Development News

A little rickety wooden footbridge that's been a focus of interest for Ward 26 residents has been replaced.

"The replacement of the former wooden walkway with a new steel walkway was declared substantially complete today," project manager Bruce Tisdale wrote this week in a note to Ward 26 councillor John Parker.

"The walkway was open to the public this afternoon. Some minor restoration in the form of hydro seeding the sides of the walkway approaches and sodding of an area beside the east approach will be completed by November 23rd. Temporary six-foot-high barrier fencing has been installed on the water side of the walkway approaches and will be replaced with a permanent wooden post and paddle barrier by November 30th."

The old footbridge had been there since 1986 and according to Tisdale, had reached the end of its useful life. The new walkway is built of self-weathering COR-TEN steel, with an anti-slip  deck and a hand rail.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Councillor John Parker, Bruce Tisdale

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Our little Billy Bishop Airport generated almost $2 billion for the city last year.

That’s according to a study, commissioned by the Toronto Board of Trade and the Toronto Port Authority, that was released last week.

That money, roughly $1.9 billion, includes $640 million in gross domestic product, $290 million in wages for the 1,700 jobs directly associated with the airport and the 4,000 others that owe their existence to it indirectly. About $57 million is generated in taxes and payments in lieu of taxes.

"Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is more than a convenient transportation link into and out of the Toronto region," said president and CEO of the Board of Trade Carol Wilding in a prepared statement, "it is an economic driver vital to ensuring our economy remains globally competitive."

Though the airport first opened in 1939, it's only since 2006 when Porter began flying from it—hyping its convenience to a primarily business clientele and providing relatively high levels of service—that the airport became the economic and cultural force that it is.

Writer: Bert Archer

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 bert@yongestreetmedia.ca.

The city's quite enthusiastic about the latest office space numbers.

According to the latest so-called Economic Dashboard, a run-down of the city's financial indicators, despite large growth in office space over the past three years, vacancy rates are actually going down.

The report, released last week, suggests that office vacancy rates are at 5.4 per cent for the City of Toronto, and just 4.5 per cent for the downtown core. Scarborough's not doing so well, though, with 11 per cent office vacancy, compared to the 905 area, which is averaging 9.6 per cent.

This increase in occupancy is happening at the same time as the market is greatly expanding. The Bay-Adelaide opened in 2009, the same year the RBC-Dexia tower received its first occupants. In 2010, the Telus tower opened, and 18 York Street opened this year.

"There have been a few high profile moves downtown," says Peter Viducis, manager of the Economic and Cultural Research department of the city's Economic Development and Cultural Division, referring to things like Coca-Cola's imminent move into 333 King Street East, "but most of the growth appears to be organic. Firms that need to expand are choosing to do so downtown."

Though city officials seem to be optimistic, it remains to be seen whether these occupancy numbers will prove sustainable in light of even more development in the near future. The second phases of both the Bay-Adelaide and the MaRS Centre are opening soon, as is 120 Bremner and 85 Harbour. The  new Globe and Mail tower will be ready by 2015.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Viducis

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Bay street's getting a new fresco next week thanks to Lanterra's taste in public art.

The developer's using its one per cent—the portion of the building costs the city obliges they put aside for public art—for a series of large pieces by Italian artist Sandro Martini.

"We've always sold or projects not just on the units themselves but on the amenities space around it," says Lanterra CEO Barry Fenton.

The glass works, the largest of which is about 150 feet by 100 feet, will occupy a 3,500-square-foot, 50-foot-high retail space in a sort of glass box at street level on the north side of the already colourful Burano condo tower on the east side of the street. Though there's no tenant yet, Fenton figures it'll be a coffee shop or restaurant.

Fenton estimates the cost of the works to be between $500,000 and $600,000. The commission resulted from a public competition Lanterra held in Italy.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Barry Fenton

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Construction has started on the ambitious Fort York Visitors Centre that the city hopes will renew interest in the 17.4-hectare patch of mostly grass where Toronto was born.

