convert his business into a bistro, Mallins says.
Mallins, who lives across the street from Academy Lane Lofts in new housing on the former Greenwood racetrack, gets a lot of satisfaction from witnessing the change his projects are bringing to a commercial strip that was in decline.
“I see people walking there who hadn’t been there before,” he says. “It’s fun, really fun.”
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