city building : Development News

A $17-million project to densify a small section of the Annex just west of Spadina Road is being completed this week, after several rounds of controversy with the local residents' association. The project, led by 59 Project Management for owners Hanfrow Holdings G.P. Inc., saw the building of two rental buildings at 88 Spadina, with a total of 91 units, and 12 townhouse condos at the corner of Bernard and Walmer.

The project was designed by Quadrangle Architects.

The Annex Residents Association opposed the 88 Spadina project, mostly as the result of shadows the original design would have cast on the backyards of some Walmer Road homes. According to 59 Project Management's Philip Marsland, the design was altered to break the building into two to allow more light through to address the residents' concerns. "The Annex Residents Association was quite strong and vocal against it," Marsland says. "The developer and the architect did a very good job in accommodating the desires of the residents and we had a very open discourse throughout the entire process."

This week, the finishing touches were put on the townhouse condos, designed in a neo-Edwardian style and built on the former site of the original tower's parking lot, which has been expanded and put underground. The first residents are expected to move in at the end of the week.

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: 59 Project Management

Once the site of Canada's most expensive house, on the market in 2006 for $45 million, the 11 acres known as Edgemere on Oakville's Gold Coast will soon be home to 30 families.

The nation's formerly most expensive home will be demolished.

Once they got the municipal go-ahead in November, Niche Development began work on a plan with Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance and builder Joe Brennan to build 10 buildings, each with three condominiums, that are on the market now for between $2,595,000 and a little more than $6 million.

Unlike other similar large-property developments, Hewitt and Clewes decided not to subdivide the property, first put together into an estate by James Ryrie, a Toronto jeweller whose business merged with Birks in the first decade of the last century.

"We were trying to preserve the memory of the estate," says Clewes. "There's a green house, a  gardener's house, a dry shed, for instance, and also the landscape, there's a spectacular landscape, a 100-year-old landscape with hundreds of trees."

But it's the buildings themselves, novel hybrids of condos, townhouses and single-family homes, that are the main attraction.

"The architecture is not like anything we've ever done," says Clewes, whose other projects include York University's Pond Road residences, the first green student housing in the country. "It's a contemporary re-interpretation of the arts and crafts, shingle-style that's in evidence in a lot of turn-of-the-century buildings in Oakville, with steeply pitched roofs, overhangs, stone. But it also has a contemporary feeling with an extraordinary number of windows."

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Peter Clewes

 

Church Street's attractions have never been primarily culinary, but at least, for most of its recent history, you could get a decent burger. Once the home of formerly iconic Toronto chain Toby's Good Eats, Zelda's filled the gap nicely with their trailer-trash meets drag-queen take on some very sloppy burgers.

But when rent, rumoured to have been in the $35,000 a month range, finally did them in last year (they moved to a smaller space at 692 Yonge, replacing Arrabiata in the old Living Well space), the boys in the band and the young in one another's arms were burger bereft.

Hero Certified Burgers, Toronto-based cafe chain Lettieri's fast-food brand, is opening up its 21st GTA location in the old Lettieri space (formerly The Body Shop) on the southeast corner of Church and Wellesley.

According to Jeanine McLaughlin, VP of franchising, the father and two sons who bought the franchise, though not gay, are familiar with the gaybourhood (one son lives nearby).

"It'll be predominantly takeout," says McLaughlin of the 1,300 square foot space, which she estimated will have cost about $225,000 to renovate, mostly due to special ventilation requirements to suit the apartment building above, by the time it opens in mid-February.

It will also employ about double the number of people the Lettieri did, or about four during rushes, and two during the slow periods.

"The rent," McLaughlin says, "is reasonable enough to make this a very successful venture."

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Jeanine McLaughlin

The corner of Yonge and Front used to be known for two things: the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Shopsy's. A small tremor went through the city when Harry and Jenny Shopsowitz's place closed up shop on the last day of 2008. The space has been vacant ever since, but the Oliver & Bonacini Caf� Grill that's taking its place is set to open in the spring after a $4.5-million renovation that company principal Peter Oliver is referring to as more of a rebuild.

With 230 seats, a bar, a lounge and a wraparound patio facing both Front and Yonge streets (which accounts for $1-million of the renovation cost), the Caf� Grill is set to open May 1. It will employ 80 people and occupy the same footprint as Shopsy's, a surprising 9,462 square feet.

The fifth of what director of marketing and communications Teresa Suraci calls O&B's mid-range brand (the others are in Bayview Village, Oakville, Blue Mountain and Waterloo), the menu is meant to cater to the broadest possible audience.

It is being designed by Lindsay Anacleto of New Toronto's Anacleto Design, a former associate at Yabu Pushelberg, who designed Canoe for O&B. "It's going to be the flagship of this group of restaurants," says Suraci, adding that design is going to be purposefully urban.

