Development News

No matter what your car's appetite is for fossil fuel, driving down the highway is one of the last places you'd expect to find the next chapter of environmental sustainability opening up. But thanks to the Province of Ontario and Toronto's Quadrangle Architects, that's just where you'll see sustainability reach down from the headline buildings it's mostly been rolled out in, into the realm of more quotidian development, where it will ultimately do the most good.

Starting in July and ending in 2013, 20 service facilities along highways 400 and 401 will be built and renovated to LEED Silver standards. Ranging from 8,000 to 22,000 square feet, the stations will cost a total of $300 million.

According to Les Klein, Quadrangle's lead on the project, "While an automotive-oriented use like a highway service centre might not be a building that conjures up to the general public an image of sustainability... the LEED designation anticipates, among other measures: a responsible use of land (including environmental clean-up, reducing site disturbance and the heat island effect); energy-conservation in heating, ventilating and electricity usage (including alternative energy); water efficiency and consumption; indoor air quality; and controlling long-term building life-cycle costs and impacts, including the use of local and highly durable materials."

In addition to being radically sustainable, the stations will have a much higher than average degree of accessibility, including differentiated carpet colours and textures for the visually impaired, and motorized adult changing tables in the washrooms.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Lauren Dando

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In a rare move, Canada Post has opened up a new postal outlet in a pre-existing Shoppers Drug Mart on Dupont Street.

Usually scheduled to coincide with new openings of likely shops, Canada Post spokeswoman Jennifer Arnott says this March 9 opening was "part of our ongoing market assessment. We determined we needed another post office in that neighbourhood."

The growth of what might be called the north Annex is something Shoppers Drug Mart spotted five years ago when they built the store just a few blocks north of their Bloor and Walmer location, which also houses a post office.

"We try to make it go in with a relocation or when we open a new store," says  Shoppers spokeswoman Tammy Smitham. "We usually like to incur all the capital costs when we're building."

The new postal space takes over the old photo development desk, which has not been replaced.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jennifer Arnott, Tammy Smitham

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

Drywall is going up, the studwork's being done and the drilling for the geothermal system is about to begin on the refurbished seniors facility at 717 Broadview, just south of the Danforth.

The $10-million project, designed by Raw Design for Toronto Community Housing and Woodgreen Community Services, is about halfway done, with a December completion date scheduled.

"It's been a challenging project," says Raw principal Roland Rom Colthoff of the 1970s brutalist brick structure. "It was quite a well constructed building for the time. It wasn't great building science, but there was some good building."

Built as an institutional building, with rooms for seniors and shared facilities, including bathrooms, the new interior is being restructured to build 69 apartments out of the previous 200 rooms, adding a facility for Woodgreen programs on the ground floor and in the basement, as well as turning part of the parking lot in back of the building into a community garden.

Colthoff also expects the new design to deliver a 25%-40% reduction in energy consumption, in part due to the geothermal heating system.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff

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

The Our Lady of Mercy patient care wing, an addition to the St. Joseph's Health Centre on the Queensway just west of Roncesvalles, has reached its fourth and top floor on its way to a 2012 completion.

"It's a redevelopment project that's been on the go for several years now,' says Sabrina Divell, chief of corporate communications for the hospital. "It's going to bring expanded healthcare services to the Toronto west-end community we serve, including minimally invasive surgical suites, and its going to expand our paediatric services, including more labour and delivery rooms."

When finished, the wing will add 130,000 square feet to the hospital, with 92 new beds and a three-storey underground parking structure that will be able to accommodate 300 cars.

The project, employing between 40 and 100 workers on site every day, is part of the province's $32.5-billion investment in health infrastructure, announced a year ago.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Sabrina Divell

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

Part of what seems from the outside to be a perpetual expansion of Starbucksian proportions, Shoppers Drug Mart is opening a larger location in Port Credit, a relocation from a smaller store in a strip mall just east of the new Lakeshore and Pine location.

"What we're doing in many cases," says Tammy Smitham, Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs for the company, "is to take our smaller format stores that have potential to be large format, and put them into larger spaces, more than 14,000 square feet of selling space, which allows us to offer the latest in what Shoppers Drug Mart has become well known for."

In this case, the associate owner, Gus Falameh -- each Shoppers Drug Mart is individually owned -- will remain the owner of the larger space, which in addition to doubling the floor space will employ all its former employees and possibly add several more.

The full size of the new location, which had its distinctive red panels up as of last week, will be 17,500 square feet including storage and back rooms.

The store is due to open at the end of April.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tammy Smitham

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

The Gerstein Reading Room at the University of Toronto has won a design excellence award from the Ontario Association of Architects, the university announced this week.

The firm of Diamond + Schmitt were praised for both renovation and renewal, with particular mention being made of an old boarded-up attic, which they discovered, uncovered and recovered, exposing the previously hidden neo-Gothic woodwork, dating from the building's original 1892 construction.

