Rivertowne to have neighbourhood mix
Rivertowne will include elements considered essential to a healthy community
Excerpt of an article by Vickey Sandersen - Toronto Star
Mixed-income infill housing is now very much on the city’s radar, partly because it’s being pursued on a large scale in the redevelopment of Regent Park. But before that project was even announced, mixed-income planning principles were being applied to Don Mount Court.
The decision to rebuild meant finding temporary housing for 56 families. Fortunately, it also meant designers could include elements that are now considered essential to a healthy community: mixed-income occupants, street-oriented homes, access to public transportation, and proximity to local merchants and services.
The neighbourhood should be the first of many public-private partnerships, says Tony Whitaker, vice-president of sales and marketing for Intracorp.
“By entering into these public-private partnerships, TCHC can rebuild existing stock plus have some market housing built within the same community,” he explains. “That’s typical of much of downtown anyway, in the sense that, on the same street, you have poor people, rich people, middle-class people.”
Rivertowne will include 176 one- and two-storey stacked townhouse condos and a four-storey apartment building with 56 affordable-housing units. The market condominiums are being targeted to singles, young couples and empty nesters, all of whom want easy access to downtown while being part of a neighbourhood.Within the community - seven blocks roughly bounded by Queen, Dundas, Bayview and Broadview - there will be a range of townhouses from 648 to 1,118 square feet. Some have rooftop gardens.
Prices range from $199,990 to the mid-$300,000s, with a monthly maintenance fee of $159.72, which covers snow removal, landscaping, building insurance, water, parking garage maintenance and contributions to a reserve fund. Each unit also comes with a parking space.
Construction is expected to begin early in 2008, and the first occupants could move in that March, when a two-acre park should also be ready. Construction on the rent-geared-to-income unit will begin soon, and tenants should begin to move back in by the fall of 2007.
————————————————————————————————–———-
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
