City Building : Development News

Bridges are meant to connect, but this one managed to cut a community in half for years, until one city worker got an idea.

"In conversation with community members, this bridge would come up. I'd keep hearing about this bridge," says Andrea Raymond, a cultural outreach officer with the city's cultural services. She said the 871-foot-long Kingston Galloway/Orton Park bridge along Lawrence Avenue in Scarborough, with its narrow sidewalks and six lanes of traffic, was seen as boring and uninviting to local residents, who mostly walked over it rather than drove.

"One day when I was driving over the bridge," Raymond says, "I thought it might be a really good place for an art intervention."

Which is exactly what happened. For a total of $115,000, work began in July on a  huge mural by Rob Matejka and more than 20 local youth. It was completed at the end of August, and last weekend, it was the centerpiece of a local arts and community festival, which also included planting 800 native wildflowers in the part of Morningside Park that runs under the bridge.

The work was co-ordinated by the Scarborough Arts Council, Mural Routes and Evergreen.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrea Raymond


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Work has begun on the Flatiron Lots, one of two projects built by Lamb Developments in the city's east end.

Managed by 59 Project Management, Flatiron Lofts (11 storeys at 1201 Dundas East), and Work Lofts (12 storeys at 319 Carlaw Avenue), are sister buildings, separated only by a small strip of land.

"They're more in keeping with the old industrial nature of Leslieville," says  59's Philip Marsland. "They're made to look more like warehouse buildings, with red brick and big black windows."

Put in place where a Leather Ranch and an old gas station once stood, respectively, work began on Flatiron in June, and on the Work Lofts last February. Both are on 19-month construction cycles, meaning Work is expected to be completed by August, 2012, and Flatiron by December of the same year.

The first two levels will be commercial and retail space, while the rest of the space � 157 units in Work Lofts and 97 units in Flatiron � will be residential.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Philip Marsland

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

The city has agreed, by a vote of 43-1 (the one being Rob Ford) to buy 4 acres of designated surplus land adjacent to an Etobicoke Park on Lothian Road from the Toronto District School Board to ensure local residents will continue to have access to the public green space.

"There's not a lot of four-acre sites in the heart of Etobicoke that are already city-owned and green," says the ward's councilor, Peter Milczyn, "so that's why I was so enthusiastic to retain this space as public property."

Whatever initial hesitance there was in acquiring the land -- and there was, according to Milczyn, years of negotiations behind this transaction -- stemmed from the $8-million price tag for land that, as far as taxpayers were concerned, was already theirs.

What finally sealed the deal was an agreement to revisit the purchase in three years to see if enough money had come into the city from nearby development through what's known as Section 37 to justify the purchase price. With units enough to house 5,000-7,000 people in the vicinity already in the works, Milczyn says he doesn't see it being a problem.

According to Milczyn, the space will likely have goal posts erected in the next year to make it more inviting as a soccer field.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Milczyn

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

BC's Lower Mainland developer Onni Group is moving into the GTA in a big way, starting with Garrison at the Yards, the first phase of a three-phase condo project that will soon be overlooking Fort York.

Though the first building, a 207-unit structure Onni senior manager of GTA sales Sue Young describes as "boutiquey" and "intimate," is relatively small, it's only the first step in what Young describes as "our first foray into the Toronto market" and "the first of our master site plans."

The next two towers will be considerably larger, though no specific specifications are available yet.

The units will range from 395 to 1,100 square feet, with prices starting at $189,900, with sales to the public beginning Sept. 18. Designed by Wallman Architects on a formerly vacant site, The Yards will extend the orgy of development on the lower west side of the city, producing a sort of continuum with City Place and projects like West Harbour City.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Sue Young

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

When the Junction Festival starts today, there'll be a new public space to celebrate in.

Locally known as the Cobblestone Public Space, it's a little bit of orphan land created when the city fiddled with traffic flow in the 1980s, cutting off a bit of St John's Road at Dundas. They put down cobblestone to make it pretty, planted a few trees, and a public space was born.

