City Building : Development News

A community centre being expanded by a religious organization devoted to a recently deceased guru with millions of followers worldwide has received a big boost from the provincial government.

The Sai Baba Centre is an Indian-based operation organized around the teachings of Sathyanarayana Raju, aka Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who claimed to be the reincarnation of another spiritual leader who died 8 years before Raju was born.

The community centre, which received the $489,300 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation's Community Capital Fund, is meant to serve the South Asian community in Scarborough with health, youth and various other social services programs.

According to the centre's president, Mohana Thirukesan, the building at 5321 Finch Avenue will be expanded by about 40 per cent from its current 28,000 square feet. The centre has no payroll, relying on about 500 volunteers, doing good works such as providing hot meals to shelters, visiting the elderly and teaching youth "human values based on Baba's teachings," says Thirukesan. The expansion will allow the volume of these free services to increase, offering lessons to 900 youth, for instance, instead of the current 700.

Sai Baba's teachings took principles from Hinduism and Islam, and its logo, which includes the motto "Love all, serve all, help ever, hurt never", also includes the Star of David.

Upon his death in April, Sai Baba, whose miracles involving conjuring had recently been debunked, was found to have been in possession of, among other things, 500 pairs of shoes, 750 robes and hundreds of kilograms of gold, silver and gems.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source:

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The rest of Sherbourne Common opened this past weekend, including its most distinctive feature, the nation's first water feature that's also a water treatment plant.

The first phase of the new park, Sherbourne Common South, with its waterfront lawn and playground, opened last September. With the addition of the 0.5 hectare northern phase, the park rests on 1.47 hectares and cost a total of $30.6 million.

"It's such an innovative park," says Waterfront Toronto's interim manager of project communications Bruce Sudds. "If you get a chance, it's worth seeing at night."

The walkway over the water channel is equipped with motion sensors which alters the way the water sculpture by Jill Anholt, called Light Showers, is lit.

Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, was at the ceremony.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Bruce Sudds

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Lanterra has submitted an application to build two 58-storey towers on a seven-storey podium on Yonge Street between Maitland and Alexander.

The mixed-use plan calls for the current buildings, with their typical Yonge Street storefronts, to be demolished.

"My own personal reaction is that I'm not sure about the topography on Yonge Street," says ward councilor Kristyn Wong-Tam, "because the built form and the missing reminds me very much of what we've seen on Bay street, which has created that canyon street, and given the nature of Yonge Street, where we see three, four maybe five storey in some cases street wall expression, I have to worry about going too tall."

No detailed renderings of the Peter Clewes design have yet been shown to the city, and so Wong Tam is reserving judgment on that front.

The planning committee's report is due by the fourth quarter of the year, after which a public hearing on the subject will be scheduled.

Wong-Tam says that this application is just one of many similar ones she has either seen or heard are coming for the Yonge Street corridor.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kristin Wong-Tam


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Build Toronto got its rezoning approval this past week for what it expects will be Ontario's greenest office building.

The approval follows a similar approval from the North York Community Council, and makes the project a fair bet to make it through the rest of its hoops.

Despite its lofty carbon reducing ambitions, it hasn't been an easy road for the city's arm's length development corporation.

"I think there's a good tension between what we and the market view as the requirements, and what the planning people at the city and the residents view as the requirements," says Build Toronto's senior vice president of development, Don Logie.

In addition to altering the passenger pick-up and drop-off area and pushing the entire $150-million building back from the street, Build Toronto, which originally envisioned a 9-storey building, has dropped it to 7-storeys, and the current plan for 367,000 rentable square feet is about 20 per cent less than the original plan called for.

Designed by KPMB with their own Manitoba Hydro building as a model, the building will have in-floor radiant cooling and heating, as well as an eight-storey "solar chimney" that KPMB says will give the building a natural system of ventilation.

Located at the corner of Yonge and York Mills, it will also have direct lobby access to the subway and a direct connection to GO buses.
If everything else goes smoothly, ground will break in 2012, and the building will be completed, according to Logie, by the end of 2014.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Don Logie

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Mark Grimes was elected to council in 2003, and one of the first things across his desk was a Boy Scouts petition, with 225 signatures, asking for a skate park.

