Development News

Municipal works are complicated things, and road works, involving not only the department of roads but often of several utilities, can be especially difficult to orchestrate.

Veteran councillor John Parker understands this, but even he was nonplussed at the tribulations of what ought to have been a relatively simple watermain update on Millwood Road between Bayview and McRae.

After two years and no apparent end in sight, with questions to city staff going unanswered, or receiving vague or inconsistent responses, he'd finally had enough.

"I'd lose track of what was happening when," Parker says, "staff would lose track of who they'd called, and residents would call and I'd get frustrated having to tell them I didn't know what was happening."

So he wrote a letter with all the questions he and his constituents had had over the months and years, and demanded a comprehensive reply.

He found out that the delay had been caused by a French farce's worth of miscommunication and bad decisions. The work was first meant to repair the watermains. When the ground was dug, workers discovered the sewers were in bad shape, too. After some winter weather delays, the city decided to inform the utilities that if they wanted to do anything in the area themselves, now was the time. The utilities had to figure things out, and then do their work. When that was done, the road department called the water department to make sure they'd finished their work, and when they were told they had, they began re-paving, only to receive a call from another desk at the water office saying that no, in fact they hadn't finished their work. "That's why you'll see some areas where brand new sidewalk is being broken up," Parker says.

The final word is that, after Enbridge is finished with some gas lines, the city will re-do all the surfaces by November 31.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Parker

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For the developer, there are downsides to building things before people commit to buying them. For buyers, there are downsides to buying things before they're built. But Daniels Corporation seems to have hit upon a formula that works for everyone with its First Home brand of developments.

Daniels builds entire projects of townhouses, stacked townhouses and 4-storey low-rise condos, all aimed at first-time buyers and let the success of one project do the advertising for the next, and do no actual marketing for the developments before every house is completely built and ready to move into.

Their latest, phase two of Destination Drive at Erin Centre Blvd. and Winston Churchill Blvd., consists of 148 units on 10 acres. Construction started in March, 2010 and finished, with the exception of the landscaping, last week. And the day before they went on sale, Daniels reported buyers lined up to get the pick of the litter.

"We've had this repeated over several communities," says Daniels vice president Don Pugh. "Because we build first, it gives us the ability to market them in a very special way."

This special marketing includes the ability to give potential buyers walk-throughs, not only of model homes, but of their actual potential home, and down the streets where Daniels hopes they'll live.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Don Pugh

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Vermont Square Park is getting an overhaul.

After years of gradual neglect, the park is being rehabilitated in two phases, the first of which is beginning in June.

"Over the 90s and the first decade of this millennium, I think that municipal services have changed, and imperceptibly our park became sort of a wasteland," says longtime Seaton Village resident Andrew Ignatieff, chair of the Vermont Square Park Renewal Committee (and Michael's brother). "If any of us thought about it, we thought the city will deal with it, and I'm sure the city thought the people can take it over and take responsibility for it, so it was in pretty bad shape, particularly in the playground where a lot of the equipment had become broken and damaged and unsafe for young children."

The cycle was broken with a call from Councillor Adam Vaughan, who suggested the park would be a good candidate for city-funded help.

The committee was struck by the Seaton Village Residents' Association 18 months ago, and after extensive neighbourhood consultations, the particular changes were agreed, including new playground equipment, and Plant Architects were engaged to design the new landscaping.

The budget for the project is $500,000. The first phase is due to be completed by August, and the second phase, which will mostly involve infrastructural improvements, will be done in 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrew Ignatieff

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It looks like residents are having their way with the design of the upscale condo proposed for 128 Pears at Avenue Road near Yorkville.

When people from the neighbourhood complained about the 11-storey design, which exceeds the as-of-right height restrictions by 24 metres, the developer and architect altered the plans to try to address at least some of the concerns.

As a result, the building's upper floors will be set back, the front balconies may be replaced by Juliet balconies, or eliminated entirely. People were also worried about shadows, as they often are, and the developer is creating a 3D model to show how the building's shadows will behave.

According to the most recent city guidelines, the condos themselves will be family friendly.

"The number of suites proposed is 45," Councillor Adam Vaughan said in his newsletter to constituents, "and adjoining rooms would have break-out panels for the option of enlarging the space. Forty percent of the units would be three bedroom."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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Maple Leaf Square is getting its own LCBO in July.