And that concrete staircase on the Yonge fa�ade that never seemed to go anywhere? It's finally been taken down.

One of the two next CityPlace projects to come online has just sent out notices to buyers to delay an original March occupancy to May and June.

According to postings on urbandb.com, buyers in Concord Adex's Panorama tower, the rounded, 28-storey, 385-unit condo building at 38 Dan Leckie Way, have just started receiving their occupancy notices and are expecting their pre-delivery inspection (or PDI) packages to arrive about now.

Designed by Quadrangle Architects, the curved building, with construction costs of about $75 million, according to its developer, was tucked into a small, odd-shaped lot.

"When we first bought the site, we liked it because it was kitty corner to the Douglas Coupland three-hectare park we built," says Concord Adex VP Alan Vihant. "You can cut through the park to get downtown but also immediately to the south, Lower Portland Street is where the Portland quay comes in, so the site's really close to the water's edge as well.

The idiosyncratic site imposed a greater than average number of design constraints on Quadrangle, however, including an extreme proximity to the Gardiner Expressway; the building's distinctive shape was their response.

"The space under the Gardiner became a large outdoor vestibule for the building," says principal architect Brian Curtner. "The curved podium facade follows the Lake Shore Boulevard to the south and the curved form of the tower suggests a billowing sail as it extends above the Expressway. The oval floor plans takes full advantage of the stunning lake and city views while rising above the adjacent Gardiner Expressway."

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche fans may recall Ottawa artist Adrian Gollner's piece staged in the tower this year, during which strobe lights were placed in 600 of the building's windows.

Writer: Bert Archer

Sources: urbandb.com, Concord Adex, Quadrangle Architects

Hotel on Queen, which some had feared would go the way of Inn on College (which was never built), is apparently on track and nearing completion.

"I expect it's going to be ready in three months," says Mike Niven, the boutique hotel's principal interior designer, whose firm, Mike Niven Interior Design Inc., also worked on the Luna condominiums at CityPlace. The project architect Radek Bronny of Forum Architect Co., confirms that his work is done and that there have been no recent changes to the design. "Right now, the contractor is finishing the job. The shell is done, but the finishes are a substantial part of it, so it will take some time," he said.

Located at 335 Queen Street West (on the site of late, lamented Chicago's), across from the corner of Beverly and smack dab in the middle of the heart of old Queen Street West, before its cultural centre moved Drake-wards, once open, Hotel on Queen will be one of the only boutique hotels of its kind in the city: small, upscale, and right in the middle of everything. Predecessors like Hotel Le Germain chose more discreet, if no less central, locations on side streets. The Drake, and chief competitor The Gladstone, established themselves well out of the core, successfully betting that the action would follow.

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Forum Architect Co., Mike Niven Interior Design Inc.

As CityPlace nears completion, a clearer picture is emerging as to what sort of a neighbourhood it's going to be. Luna and Luna Vista, the two-tower condominium that are on schedule to beat Panorama to occupancy by a month or two, with its March date still the goal, are a couple of the finishing touches.

"West of Spadina, we intentionally took four blocks of development and set back the four corners," says Concord Adex VP Alan Vihant, "to make outdoor space for retailers that are restaurants or caf�s or food-based with outdoor seating areas."

With the other three setbacks already populated, the southeast corner of Luna with its outdoor seating area will complete the set. Though there's only 3,600 square feet of retail space in the 8-storey podium, which Vihant assumes will be occupied at least in part by a chain caf�, Luna is across the street from the 30,000 square feet of retail space tucked in beneath the Montage and Neo towers, where there's already a Sobey's Urban Fresh, a CIBC and a Royal Bank, with negotiations underway for one or two restaurants.

Luna, the shorter tower, is 18 storeys, and Luna Vista is 38, at 10 Capreol and 8 Telegram Mews respectively, with 712 units between them, were designed by KPMB and Core Architects.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Concord Adex

Smoke's Poutinerie has just signed a deal with BMO Field to sell its Toronto brand of poutine in the stadium's CNE grounds parking lot during the upcoming Toronto FC season's 40 games.

Toronto is, there's no point in denying it, a trendy city. Whether it be condos, indie cafes or burger joints, things pop up on our streets in waves. Poutine is one of the latest, and though Poutini's initially got some of the best reviews (at least partially because it's close to the Drake, in a neighbourhood where many of the folks who review such thing tend to live, or wish they did), it's Smoke's that's really taking the curds by the horns and going large.

After opening their first location over cult burrito joint Burrito Boyz on Adelaide West, and another on Dundas, Smiths Falls native and former graphic designer Ryan Smolkin is to open a third shop in late March on Queen Street just west of Bathurst.