"It was one of the first things I undertook," Grimes says the day before the hoarding was finally going to come down, the same day about 60 kids decided they'd waited long enough and hopped over that hoarding to skate the park a day early.

The 14,000 square foot facility, built in the 8th Street park, cost $500,000, but got a concrete bowl for free, thanks to Toronto Redi-Mix.

"It's a great thing to bring to the youth here," says Grimes, the father of five. "Not every kid plays hockey and lacrosse. These kids are misunderstood. These kids are just looking of place to ply their trade, they skate downtown, they get chewed, they skate at Humber [College], they get chewed there."

The park was designed by EDA Collaborative, in consultation with Newline Skateparks, as well as local skaters.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mark Grimes

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The playground in Sibelius Square in the heart of the Annex is about halfway through its major overhaul.

First conceived about five years ago, the reconstruction is significant for more than the extra fun bits it'll afford local kids.

"When I came in, Sibelius Square was the only park people were working on," says Adam Vaughan, who's been councilor for the ward since 2006. He then proceeds to list the parks that have since followed suit, including Bellevue Square, Taddle Creek Park, Margaret Fairley Square, Vermont Square and Little Norway. And like Sibelius, the working groups went to the residents, and in the cases of playgrounds, to the children to find out what they wanted.

"One of the things we're hoping is that if the kids had a role in creating the park, it will be the same kids who make sure it won't get vandalized when they're older," Vaughan says, "because it's their park."

The new playground is being split in two, with one section for older kids sectioned off from the younger kids' area by a concrete climbing wall.

The bust of Sibelius, which gave the park its name, is being moved from the edge to the centre of the green space, where it's to be surrounded by a flower garden.

Work on the playground is expected to be completed by Labour Day, with upgrades to the rest of the park, including new paths and benches, scheduled for next summer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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Ground is officially being broken today, but the drilling has been going on for a couple of weeks already on the GTA's first major geothermally acclimated residential development.

Once finished, Ironstone in Burlington will benefit from 64 holes drilled 500 feet deep where air can be both cooled and heated and re-circulated up through the units.

Graham Chalmers, the vice president of construction at Davies Smith Developments, says he expects the holes, which are the first things being done on the site, will be finished by the end of the month.

"The next thing I do is bring in a shoring company that shores up the walls of the excavation, they used to call them pile drivers," Chalmers says, "and we expect to begin excavating by the 25th of August."

If things go smoothly -- and Chalmers says the drilling has gone better than expected in the relatively easy Burlington bedrock and everything has so far come in on budget -- the 210-unit, 16-storey condo will be ready for its new residents by November of next year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Graham Chalmers

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A formerly Polish and now universal immigrant assistance agency has received almost $500,000 to expand their Etobicoke offices.

The 18-year-old Polycultural Immigrant and Community Services will use the $495,000 Trillium grant to built a third floor on its centre at 3363 Bloor Street West, as well as make it more accessible.

"The site is a small site," says director of programs and services Nadia Sokhan, "so we're trying to expand the location so we can run more programming."

One of the conditions of the grant is that the agency match the funds with its own fundraising. Sokhan figures they'll have done this and will be able to begin work in about a year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nadia Sokhan

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The Shops on Steeles will move head, thanks to a decision from the Ontario Municipal Board.

The project, which planner, architect and Kirkor principal Clifford Korman calls "urban intensification at its best," will sit on the border between Toronto and Markham. It was largely supported by Markham council and opposed by the city of Toronto.

The mixed-use plan, which originally called for 1,787 residential units, has been scaled back to 1,235. It is a redesign of the current Shops on Steeles, at the corner of Don Mills and Steeles, and will resemble the layout and effect of the Shops at Don Mills.

According to Korman, there will be both interior and exterior shopping, with all medical and dental services remaining indoors in a mall portion of the project.

The project will begin soon, and will take between 10 and 12 years to complete.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Clifford Korman

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One of the city's several consumer condominium databases has made the move into sales.

The Red Pin, which launched in September, 2010, is launching its new brokerage, The Red Pin.com Realty, this week.