The space has now been reborn under the direction of Councillor Bill Saundercook and a neighbourhood committee -- including local architect Mark Rokowski from High Park Architects -- which has weeded the place, installed a gazebo and added seating in the form of about a dozen squared-off limestone boulders. The revitalized space debuted last Thursday.

The budget for the whole project was $94,902.23, plus HST.

"The whole atmosphere is quite different," Saundercook says.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Bill Saundercook

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

Starting yesterday, GO buses will be able to bypass rush hour traffic by driving on the shoulder lanes of the Don Valley Parkway between Lawrence and just north of York Mills Road in both directions.

"This initiative is aimed at improving transit reliability and making it more attractive than the car," says Nazzareno Capano, manager of operation planning and policy for the city's transportation services, "and for the go transit customers, it will provide faster, more reliable service to them."

At a cost of about $120,000, new signs and pavement painting were added to the stretch of the DVP, which will enable GO buses to zip over onto them when traffic is slow. They'll be allowed to go as much as 20km faster than the speed of traffic.

It doesn't impact the highway capacity of the DVP as it exists now," Capano says. "We're not taking away a lane from motorists, we're just trying to improve the efficiency for GO transit along this corridor.

Capano says there are plans in the works  to add two more sections of GO express lanes to the DVP, between Pottery Road and Don Mills, and then from Don Mills to Eglinton, though he says those projects, which are currently being studied, will be much more extensive and expensive, involving new lighting and widening shoulders and railway bridges.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nazzareno Capano

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After a year's closure, Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre and Pool had its official re-opening last week in Leslieville with a whole new lease on life.

Closed since last August, the building had problems with its doors, paint, ceilings, pool, mechanical and electrical infrastructure, its air conditioning and lighting. That's all been fixed now, at a cost of $1 million, with work ending June 19.

"It's a priority centre," says Kelvin Seow, Toronto East York District community recreation manager, of the building at 870 Queen Street East. "The community has missed it. We tried to re-locate as much as we could to Matty Eckler and other local centres, but it's such a big centre, that it was tough."


Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kelvin Seow

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

Smithfield Park in Rexdale has had its playground equipment replaced at a cost of $110,000.

The old steel equipment was removed and upgraded to a steel and plastic combination with wood fibre surfacing to allow, according to spokeswoman Suzan Hall, for accessibility.

"The Park re-opening was a great success," Hall says of the ceremony held last week. "The children just swarmed the playground and the parents were very pleased."

Work began in late July on the project, which was funded in part by the Recreational Infrastructure Canada (RINC) program, and was completed on Aug. 23.

The new equipment includes structures aimed at juniors (ages 2-5), seniors (5-12), as well as swings and spring toys for toddlers.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Suzan Hall

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

After more than 30 years operating out of an old gas station, the ambulance station at 643 Eglinton West is getting a new home.

After the old place was demolished in June of last year, and the soil reclaimed over the next several months, construction began in March on a brand new Emergency Medical Services station to serve the area between Keele and Eglinton and Sunnybrook Hospital.

"We're planning to garage three or four vehicles indoors when it opens," says David Ralph, the commander of program development and service quality. The previous facility only allowed for two.

The $2.6-million project, for which the steel framing began last week, is expected to be completed in December.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: David Ralph

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Work on the 2km stretch of Bloor Street from Keele to South Kingsway is half complete. The work, which will replace and repair water mains, sanitary sewers, storm sewers and combined sewers, is projected to cost $7.6 million.

"The water mains leak," says Gordon MacMillan, the city's director of design and construction for linear infrastructure. "The joints start to fall apart, there's concern about collapse, so they're all being replaced."

But October, when this work is slated for completion, will only mark a brief respite for area drivers.

"Next year, we are going to be reconstructing the road, so this is just getting the undergrounds done this year," MacMIllan says.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gordon MacMillan

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

Work began the first week of July on a new mid-rise condo tower aimed at young professionals that could seal the increasingly popular real estate notion that King East is the new King West.