According to Smoke's general manager Glenn Mori, the new shop will be about 900 square feet and will seat 15.

The opening will represent as much as a 50 per cent increase in jobs for the company, adding between 10 and 15 positions to the quickly expanding company's current 30.

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Smoke's Poutinerie

For all its Jane Jacobsian charm and vigour, the Annex strip of Bloor Street is not exactly a diner's delight, unless you really, really like sushi. And if you're looking for Italian, that most basic of North American culinary imports, you've been pretty much out of luck since ZiZi Trattoria closed (at the same location that Red House Dim Sum did a few years later).

Now Gabby's brand Hey Lucy, well known as an inexpensive (and as a result often crowded) option on the King West theatre strip, has moved into the space abruptly vacated by Mel's Montreal Delicatessen.

Renovating since October, during which they got rid of everything but the exposed brick and the ceilings, the casual 92-seat restaurant with a wood-burning oven and regular $3.99 martini specials, had a soft opening Dec. 29, and will have its grand opening on Jan. 29.

According to general manager Brian Taylor, it employs 8 back of house staff and another 12 in the front.

Taylor describes the Hey Lucy concept as Gabby's foray into "finer dining," explaining that they "don't want to be fine dining. It's a more casual atmosphere, exclusive to no one."

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Hey Lucy

The tallest towers at Yonge and Eglinton were born in controversy, as tall towers in well-loved neighbourhoods tend to be. But, as if to make it up to the community, Minto Midtown applied for and, just this month, received its LEED Gold certification. At 891 suites in two towers, the development is now the largest condominium to get LEED Gold.

"It's a landmark," says Andrew Pride, who heads up the 10-person Minto Green Team. "Its green certification is a testament to where condominium development is going in Canada."

He's right. Minto itself has two other LEED certified condo buildings. Radiance@Minto Gardens (at Yonge and Sheppard) was the first multi-unit high-rise to achieve any sort of LEED certification in Canada, and the Minto Roehampton (near Yonge and Mt Pleasant) was the first multi-family building in Canada to get Gold.

But it's not just Minto, Tridel is also pinning much of its public image on its greenery. And in the commercial realm, on Oct. 1, Cadillac Fairview opened its 1.2million square foot RBC Centre at 155 Wellington, which was also built to LEED Gold standards (though it's not yet been certified).

As part of its certification, more than half of the building materials used to construct the two towers came from less than 600 km away, including several significant ingredients, like concrete and fill, coming from the GTA itself. The towers also collect and redistribute rainwater, have Zip cars available onsite for sharing, and have 5 bicycles per tower for owner and tenant use.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Minto Group Inc

Like the sturdy little former Catholic girls school that it is, Empire Communities' Schoolhouse weathered the recessionary storms and is almost ready for its new term.

Designed by E.I. Richmond and 3rd Uncle, with interiors by Bryon Patton and Associates, the five-storey, 19-suite condo building is set to lets its first owners in this month, with the majority of the suites (14 are still unsold), able to be finished and ready to move in to by mid-March.

The Schoolhouse is part of the recent major overhaul of the section of Brunswick Avenue between Bloor and Barton, which has also seen a former rental house transforrmed into two luxury semi-detached homes (405 and 407 Brunswick), and the Loretto Abbey Lofts, right next door to the Schoolhouse, designed by Quadrangle Architects and architectsAlliance and built by Context Developments out of what used to be a residential component of the Loretto educational complex.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: urbandb.com

You'd be forgiven for not noticing the coolest new condo development in recent times just admitted its first new owners last month. The address is 155 Cumberland, just east of the Cumberland Four cinema, though people who live there can also get home through a very non-condo-like door at 130 Bloor Street West. If you want to see it, stand in front of Gucci or Herm�s (also at 130 Bloor) and look up, look way up.

For the past year or so, cranes have been adding storeys to the top of what has for decades looked like an office building (designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects). And for decades, it's mostly been an office building, with "mostly" being the operative term, because for those same decades, since 1961 in fact, there's been a two-storey apartment on top, on the 13^th and 14^th floors. It was built for and occupied exclusively by the late Noah and Rose Torno, who'd made their money as developers (and one of the few places in Toronto designed by famed architect Phillip Johnson).

Nine years ago, Jon Love, whose own family made their money running the publicly held Oxford Properties Group (which in fact once owned the building), decided that one perfect urban apartment might be profitably transformed into 15.

Along with Quadrangle architect Brian Curtner, a team consisting of Love's KingSett Capital and builder Joe Brennan put together Toronto's only equivalent to 740 Park Avenue, home at various times to Edgar Bronfman Sr. (and old friend of the Tornos), John D. Rockefeller and a few Chryslers, and dubbed by author Michael Gross "the world's richest apartment building," where units have been listed recently for as much as $75 million.