The $18-million project has been designed by Vancouver firm Patkau Architects, who are working with Toronto's Kearns Mancini.

"I always tell people, Fort York represents the city's founding landscape," says Karen Black, manager of the city's Museum Services department, "and there aren't many cities that still have right at their core the founding landscape intact. But most people think Fort York consists of the little walled seven-acre site."

In addition to recreating the original shoreline just north of the Gardiner Expressway with its weathered steel facade, the new building will enable the site's administration to move out of the old officers' quarters and school, which in turn will be opened to the public.

Funding for the project has come from the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport ($5 million), the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund ($5 million) and there are hopes of raising $6 million privately. One million dollars has already been donated by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, intended to be spent on the grounds at the north of the property known as Garrison Common, the site of a battlefield from the War of 1812.

Work is expected to take 18 months, with an opening scheduled for April, 2014.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Black

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As of Monday, the eastbound lanes of Queens Quay from Spadina to Bay are closed till spring.

It's the first stage of the $110-million redesign of the central section of the waterfront, planned in part by Waterfront Toronto, that is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2015.

Traffic is being redirected at Lower Spadina Avenue north to Lake Shore Boulevard. The TTC is also being diverted, and the stop at Rees is temporarily suspended, though pedestrian access to shops and homes will not be affected.

The second stage of the project, which will involve the north side of the street handling westbound traffic, will begin next summer once work on the south side of the 1.7-kilometre length of street has been completed.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: David Kusturin

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The $4-million donation for a Regent Park cultural centre from the Daniels Corporation—and the foundation set up by its CEO—is more significant than it may seem on the surface.

"Part of the donation has been to act as a long-term transition fund for the anchor tenants at the facility," says Daniels VP Martin Blake of the centre now known as Daniels Spectrum. "The Regent Park School of Music has now transitioned into this facility. It's a purpose-built facility for them, 2,000 or so square feet. They don't have the means to pay for market rent in the building."

A portion of the $4 million will fund a five-year transition for these tenants, part of a plan to ramp up their own fundraising and income generation to allow the organizations to ultimately pay the market rent themselves.

But perhaps more significantly, none of the donation had anything to do with Section 37, the municipal regulation that trades developer density for community benefits, the source for much of the charitable-seeming work developers do in the city.

Though it's a first for Daniels, which has in the past funnelled its donations to Second Harvest, Habitat for Humanity Canada and the Daniels School of Architecture at the University of Toronto, it may signal a shift in developers sense of economic responsibility to the neighbourhoods they’re making their money in.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Martin Blake

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Toronto has been named to a list of 21 "smart" communities by a Manhattan think tank devoted to social and economic development.

The Intelligent Community Forum, co-founded by Kitchener-Waterloo tech exec John Jung, put Toronto on their list for only the second time since they started the program in 2002. In 2005, the city made the top seven, which is the ICF’s shortlist.

This list of 21 communities is a sort of long list on the way to naming the world's smartest community in June 2013.

The application was made by Waterfront Toronto, under the guidance of Kristina Verner, Waterfront's director of intelligent communities, part of whose job description is to maintain relations with the ICF.

"There were over 400 communities that applied," Verner says, "so it's a great honour to get to this point. It's an opportunity to tell the story and promote the brand that is the waterfront revitalization as well as the city of Toronto."

Verner says the application highlighted the new George Brown campus at the waterfront, TIFF, ORION and the plan to cover the entire waterfront community with free wifi, as well as the city's kids@computers program, which was also a part of the application in 2005.

The top-seven list is announced in January; the winner is named in June.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kristina Verner

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Excavation on the $137.5-million Union Station platform addition is now complete.

The project, which began in January of last year, will add another passenger platform on the south side of the rails to relieve the congestion on the current single platform. The TTC estimates that 250,000 people use the station each day, making it the sixth busiest station in the system.

In addition to the extra platform and expanded concourse, the project includes a new connection to the PATH system, access south to the waterfront and an elevator and ramp to link the station with Union’s rail station, which is also being overhauled.

The work is expected to be finished by 2014.