The King East, designed by Core Architects, developed by Brad Lamb's Lamb Development Corp. and managed by 59 Project Management, will be a modern, glass and pre-cast concrete construction, which Philip Marsland, head of 59, calls "very sleek."

"The whole area has really improved a lot over the past couple of years," he says of the once downscale neighbourhood, caught between the business district and Corktown, home to furniture and design shops but with little residential development of note.

The 14-storey, 215-unit building at 330 King East will also have two floors of retail totalling about 20,000 square feet.

The building is slated for a February, 2012 completion.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Philip Marsland

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

Cube is finally nearing completion on College Street just east of Ossington.

Originally called N-Blox, when it had a slightly grander design, developer Jim Neilas cancelled immediately after its 207 launch due to overwhelming lack of interest. Within months, he had a new design, similar to N-Blox, by Roland Rom Colthoff and Richard Witt, both now with Raw Design.

Neilas, of Neilas Developments, is a former lawyer with an ambition to increase the density of the city's popular strips. "I'm tired of being hit over the head with the bible of Jane Jacobs, he told John Bentley Mays in 2008, describing his frustration of city council and community groups trying to block development.

Set for completion by the end of this year, with occupancy as early as January, the 21-unit, 6-storey black building already stands out in Little Italy.

"CUBE is best known for its contemporary front fa�ade that faces College," says architect Colthoff. "It's a simple expression of the units behind it...some are two storey and some are one storey. We wanted a clean and open design that had visual interest, this was a simple way of achieving that."

Units range from 983 square feet to 1,083, with prices from $516,075 to $635,900.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff

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Waterfront Toronto took another step into the perilous business of neighbourhood creation last week when it announced that it had chosen real estate firm Hines to develop its biggest site yet.

Located between Lower Sherbourne and Parliament streets south of Queens Quay, the site is owned by the city. The plan, which involves architects Cesar Pelli and Stanton Eckstut, will result in 1,700 homes, along with retail, entertainment and office space enough for 2,400 workers.

The plan is being presented to city council today and tomorrow, and if approved, the first occupancies are expected in 2014. The whole project is set for a 2021 completion.

"The Bayside development is another major step forward in the complete revitalization of our waterfront and it will be an integral part of East Bayfront, which is already taking shape into a showcase 21st-century community," says John Campbell, president and CEO of Waterfront Toronto, in a press release.

The development will trigger about $20 million in fees to the city, and is being backed by $800 million in private sector investment.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samantha Gileno

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

Parliament Street is joining the city's not-so-exclusive club of construction zones this month, while the kilometer between King and Gerrard is being dug up for a streetcar rail replacement and complete reconstruction.

"We typically just resurface," says Gordon MacMillan, the city's director of design and construction for linear infrastructure. "But it gets to a point when the sub-base is not strong enough, and you're just wasting your money. It's like putting a new roof on a house that's falling down."

The project will ultimately cost $4.2 million and is scheduled for completion by December.

But the worst may already be over with last week's completion of the work on the stretch's busy Queen intersection.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gordon MacMillan

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

Thanks to two tennis organizations, kids at Jane and the 401 now have three resurfaced courts in Maple Leaf Park.

Tennis Canada and the Doug Philpott Inner-City Children's Tennis Fund (which caters to mostly outer-city kids, as it happens) are, among other things, devoted to smashing the stereotype that tennis is for rich kids.

"This is something that Tennis Canada has done a few times," says spokeswoman Sarah Grossman. "Our mandate is to get kids playing as much as we can, and this is just one extra way to fulfill our mission, providing an opportunity where it wouldn't otherwise be possible. I would say we've definitely gone a long way in terms of breaking down those stereotypes."

Maple Leaf Park is just south of Tennis Canada's Jane and Steeles offices.

The mayor and pros Bob and Mike Bryan were on hand for the official opening during the Rogers Cup.

As a result of the refurbishment, the Philpott fund's summer tennis program will be extending its program to include Maple Leaf Park as its 13th location.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Sarah Grossman


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