The addition, which follows the opening of the Longo's grocery store, marks the area's transition from pure entertainment to a more residential and commercial hub.

"The concept with this store," says LCBO spokesman Chris Layton, "much like the store we opened in the Royal Bank Plaza earlier this year, is to provide convenient service in a rapidly growing community of Toronto that also attracts many visitors."

The 4,000 square foot store, which is being built next to the Real Sports Bar and Grill with its 199 HD TVs, including the continent's largest sports bar HD TV, will have 2,900 square feet of selling space with 1,400 products.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chris Layton

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Toronto got an odd new brand of cafe last week, when the ING Direct Cafe opened its doors in the old Pier 1 space at Yonge and Shuter.

With ads up throughout the TTC system and elsewhere, ING Direct CEO Peter Aceto expects they'll be getting a lot of walk-in traffic expecting a more traditional coffee spot. But, he says, "It'll be obvious to you that it's really not a coffee shop like Tim Hortons or Starbucks or Second Cup."

If you drop by, he says, "You'll be greeted by one of our people who understands mortgages, savings, mutual funds and coffee." The idea is that's it's not the sort of cafe people are used to, and not the sort of bank you're used to.

ING Direct has started up these spaces, which also exist in Montreal and Vancouver, to address the downside of being a mostly branch-free bank: no street presence.

To belay fears that this is a corporate pop-up, Aceto emphasized how much work was done on the heritage building -- the bank spent about a year renovating the three-storey, 10,000 square foot space -- and that ING signed a 10-year lease, with two five-year extensions.

"This is a very important space for us," he says, "and it's going to be very important for the next 10 or 15 years."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Aceto

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Local independent caf Crema Coffee Co. is on the verge of becoming a bona fide chain.

On June 1, the two-location company is doubling its size, opening a location at Richmond and Spadina and another on the Danforth at Logan.

The Richmond and Spadina location will be the second Crema to be located within a Freshii, but the Danforth space will be a separate shop, the same size and with the same basic design as the original Junction location.

"There's not that much work to do really," says Crema owner Geoff Polci. "It was a cafe already. We're going to use a lot of the existing stuff there. There's already a bar, and shelving. We just need to paint, change up some tile, the floors have already been done, buy table and chairs, hire and train new staff."

The space, formerly Sweet Tooth, has a bigger kitchen than the Junction location, which Polci says they'll be using to expand their Panini menu.

The 800 square foot space will cost about $50,000 to turn into a Crema, Polci figures.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Geoff Polci

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There'll soon be 170 new town houses in Lawrence Park.

Canterbury, the forthcoming Tribute development slated for the old 5-acre Salvation Army site at Bayview and Blythwood, is in pre-sell mode and hopes to begin construction this fall, with occupancy in late 2012 or early 2013, depending on how sales go.

According to Tribute's vice president of sales and marketing, Tony Whitaker, the target demographic is "young professionals, as opposed to move-down empty-nesters. These are three- and four-level [homes]; we're not appealing to the retirement crowd." He points out the development will be close to the subway, as well as the Bayview strip, and schools like Crescent, Toronto French School and Glendon College.

The price range the for houses, designed by Cassidy and Company, is from the low $700s to a little over a million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tony Whitaker

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Demolition is almost complete at the future site of West Village.

The $95-million Tridel project, at Burnamthorpe and The West Mall, is being built on a site that was once occupied by several low-rise office buildings.

"It's mostly rubble now," says Tridel's senior vice president of sales and marketing, Jim Ritchie, "there's not much structure remaining."
The first phase of the project will consist of two towers, one 27 storeys and the other 30, built on a podium that will also include the top half storey of a mostly underground two and a half storey parkade with space for more than a thousand cars.

Ritchie expects the demolition to be finished within the next week or two, and for construction on the five-acre site to begin in May. He figures people will be able to start moving in sometime in early 2013.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jim Ritchie

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According to Gord Perks, the big torn-up road is only a part of the reason the Roncesvalles strip is undergoing such an upheaval.

"There are a lot of dynamics going on at the same time," says the city councilor of the commercial area that's seen many businesses struggle or close -- sometimes after decades in business -- and new ones re-open in the past two years. "We're coming out of a recession, the demographics of the neighbourhood have changed dramatically in the last five years, and yes, construction has had an impact, but I think the other two have bee more important."