Early rumours have the highest asking price at 155 Cumberland closer to $25 million. Most of the units, which range between about 4,500 and 6,000 square feet, sold in the low- to middle seven-figure range. But like 740 Park, this building's biggest asset to its owners is its discretion. You have to know it's there to know it's there, and you have to know who lives there to know who lives there. Love has come clean to say he does, and Brennan bought a place (though whether he's going to live there is another question). As for the others, it's anyone's guess.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: emporis.com

The latest addition to the city's skyline is the RBC Centre at Wellington and Simcoe. You'll recognize it by its distinctive blue stripe running the length of its 43 floors. Designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects and developed by Cadillac Fairview, the tower is remarkable for two things: it's one of three new office buildings (along with Menkes' Telus tower and Brookfield's Bay-Adelaide building) that have added the first significant amount of office space downtown (3 million square feet in total, of which 1.2 million is in RBC Centre) in 17 years. The second is that it's Canada's first office tower to be built to LEED Gold NC standard.

That NC stands for "new construction," which means that though it's measured on how well the landlord's role in the building measures up to LEED's criteria, it also involves a buy-in from future tenants to build and renovate to these same standards, "so it becomes a co-operative and joint effort between landlord and tenant," says Cadillac Fairview's senior vice-president of office development, Wayne Barwise, "to keep the standards of the building and both benefit from the reduced energy costs."

Built with a budget of about $420 million, Barwise lists several of the building's LEED-focused features, including operable windows on the first 10 floors, rain capture and grey-water recycling for the first six floors, and an automated building management system that uses shades and a "light shelf" to respond to changes in the light outside, including both the passage of the sun and glare from nearby buildings.

Though Barwise doesn't anticipate the vacancy rates in Toronto will demand much new commercial construction on this scale for several years, Cadillac Fairview itself, he says, were influenced somewhat by RBC's "very forward-thinking" and specific sustainability objectives, will now be changing the way it does business. "Our standard going forward," he says, "will be to build to a minimum standard of LEED Gold. We believe this is the way of the future."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Cadillac-Fairview

Mississauga-based builder EllisDon was named the second best employer in the country for 2009 in the Report of Business's annual 50-best list (PCL Constructors, another builder, based in Edmonton with an office in Mississauga, came in first.)

One of the largest builders, contractors and project management companies in the country, with 1,965 employees in Canada, about $2 billion in annual projects across the country, the States and the United Arab Emirates, the employee-owned company is behind such projects as the Bay-Adelaide Centre, Concord Park Place and the Ritz-Carlton.

"Having construction companies in both the first and second spot is quite an achievement," said Janine Szczepanowski, EllisDon's vice-president of leadership and entrepreneurial development in a press release, "and it is a testament to what companies like EllisDon and PCL have been able to do for the industry and its perception as a solid career choice on a number of levels. We have had another successful year and everyone's contribution has kept us amongst the best of the best."

It's the ninth consecutive year EllisDon has placed on this list. Last year, they topped the list.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Report on Business, EllisDon

Last February, Nancy Oomen, Senior Executive Assistant to city councillor Mike Feldman (Ward 10 York Centre), took a call from Goldie Feldman (no relation). An elderly woman, she was looking to make a donation in memory of her parents, something in a park. Oomen suggested a tree, or maybe a bench, but Feldman wanted to do something bigger. Something that cost about $1 million. Oones was floored. "She doesn't even live in the ward," Oomen says, "but she has a real soft spot for Earl Bales Park; she goes to the seniors centre there." As a result of the discussion that followed, Earl Bales is about to get a whole new kind of playground.

The 145-acre park, on the grounds of the old York Downs golf course off Bathurst just south of Sheppard, abuts two community centres: Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Zareinu Educational Centre. Ms Feldman wanted to provide something that would be of use to all the kids who use the park. So after an RFP was put out, the city brought on MBTW Group, who had an idea for what they're calling a "water play and sensory garden." They completed the design development just before Christmas, and it's set to begin construction in April, with a completion date of August 1.

"It was made very clear to us by the advisory group that they were looking to engage all seven senses," says MBTW architect and project captain Christine Abe, of the group they pulled together including city staff, community members and representatives from the two community centres. "We went, 'Wow, seven? What are the other two?'" Which was when she learned about the kinesthetic and vestibular senses, related to motion and balance, respectively. "We're looking to engage children who are blind, who are deaf, who have autism," Abe says, pointing out the niche or "nest" areas they plan to build in the larger play spaces so that, in her words, autistic children can be "involved in spaces, but also away from spaces."

Though the park has no official name yet, it will likely ultimately be named for Ms Feldman's parents, Morris and Sarah.

Writer: Bert Archer