Tag Archives: bloor st
Praise the loft
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, windmilldevelopments.com
Architect: Caricari Lee Architects, caricarilee.com
Size: 4 storeys; 2 buildings
Units: 40 units; 550 sq. ft. to 1,200 sq. ft.
Price: $249,900 to $629,900
—————————————————————————————————–
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.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Buyers praise heavenly loft conversions Since 1999, when loft conversions went into full swing around...
- New in Toronto real estate: Union Lofts Union Lofts is the former Perth Avenue Methodist Church turned...
- A Toronto church conversion built with grace and courtesy What's planned for the Perth Avenue site by its current...
- Toronto Church Loft Conversions Across Toronto, churches are putting their buildings up for sale,...
- Toronto Loft Profile: The Church will have prospective purchasers singing praises From New Homes & Condos Magazine A century-old church evokes...
Bloor McDonald’s location shuttered
Site of iconic restaurant once graced by Ashlee Simpson sold to financiers to develop condominiums
Evan Hutchison – TheVarsity.ca
On January 6, 2013, without much notice, the McDonald’s at 192a Bloor St. W. closed permanently, leaving U of T students both confused and hungry.
A favourite spot for U of T students looking for a quick bite between classes, or at least a bit of food to offset the effects of late-night partying, the McDonald’s will surely be missed as it is torn to down to make way for a new condo development.
From 1960 to March 2008, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Ltd. leased the site from the City of Toronto, paying rent of just $1,250 per month for most of that period. The rent was to be renegotiated in 2004, with the city proposing to increase it to $16,250. McDonald’s countered with an offer to buy the property for $3.38 million.
Eventually, and controversially, city council voted, in 2008, to accept McDonald’s tender. The value of the land on which the corporate-owned location sat – the building itself was owned by McDonald’s – was estimated by some to be considerably higher, between $7 and $9 million, but the encumbrance of a 99-year lease made it less attractive to any other purchaser.
The land was in turn sold to a consortium led by Bazis International Inc., a developer based in Canada, but financed from Kazakhstan, also responsible for the now defunct 1 Bloor St. E. condominium tower, a 78-storey luxury development, the vacant site for which will eventually serve as the location of a considerably less ambitious project. Bazis has also participated in the construction of Astana, the ostentatious artificial city decreed Kazakhstan’s new capital in 1997.
High fences and hoardings have been erected around the old McDonald’s, but the derelict former hamburger restaurant is still visible.
Barring complications, 192a Bloor and adjacent lots will become home to the Exhibit Residences, a 28-storey condo tower consisting of four stacked cubes and 192 residential units. The structure will stand on lots formerly occupied by Gabby’s Bar and Grill, Lobby Lounge, China Gardens, and Pho Hung.
In 2005, Ashlee Simpson memorialized the McDonald’s at Bloor when she drunkenly berated staff and customers, demanding that one kiss her foot, and attempted to climb the restaurant’s counter. A video of the incident can be found on YouTube.
Brandon Bailey, a former Victoria University student, reported his reaction to the closure on Facebook: “I happened to walk by when the security guard locked the door for the final time. Confused, I walked up the unlit ramp to read the closure sign.
“As I passed him, the security guard shot me a sad look over his shoulder and muttered, ‘It’s closed forever, kid. Condos.’ He then turned down the adjacent alleyway and faded into the darkness. It was about as dramatic as a condo-tower-overtaking-a-McDonalds could be.”
The building it occupied for more than 50 years will be demolished, but the terms of its sale to Bazis provide for a new McDonald’s location inside the Exhibit Residences.
—————————————————————————————————–
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.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Toronto Condo Profile: One Bloor Bazis’ new 1 Bloor destined to become international signature for Toronto...
- Deal gives Bloor high-rise loan extension Bazis International has not made payments since December on the...
- One Bloor will be a bold, futuristic building The original 1 Bloor had 80 storeys and 801 suites,...
- Yonge and Bloor may get new tower By Danny Gallagher – The Globe and Mail The forlorn southeast...
