city building : Development News

Markham is getting a new master-planned community with some genuine urban touches.

On April 11, the Times Group Corporation unveiled the plans for the 88-acre residential development they're calling Uptown Markham.

"Uptown Markham will significantly contribute to the continued growth of Markham as a leading economic and high-tech community," Markham's mayor, Frank Scarpitti, said in a press release for the occasion. "It is a well-planned and sustainable community that is a significant part of our vision for Markham Centre."

The intention, according to the developer, is for none of the residences to be farther than 200 metres from public transit.

The development is between Birchmount and Warden along Highway 7, and will ultimately consist of about 4,500 condo units and more than half a million square feet of commercial space.

The first phase of the development, dubbed River Park, will comprise three towers, two high-rise and one mid-rise, ranging in sale price from $240,000 to $600,000, as well as the first commercial space, called Uptown Square, with space for 15 retailers. The plan is for the plaza to be ready in time to receive the first occupants of the towers.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mark Wessel

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Mississauga is where it's at these days.

In addition to being home of the most talked-about condo design in the GTA � the Absolute tower, also known as Marilyn � Mississauga was the site of last quarter's largest commercial real estate transaction, and this quarter's largest residential land deal.

According to Realnet, in the last quarter of 2010, Cadillac Fairview sold Erin Mills mall to the Ontario Pension Board for $370 million.

"Those types of things are very rare," says Realnet president George Carras, "so when they come to market, there's a fair bit of interest."

Carras says that the sale shifted the entire balance of commercial versus residential land transactions in the GTA as, to a lesser extent, has the more recent sale of just under 57 acres north of Eglinton and west of Winston Churchill to Argo Developments, which plans to build low-rise residences. That sale was worth $68.1 million. It was enough to allow Realnet to title the announcement of its latest report "Residential Land Investments Lead the GTA Investment Market in Q1 2011."

"The overarching trend here is people want hard assets in the GTA," Carras says. "They want into the property markets. You're seeing the volumes coming back. The fact that you're seeing a resurgence in residential, that's where the market is right now."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: George Carras

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Starting now, Toronto homeowners can get free solar panels installed on their roofs and a $4,000 cheque to boot.

Thanks to Greensaver and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, 60 homeowners who fit the criteria will be able to sign 20-year agreements to hoist the solar photovoltaic panels atop their houses to reduce carbon production by about 1 tonne a year.

Those criteria include having at least 250 square feet of usable space on the roof, a roof that gets enough sun exposure. The roof itself must also be in good condition.

The other thing is the 20-year commitment. Upon signing up, the new eco-warriors will get a cheque for $4,000, which represents future savings and will be the only financial benefit from installing the panels.

"The next homeowner would have to assume the solar panels, so they wouldn't have any financial benefit from it," says Helen Reed, director of corporate communications and marketing for Greensaver, "other than if they were there at the end of the 20 years, when the system would be theirs."

Reed says that the lifespan of the panels is considerably longer than 20 years. As the program gets going, Reed expects it will be expanded beyond the initial 60 installations.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Helen Reed

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The corner of Ellesmere and Midland may have a lot more going for it if three applications currently under consideration get approved.

Submitted by the Goldman Group and Monarch Group for a plot of industrial-zoned land owned by Goldman Ellesmere Developments Inc., the application to amend the zoning bylaw, the plan of subdivision and the site plan approval, all submitted in February, are geared to make way for 162 new townhouses of up to thee storeys.

The corner lot will, if things go according to the developer's plan, also include a new series of public streets and lanes to accommodate the townhomes.

One application they didn't have to submit was to amend the official plan. According to city planner Carly Bowman, who takes care of central Scarborough, "it's zoned mixed use, and mixed use contemplates the type of use that's proposed." If they get approval, and the development ends up being successful, we can expect other density intensifying projects to move into this still fairly sparse part of the city.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Carly Bowman

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You know Toronto's development scene is fully back on its feet when new developers are starting to want in on the action.

Like the five law partners at the southeast corner of King and Sherbourne. Together, they own the 3-storey brick building their firm operated out of, and they're planning on developing it, as Plus Development Group, into 17 storeys of condos.

"We assembled some property to the south of the main building, and to the east of the main building," says partner Steve Macaulay, "and our vision was to develop the corner with a condominium that would fuse together the historical building with a modern condominium tower on top of that."