Workers are now occupied with demolition, pouring concrete and waterproofing .

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samantha Gileno

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Project Neutral launched the second year of its household survey last week, and while the organization is still concentrating on two neighbourhoods—Riverdale and The Junction—it is opening the survey up to everyone in the city.

From now until November 25, Project Neutral is asking anyone who owns their home, including those with tenants, to fill out a questionnaire to determine their carbon footprint. It takes about 20 minutes, but in an improvement over last year's, the questionnaire allows you to log on and off, permitting you to do it in stages.

"Last  year, we were entirely volunteer-based," says the project's co-founder and managing director, urban planner Karen Nasmith. "It was a pretty massive effort, but we got feedback on the survey that it needed to be more user-friendly."

Though the focus is still on the original two neighbourhoods, with various prizes available to those who fill out the form, Nasmith hopes that more people from outside wards 13 and 30 will contribute data this year. Last  year, the project received 120 completed questionnaires.

Project Neutral's ultimate goal, after establishing a baseline of household data for the city, is to assist in making the city's neighbourhoods as close to carbon neutral as possible.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Nasmith

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 Superior Avenue was meant to be a big deal.

Look at the street, tucked away in Mimico, a Valu-Mart on one corner, a hardware store on another. But notice how wide it is: 100 feet, about double the streets that cross Lakeshore on either side of it.

"It was meant to be a major thoroughfare," says Graham Chalmers, who's taken a recent interest in the area and its history, "but it never happened."

Chalmers is co-owner and partner in Davies Smith Developments, which is building an 11-storey condo at 11 Superior, designed by RAW architects.

His interest is serendipitous, stemming from the city's encouragement of his firm on how to spend the Section 37 money from other nearby condos they'd been approved for. The city suggested overhauling Amos Waites Park (named for Mimico's longest serving mayor) behind and beside Birds and Beans Café.

"We were asked to do that as a bit of a revitalization," he says, "so the way it went, we bought a couple of derelict buildings that were adjacent to the park, that blocked the park from Lakeshore Boulevard, demolished them for the city, transferred it back to the city and built Mimico Square. When we began doing that work, I wasn't overly thrilled with the neighourhood, but when I went back to look at the park, I realized the lakeshore is gorgeous, it's right there, it's so close. I felt that once I read about the history of Mimico and specifically Superior Avenue, it was intended to be somewhat of a major thoroughfare and a connection to the lake."

A city study had previously targeted the intersection as a spot that could use more density—it's pretty open and bleak at the moment, with two wide streets meeting and nothing higher than three storeys anywhere in sight—so after talking to Councillor Mark Grimes and establishing there was the political will to develop, they bought the property. They demolished two buildings which had been built in the 1920s and had once been retail, but were vacant for about a decade. The company broke ground last week.

The building was originally going to be 14 storeys, but neighbourhood consultation reduced it to 11, allowing 120 units— meaning a couple hundred more people to encourage this strip of Lakeshore—and a rooftop party area with a 180-degree view of the lake. There will also be retail at street level when the building's complete by about January 2014.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Graham Chalmers

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The formerly peripatetic Theatre Centre is getting a permanent home in an Edwardian library on Queen Street West at Lisgar.

Designed by city architect Robert McCallum in 1909 and funded by Andrew Carnegie, the two-storey brick building's getting a $6.2-million renovation beginning this week that will include a 200-seat performance space, a rehearsal hall and a café, which, in artistic director Franco Boni's opinion, is the most important part.

"The whole idea is that there needs to be a space open to the public," Boni says. "That glass cube at the back, the café, is the most expensive, but I also think it's the most important. Artists will make work, create work and produce work in lots of different kinds of spaces, but the one thing that is so important for a performance space is that we need to create these kinds of meeting places, a third space. We need to be building these spaces and integrating these spaces into our theatres. We can't just be open at seven at night for a show and then cart the audience out. We have to be open all day."

The old building, which has been used as a public health facility in the years since the library closed in 1964, is about 10,000 square feet. After the renovation, which should be finished by next fall, it will be between 13,000 and 14,000 square feet, with the extra space coming mostly from extensions above and to the rear.

