For­mer Beach church con­vert­ing to con­dos

Valerie Hauch – Yourhome​.ca

This land­mark build­ing has always wel­comed people.

Its doors opened in 1922 as a Methodist place of wor­ship in Toronto’s Beach com­mu­nity, which was then more of a place that swelled with sum­mer crowds seek­ing to escape the down­town heat on the acces­si­ble stretches of sand along Lake Ontario and find some fun at nearby Scar­boro Beach amuse­ment park.

At some point, the grace­ful but unpre­ten­tious red brick build­ing on Queen St. E., a few blocks east of Wood­bine, become Belle­fair United Church, gar­ner­ing land­mark sta­tus as gen­er­a­tions of local res­i­dents came to wor­ship on Sun­days, spilling out onto the street after­wards, no doubt mar­vel­ling at the change of sea­sons in Kew Gar­dens directly across the street. The lat­ter started life as a farm in the 1850s and mor­phed into a gen­teel “place of inno­cent amuse­ments,” as it was described in 1879, dot­ted with pic­nic tables under stately oaks.

Today, Kew Gar­dens and its 100-year-old oak trees remain and peo­ple still enjoy the beach and board­walk, but the Belle­fair United Church con­gre­ga­tion has moved to another building.

And now, the stately build­ing is about to be trans­formed into Belle­fair Kew Beach Res­i­dences, a five-storey build­ing offer­ing 17 one– and two-bedroom-plus-den lofts, two-storey rooftop pent­house suites and six three-storey town­homes, all united by an ele­vated land­scaped court­yard which gives direct access to the homes. The town­homes will also have front and back­yard ter­races, some step­ping down to pri­vate gardens.

The red brick and stone trim clas­sic facade of the church will be main­tained and art­fully blended into the new struc­ture, which has about a 100-foot frontage on Queen St. E.

It was “very impor­tant,” says Shel­ley Fen­ton of Reserve Prop­er­ties, who is devel­op­ing the site with his son, Shane, to main­tain the “his­toric tie to the community.”

“Peo­ple have grown up here, they’ve come here over the years — it’s impo­rant to pre­serve that link,” he says.

The Fen­tons’ vision for the site was cho­sen over 10 other devel­op­ers and they retained her­itage archi­tect Christo­pher Bor­gal of Gold­smith Bor­gal & Com­pany, and lead archi­tect Ronald Rom Colthoff of Rawde­sign to design a way to incor­po­rate the late Gothic struc­ture into the new build­ing, with the inte­rior design by II by IV Design Asso­ciates. “We wanted to bring the past to the future,” said Shelley.

The Fen­tons also have a huge per­sonal affec­tion for the com­mu­nity and have spent a lot of time on the board­walk, in Kew Gar­dens and the lake­front over the years. Shane, an avid cyclist, bikes from March to Octo­ber along the Beach water­front. “Grow­ing up, my par­ents would take us here on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days,” recalls Shane, “We’d hang out at the beach and have picnics.”

“My wife and I have always loved doing stuff in the city and we’d throw a wagon in the trunk, take the kids and pull them along the board­walk,” adds Shel­ley. “We’ve always enjoyed the vil­lage feel to the neigh­bour­hood. And Kew Gar­dens is one of the most beau­ti­ful parks in Toronto.”

Pre­serv­ing the church facade adds about another mil­lion dol­lars to the project but they both felt it was worth it. Retail space will be offered at street level, which will help bring this part of the street “to life,” says Shane.

All lofts and town­homes will have 10-foot ceil­ings in prin­ci­pal rooms, Scav­olini cus­tom cab­i­netry in the kitchens and bath­rooms, stone or quartz coun­ter­tops, stain­less steel Euro­pean appli­cances by AEG and Lieb­herr, wide plank engi­neered wood floors, porce­lain floor tile in bath­rooms and stacked full-size wash­ers and dry­ers. In addi­tion to a party room and fit­ness cen­tre, there will be a dog­gie spa on the lower level.

Three-bedroom town­homes from 1,978 to 2,111 square feet, lofts and pent­houses range in size from 579 square feet to 1,600 square feet. There are 23 park­ing spots avail­able in a stacker sys­tem at the rear of the prop­erty priced at $30,000 each. Lock­ers are avail­able at $3,500. Main­te­nance fees are 48 cents per square foot for condo units and $749 per month for the town­homes plus hydro. Con­struc­tion is expected to begin in spring with first occu­pancy in Octo­ber 2012.

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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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