The tower's height will include the current three storey building, which will include 4,000 square feet of retail space supporting the 132 loft spaces above, designed by Tact Architecture Inc.

Though the building, originally named Bauhaus and now being marketed as King Plus, was just launched last week, the partners are optimistic about their timeline.

"If we had our druthers, I think we'd like to start construction sometime in the fall this year," Macaulay says, "and then its probably an 18-month or so horizon for completion of the project."

The building was designed by Tact Architecture Inc.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Steve Macaulay

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Roncesvalles is joining the carnivore rush that's been spreading across the city with the opening of Barque Smoke House next week.

Occupying the space of the old Bistro 299 at 299 Roncesvalles, Jonathan Persofsky and a partner took over the space in January and have been working on it with contractor Solutions Inc. and The Design Agency Inc. since February.

"We pretty much gutted this place from start to finish," says Persofsky of the $230,000 renovation of the 1,400 square foot space, which had been Staropolska before it was Bistro 299, "and when we started looking at things, pretty much everything wasn't done to code. We had to redo all electrical and all plumbing in the building, we didn't use any of the existing pipes, we ran everything brand new."

Equipped with a 500-pound smoker, which Persofsky says is the city's biggest, the new restaurant will seat 64 inside, and have an initial patio capacity of 30, which may be expanded to 80.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Jonathan Persofsky

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The downside of all the roadwork that's been going on along Roncesvalles is that it's tipped a few businesses out of business.

The upside is it's made room for new ones. Like the newest addition to the Fresh Collective mini-chain of clothing stores.

"A lot of our customers were already there," says owner Laura-Jean Bernhardson, who has two other locations in Kensington Market and on Queen Street West, but they'd only come in occasionally, because, she noticed, Roncesvalles Village residents tend to shop local. "So I figured if we moved there, they would come in more frequently."

Bernhardson was lucky enough to be given what she calls a "clean box," the approximately 750 square foot space at 401 Roncesvalles, occupied for almost 50 years by High Park Tailor, having been thoroughly renovated by landlord Michael Reis including new floors, exposing a brick wall, and removing an unsalvageable tin ceiling.

"I hired a store designer," Bernhardson says, referring to Rob and Susan Whittaker's RLW Design. "I wanted to take it up a notch."
Though much got finished later than scheduled, and much more was still unfinished, the store opened on April 9, just a little over a month after Bernhardson took possession.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Laura-Jean Bernhardson

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The neighbourhood public meeting to discuss an application to add more businesses to the Dupont strip between Spadina and Christie was held on Monday.

It concerned a particular application, to divide up the space inside an exiting building at 555 Dupont Street just east of Manning, between Bathurst and Christie, the former home of Leal Rentals.

The applicant, Sorensen Gravely Lowes Planning Associates Inc., represented at the meeting by Ming Lau, specified a bike store, an art gallery, a day nursery, an art supply store, a several fashion-related shops in their proposal to the city.

"Some seem happy because that particular site has got graffiti on it, barking dogs," says Rebecca Hewitt, Councillor Adam Vaughan's assistant in charge of the northern part of his ward, speaking before the meeting. "I'm expecting there might be some concern about increased traffic. We'll see."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Rebecca Hewitt

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Appleby Mall in Burlington is getting its first new LCBO store in 33 years.

The new store is being built as a standalone on the mall grounds on New Street near Appleby Line.

"We're basically tripling the size of the shopping area," says LCBO spokesman Chris Layton of the new 14,000 square foot store with 10,000 square feet of selling space.

In addition to having about 2,300 products on the shelves, there will be a walk-in beer cooler and seven check-out lines to take care of the clientele from an increasingly crowded mall store.

Layton expects the store to be ready to open by early summer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chris Layton

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In the future, let's hope all subsidized housing is as green as the Sackville-Dundas Apartments.

Architects Alliance has been nominated for a Toronto Green Award for their work on this first phase of the Regent Park overhaul.

Owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the complex was able to use 75% of the materials from the demolition of the public housing disaster whose place it's taking (saving 20% on construction costs). It has green roofs with cisterns to capture storm water that are connected to the irrigation system for the grounds. There's a heat reclamation system hooked up to the two hottest rooms in each apartment, the kitchen ad bathroom, to heat the building's water, there are motion sensors in the stairwells for lighting control and the exterior walls are half masonry, half glazing, to improve their thermal performance. There's also plenty of parking for bikes.