The architect is Philip Goldsmith of GBCA, the man behind the Summerhill LCBO.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Franco Boni

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Nothing can slow down the condos in this town, but sometimes, the occasional house is able to scurry away.

Like 106 John Street, the 142-year-old house—two houses when the structure was built for its original owners, a piano-maker and a contractor—which was moved about 200 metres south to make room for a new tower on Adelaide by Pinnacle.

Moving is a several week-long process. Danco, a company from Sutton West, Ontario, specializing in heritage house moves, does this sort of work about eight or 10 times a year.

"This was pretty much the same as every other house we've done," says Danco's Danny Myette. "But it's always a little tougher downtown. You don't have as much room to work, and we had to take two 90-degree turns.... If you're going to have problems, that's where you're going to have them."

The process involved putting 13 steel crossbeams and two main beams under the house and then raising it using 26 hydraulic jacks. The process began in August and was completed two weeks ago.

The house, which Myette estimates weighed 278 tonnes, took a day to move across two parking lots, to be set down next to the Bell Lightbox tower closer to King Street.

It's the second time Danco moved the house to accommodate the needs of the construction site.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Danny Myette

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The findings of the 2011 Census are finally trickling through, and the city has released its assessment of the demographic changes that may have a profound influence on Toronto's future development.

Despite the numbers having been collected in the full flush of the condo boom, the city of Toronto's demographic primacy within the GTA is actually slipping. In 2011, it accounted for 48.2 per cent of GTA households, down from 49.8 per cent at the time of the 2006 census.

Among those households, the number non-family households—households made up of roommates or singles—increased by 13.5 per cent, while the number of single-family households increased by only 3.9 per cent. The number of one-person households increased by 12.1 per cent to 331,180. The average number of people per Toronto household was also the lowest in the GTA, at 2.5.

There has also been a six per cent increase in the number of seniors living alone, up to 95,205.

"Those types of numbers affect the ways we look at the types of services we provide," says Harvey Low, manager of the social research and analysis unit of the city's social development finance and administration division, "from housing services and infrastructure to the delivery of social services, smaller household services means a different type of client."

In addition to, for example, deciding where to spend the city's childcare money (increasingly in the outer boroughs), the dwindling Toronto numbers within the context of the GTA imply either an overly optimistic condo development industry, a continuing and perhaps overshadowing development boom in the suburbs, or a possible evacuation of the suburbs for the core once an oversupply of housing forces a drop in Toronto prices.

More detailed census data, including how long people live in households and low long it takes to build them, have yet to be released.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Harvey Low

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The new streetcars have arrived.

Well, one of them, anyway.

Train 4400 came in on the rails last week, its slim, low-slung profile turning heads and fetching out the camera phones getting people talking about the next big transit thing.

We won't be able to board them for a while yet, probably not until 2014, in fact, says Jean-Pierre Boutrous, the former Formula 1 entrepreneur and current advisor to TTC chair Karen Stintz.

"It's the first delivery from Bombardier," he says of the Thunder Bay-built vehicle. "They're going to be putting it through its test internally, electronics, make it's ready for prime time. You don't necessarily transport these things with the electronics inside them."

Two hundred and four of the cars have been ordered, at a cost of a little under $6 million each, making for an investment of more than $1.1 billion over the course of the contract, which was signed in July 2009.

There will be a media event officially introducing the car to the public within the next couple of weeks, though Boutros doesn’t expect any car will be put on the tracks before early next year. What he refers to as "revenue service" for paying customers will not start until the year after.

In the meantime, drivers will be trained by Bombardier staff, tests will be run and changes will be ordered for future, as yet unbuilt cars.

"When the rockets came out," Boutros said of the new subway trains still being deployed across the system, "we ran them empty, at night, loaded with concrete bricks to simulate the weight of passengers," saying that the new streetcars will require similar batteries of tests before coming into service.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jean-Pierre Boutros

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 bert@yongestreetmedia.ca.