- Time out for One Bloor – and time to reflect The announcement earlier this week that a mystery buyer had...
Could that condo’s courtyard be a public park?
Josh Tapper – Toronto Star
The tiny courtyard appears exclusive enough, tucked next to the One Bedford condominium just north of Bloor St. Two square granite benches; a garden, neatly manicured but withering in the November chill; and two “No Smoking” signs.
To the average passerby, the unassuming space, which is owned and maintained by the condo, has many of the trappings of a private courtyard. There might as well be a sign: For residents only.
But then again, it isn’t.
“Most people here don’t know it’s a public park,” said Jennifer Ricci, the condo’s property manager.
The courtyard is one of many privately owned public spaces — colloquially referred to as POPS — hiding across Toronto in broad daylight. They are parkettes, plazas, squares and walkways, often in the vicinity of a condo or office complex, so inconspicuous that the public tends to think they’re off-limits.
And there are dozens, maybe hundreds, according to city planning staff.
After years of unsteady record-keeping by the city, Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow plans to file a notice of motion to council next week pushing for a planning report identifying all privately owned public spaces in Toronto. He’s also pushing for a separate report to look into mounting signs that would let people know they’re welcome to use those places.
“There may be sites right across the city that the public walks by, thinking that they’re not allowed onto, when legally it’s their space,” said Matlow. He points to roughly 530 POPS around New York City that have been visibly marked that way as inspiration.
Conversely, there may be lots of condo dwellers who mistakenly think the lovely little green space outside is theirs alone.
While it’s not clear how many POPS exist in Toronto, city planners have developed a working list of 27 sites created since 2000, covering about 1.3 million square feet — mostly in the downtown core, according to James Parakh, an urban design program manager in the city planning division.
In 1961, New York became the first North American city to amend its zoning bylaws to grant skyward-looking developers more vertical real estate, as long as they set aside part of their property for a privately owned public space. Toronto has issued similar density bonuses for decades, more recently through the Planning Act’s Section 37, which sometimes allows developers to pay cash to the city for permission to bypass parts of the zoning bylaws.
As Toronto grows denser, Matlow says the lack of awareness of POPS could become troublesome as developers try to infill land previously designated as public space. Parakh insisted there are “negotiations and discussions” between the city and developers with any project.
But in New York, which has had POPS signs since 1975, publicity has brought added scrutiny when owners try to regulate the private space or simply keep out people who wouldn’t use the space if it wasn’t marked.
“(Owners) will keep a space closed by keeping the gates locked when the hours require the space to be open, or management will come out and tell people it’s a private space,” said Jerold Kayden, a Harvard University urban planner and author of Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience.
“They’ve privatized what effectively should be a public space.”
Even now, since the city hasn’t set any POPS guidelines, developers and property managers are free to impose their own rules — as long they don’t post a “No Trespassing” sign, Parakh said. Whitestone property managers installed the “No Smoking” signs at One Bedford on Tuesday, after non-residents kept tossing their butts in the flower beds. The circular courtyard in front of the Pinnacle Centre condos, at 33 Bay St., has a private property sign banning dogs.
Ricci, the One Bedford property manager, believes visible signage would not sit well with her residents, who must pay for the courtyard’s upkeep and repair. She said she already gets complaints about non-resident loiterers, garbage and noise.
Parakh applauded Matlow for suggesting visible signage. For POPS to serve their purpose, people have to know they exist, he said.
“They are only a benefit if they are considered publicly accessible.”
—————————————————————————————————–
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.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Urban planning: The public domain Make the public realm — the environment around buildings that…
- Condo development plans across from High Park After years of uncertainty surrounding a block of houses on…
- Theatre Park The condo at 224 King St. W. will rise…
- REALTORS® Take Public’s Pulse on GTA Issues, Including Toronto Land Transfer Tax Greater Toronto REALTORS® have released the results of public opinion…
- Public Wants Toronto Land Transfer Tax Repealed It is no secret that Toronto Realtors are strongly opposed…