Signs of the economic recovery can be seen all over the city, as long-delayed condo developments finally rise out of the ground, but the demographic switch is particular to Roncesvalles. According to Perks, 20 years ago it was a predominantly Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian neighbourhood. "Now," he says, "it's much more mixed," with fewer cultural and economic differences from High Park, just a few blocks away.
As a result, Perks says, "The nature of the businesses have changed, frankly because the street is going to be much more beautiful and pedestrian."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gord Perks

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Construction has begun on the first large-scale downtown condo tower to be built without parking.

But in a very crowded field, the 42-storey RCMI tower is distinguishing itself in several other ways, as well. For one, its location on University Avenue, on the site of the Royal Canadian Military Institute from which it's taking its name, is almost entirely non-residential, packed as it is with office towers, hospitals and university buildings.

It is also going to house the institute whose original home it's displacing at 426 University.

"We're actually building them a new club and facility there which they'll move back into on the first several floors," says Tony Whitaker, developer Tribute Communities' vice president of sales. The facade of the old building will also remain, as will the canon out front.

The new building, designed by Zeidler Partnership, will have 318 mostly small suites, one-bedroom and one bedroom with a den, which people will be able to start moving into in early 2013.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tony Whitaker

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New home sales were down by 25 per cent in the GTA in March from 2010, but industry players are saying it's no cause for concern.

Last month, 1,454 low-rise homes sold in the GTA, and 1,980 high-rise homes. Each of those numbers is down by about a quarter from the same month last year, a month Stephen Dupuis, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) says was a sort of "March madness."

According to BILD and Realnet, the organization that tracks the numbers, the downturn, which extends to the 8.5 per cent decline in sales for the whole first quarter, is attributable to a surge in 905 development, and the slow but inevitable reduction in low-rise land supply in Toronto.

To illustrate Dupuis' contention that the demand remains strong, Halton experienced a 76 per cent increase in sales of low-rise homes year over year, and York saw a 14 per cent increase in high-rise sales.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Stephen Dupuis

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The James Cooper Mansion in finished.

The Tridel project, best known for the Second Empire house at Sherbourne and Linden that used to house the Knights of Columbus and is now the most distinctive part of this 32-storey condo, is finished and people are moving in.

"We preserved a century-old Victorian mansion, connected it to the modern high-rise, and the mansion is now the condominium common area amenities space," says Jim Ritchie, Tridel's senior vice president of sales and marketing.

With more than a quarter million square feet of residential space, this tower, which had been praised by the Star' Chris Hume, is adding some long lost vitality to a Toronto strip that was once one of its most desirable. Just south of Rosedale and close to both the Sherbourne subway station and the Yonge and Bloor nexus, it's an obvious candidate for revival.

Work began back in 2007, when the James Cooper Mansion itself was moved closer to the street so that the heritage house could be incorporated in its entirety into the project, rather than simply donating its facade.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jim Ritchie

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].

The once controversial retail and residential complex at Queen West and Portland is now practically complete.

Derided at the time of its proposal for its scale and rumours that its lower floors would be home to a Home Depot or even a Wal-Mart, Queen and Portland, as it's known, with its 96 suites and two major retail anchors will be ready for residents and tenants in a couple of months.

The two major retail tenants will be Loblaws and Winners, which will be topped with five floors of recessive residential floors, which are some of the first in the city to include the so-called family suites, three-bedroom units now officially encouraged by the city.

"Part of the municipal approval process required 10 per cent of the building to have a larger number of bedrooms in the suites to encourage families," says Tony Whitaker, vice president of sales for Tribute Communities, the project's developer.

The architect for the project is Turner Fleischer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tony Whitaker

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].

The Roncesvalles renaissance has begun, as spring brings out a new batch of businesses taking advantage of the waves of displacement on this roadwork-belaboured strip.

Roncesvalles Dental Centre just opened mid-March in the space at No. 235 vacated by the Royal Bank, who moved down the street.

"We had to pretty much gut everything," says Dr. Pamela McGrath, one of three partners who own the clinic and have been overseeing the renovation since September. "We had to take down the walls, redo the ceiling, do plumbing, redo the electrical. We were supposed to open in January, but we were delayed. Construction always takes longer than you think."

The project was handled by Dentrix Construction, which specializes in customizing dental spaces.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Pamela McGrath

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].