"It's important to have as many ways as possible of letting people know that the city is committed to sustainability," says  Mary K. McIntyre, Architects Alliance's director of business development, talking about the prize, "and it's important to highlight projects that are sustainable. In an ideal world sustainability is not a placard you wear around your neck, it's just the way you build. With a lot of these buildings that win, I think people will say, 'Wow, I didn't know that was a green building.' It's becoming not an exception that adds costs, but just a part of the building code, that's what we're aiming toward."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mary McIntyre

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The Lakeshore Village Business Improvement Area's building a community square.

"It's very small, not like Yonge and Dundas, " says John Scheffer, the west-end BIA's chairman, chuckling, "and we don't have $20 million either."

Far from it. The 5 metre-by-15 metre square at Lake Shore and 5th Avenue is expected to cost, tops, about $40,000.

"We pay half the cost, the city pays the other half," Scheffer says, "once they approve the project."

The application went in late last week, and the plan includes narrowing the road somewhat, and installing solar panels to light a sign as well as a few chess tables. The BIA also hopes to install a small fountain.

Scheffer says they hope to get working on it soon, and possibly complete it by the end of the year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Scheffer

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What will be, at least until something else tops it, the city's tallest condo tower reached ground level last week.

According to Riz Dhanji, vice president of sales and marketing for developer Canderel Stoneridge, the first people are expected to be able to move into Aura at College Park sometime next year, and the 75-storey tower is meant to be completed by the end of 2013.

In addition to a much-hyped 11,370 square foot, $17.5-million penthouse that takes up the entire 75th floor (and is still available), Aura will have plenty of retail on the ground level.

"We have Bed, Bath and Beyond," Dhanji says, adding that the US retailer's taken 50,000 square feet, "and we have Alice Fazooli's, Canyon Creek and the Bank of Montreal."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Riz Dhanji

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A house with the ability to monitor its own efficiency was completed this week, starting its year-long trial to determine the cost benefits of extreme eco-friendliness.

Heathwood Homes has set up a sort of green cage match between its Green House and another house it built to Energy Star standards nearby. Both houses will be monitored, the Green House as a model home and the Energy Star house with a family living in it (the buyers move in this July).

According to Bob Finnigan, Heathwood's chief operating officer, the Green House will use mostly LED lights, a greywater system that recycles shower water to flush the toilets, and something called Laundry Pure, which allows residents to wash clothing using only cold water, and without detergent.

"It uses ultraviolet light," Finnigan says, "and oxygen peroxide and other gases created inside this machine. Activated oxygen, essentially."

The monitoring is being done by Ryerson University, which will report the numbers back to Heathwood so they can calculate exactly how cost efficient energy efficiency on this level is.

The Green House will itself go on the market in late 2012, at which point the buyers will be given the option of keeping some of the more expensive components, like the $4,000 greywater recycling option, and the $20,000 monitoring system.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Bob Finnigan

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The city's Persian community is getting its own community centre, thanks in part to a grant from the Trillium Foundation.

The Parya Trillium Foundation, started in 2002, has been operating since 2008 out of a rented 15,000 square foot space at 7171 Yonge Street. Thanks to the $439,000 grant, announced last month, Parya has started to renovate an old Canuck Kitchen manufacturers office building, 10,000 square feet at 344 John Street in Thornhill, on about 1.3 acres of land.

Work has already begun, and Parya founder and president Ahmad Tabrizi figures it will be ready in two or three months to serve their 800 registered members and, more generally, the larger community of approximately 100,000 Farsi-speaking Torontonians.

The building cost about $2 million, and the renovations are expected to clock in at about another million. The funds not provided by Trillium have been and continue to be raised through donations.

"The new one will be more efficient," Tabrizi says, speaking of the fact that they can do whatever they want with this space, but weren't able to make any physical changes to 7171 Yonge. "There's less space, but it will be more productive for us."

The contractor for the project is Pegah Construction Ltd., and the renovation was designed by Icon Architects.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Ahmad Tabrizi

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The $1.5-million road works project for The West Mall is starting up again.

After replacing the water mains in the fall, and shutting down for winter, the resurfacing work is getting underway, and is scheduled for a May or June completion.

According to city engineer Salima Jivraj, the work, which is being carried out between Burnamthorpe and the Civic Centre Court, will have minimal effect on traffic.

"Most of this work will occur at night," she says, "during lower traffic volumes, and a paid duty officer will be present."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Salima Jivraj

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].