"We provide a full package of all the projects across the GTA," says principal Rokham Sadeghnezhadfard, who goes by the name Rokham Fard.

"We rolled it out silently about a month and a half ago, and we've been busy incorporating," Fard says.

The new brokerage is starting with two agents. The firm will receive commission from developers, and The Red Pin is still determining how its agents will be paid.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Rokham Sadeghnezhadfard

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CORRECTION: The original version of this story stated that agents would be paid standard commissions.

Four boring machines started work Friday morning at Sheppard Avenue West station.

Named Holey, Moley, Torkie and Yorkie, the four tunnellers began drilling their 8.6km way northwards in the latest extension of the city's subway system, connecting the Spadina line to York University.

The project, which will add six new stops to the line, is estimated to ultimately cost $2.6 billion.

According to Dale Albers, York Region Rapid Transit Corporation's communications guy, "Work started at 10am and will go on 10 hours a day" until the tunnel's finished. The borers place the tunnel liner down as it digs, building the tunnel as it goes, according to Albers.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Dale Albers

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Our Lady of Mercy is nearing the completion of her ascent at the Queensway and Sunnyside.

Work that began in January, 2007 on the underground parking lot is finally nearing completion, and the first floor of the new Our Lady of Mercy wing of St. Joseph's Health Centre this week is getting its drywall and flooring, as well as tiling in the showers of the second floor.

Work has also begun on the third and fourth floors.

"One of the most exciting aspects of the new OLM wing," says St. Joe's president and CEO Carolyn Baker, "is the state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that helps us provide high quality care to our tiniest patients featuring 20 bassinettes, an increase from our current 12. The new wing will also house an expanded Family Birth Centre to accommodate 4,000 annual births and increase over the 3,300 we had last year."


Once completed, the new wing, which replaced the old one that was demolished, will be 130,000 square feet spread over four floors. It will be the home of neonatal and pediatric care units, as well as a new birthing centre and mental health facilities for children and adolescents.

The work is being done by between 40 and 100 workers a day, employed by Vanbots.

The total budget is $73 million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Carolyn Baker

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"The city hasn't built an arena in almost 40 years," says Allan Williams.

One result is a lot of old arenas. Another is a shortage of arenas. And a third is the door-to-door canvass on June 11 that raised about $10,000 towards the building of a new arena in Leaside.

"The primary purpose was awareness-raising," says Williams, who organized the event, as well as the mailing that preceded it, through his marketing company, Proximus Canada.

The proposal for the new arena, which will be added to the existing Leaside arena (which will be renovated as part of the project), was approved by council in February. It's a $9.5-million project, of which $7 million is coming in the form of a city loan guaranteed against operating revenue. Of the remaining $2.5 million, about $1.9 million has already been raised, including an anonymous $1-million private donation.

Though there is no straight ahead official funding per se, representatives from all three levels of government � the offices of MP John Carmichael, MPP Kathleen Wynn and Councilor John Parker � helped out with the canvass.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Allan Williams

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Work will start Sunday on the main entrance of St. Lawrence Market, closing it for about four weeks.

The new design will include sliding doors, signs, more light and a new design, by Onespace Unlimited, which according to senior designer Isabelle Smith will add "wood and warmth to the place."

According to Rebecca Grima, a marketing and communications consultant for the city, the renovation will make the entrance lobby into "a more attractive and more accessible space," though one that, according to Smith, is being designed to discourage the indigent from loitering.

All six entrances are being re-done to Onespace's designs, and updates are available at www.stlawrencemarket.com.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Rebecca Grima

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The Beach's architectural homogeneity is about to be introduced to a new sort of building.

Announced last week, the design for a new mid-rise condo at the corner of Kenilworth and Queen is by Raw. Described as "floating glass enclosures of increasing size, one inside the other," in a press release announcing the launch, the 28-unit building will also feature some rather large balconies -- up to 1,058 square feet -- which Raw director Roland Rom Colthoff says they designed "to feel more like outdoor rooms."

The project's developer is Reserve Properties, the same people behind Bellefair and the Motif Lofts.

Interiors are being done by II by IV. If sales go well, the building may be ready for residents by November, 2013.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Riva Finkelstein

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a new house being built in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].