The facility's director, Sandra Langlands, is especially partial to the old periodical reading room, which the architects also restored, complete with (non-functioning) fireplace and original glazed tiles. "It's been made into a really nice group study room," she says.

The reading room is housed in what was once known as the Sigmund Samuel Library (or Sig Sam for short), and though that's what the building is still officially called, the work done since the Bertrand Gerstein Family Foundation and the Frank Gerstein Charitable Foundation made sizable donations in the 1990s has resulted in the whole structure now being colloquially known as the Gerstein.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Sandra Langlands

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

To insiders, it's known as Store 1414, but to thousands of urbanites, it is one of the seals which, when broken, heralds the definitive passing of the old Queen West strip and the birth of a new sort of commercial concentration, built up to serve the area's increasing condo density.

Once a Caban, the two-storey building at the northeast corner of Queen and Beverly will soon be a Shoppers Drug Mart, and a rather large one at that. When added to the planned Rio Can big-box development at the southwest corner of Queen and Portland, the new 16,000 square foot superstore will give this strip, held dearer in the hearts of 40- and 50-somethings than by today's hipsters, a whole new look.

"We need about 17,000 people to ensure the success of a Shoppers Drug Mart," says Shoppers spokeswoman Tammy Smitham. "It's a great opportunity for us; that area has undergone some, I think, growth, particularly in terms of condo buildings in that area."

The two-storey shop, owned by Stacey Kwan, will also add a new post office to the neighbourhood.

The store is due to open by the end of the month.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tammy Smitham

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

Concord Adex isn't the only developer creating new 21st-century neighbourhoods in this city. The El-Ad Group, a North American developer with Israeli roots, is near completion on new rental buildings, replacements for old ones they recently demolished at Sheppard and Don Mills that are the first stage in a multiphase development that Netanel Ben-Or, El-Ad's vice president of development, says will transform the area.

"You won't recognize this area five or six years from now," he says. "We're making new neighbourhoods, that's our philosophy, this is what we believe in. So people in the future, when you ask where they live, they will say they live in Emerald City, not at Sheppard and Don Mills."
El-Ad made its name in North America several years ago when they bought Manhattan's famed Plaza Hotel and converted parts of it into ultra-high-end condos.

In addition to the 400,000 square feet of rental properties they're finishing up now, the project will ultimately include 2 million square feet of condo space, all with prices from the low $200s to about $500,000, with a large portion of family-oriented 3-bedroom units in the 1,100 to 1,200 square foot range.

"I see the competition as a good thing," Ben-Or says of the nearby Concord Adex and Daniels developments. "Definitely good for the buyer, and good for us. This whole Sheppard corridor is going to change."

Construction on the first of what will be either 6 or 7 towers will begin in August, and the whole project is scheduled for a 2016 completion.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Netanel Ben-Or

After what owner Yang ("just Yang," he says) describes as a "mild fire" six months ago, Yang's Flowers, part of the Avenue and Davenport flower district (that also includes Grower's, Jong Young and Kay & Young's), re-opened last week at 132 Avenue Road.

An employee next door at high-end kitchen supply store Bianco Plus say the fire was actually quite big, but was limited to Yang's space, with no collateral damage either to them or to L'Unita restaurant, which shares its southern wall with Yang's.

Damage was extensive enough that Yang decided to take the opportunity to completely renovate. "We re-built the whole store," he says. "Everything's new."

That includes the name, too. After 10 years of being Yang's Fruit & Flowers, and a number of years of not actually selling any fruit, the shop is now simply Yang's Flowers.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Yang at Yang's Flowers

Queen Street West may be getting a new 4,200 square foot fifth-floor penthouse suite if a property owner and the city can come to terms.
The old McCaul Variety on the corner of Queen and McCaul, a long-time corner store from the days when that strip of Queen Street was known for its wicker shops and silk-screened t-shirt kiosks, may soon be disappearing.

Though out of business as a corner store for some time, the well-placed storefront, owned by United Republic of Properties, has recently been used as a promotional space by Juxta Productions for movies Daybreakers and Sherlock Holmes. But if UPR gets city approval, there'll be a five-storey mixed-use brick and glass building taking its place.

"Ideally, we're trying to get a fashion tenant and make it a gateway to that Queen Street West area," says Mark Veilleux of CB Richard Ellis, who's handling the leasing. The city's already agreed, he says, to expand the sidewalk on McCaul by five feet. "It'll give it almost a little piazza-type look," Veilleux says.

Of the possible penthouse, Veilleux says, "There'll be areas for a terrace; it could be a pretty spectacular apartment."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mark Veilleux

Brasaii, one of the restaurants that established the King and Spadina strip as a culinary destination, has just given itself a new look for the new decade.

"The entire space, except for the kitchen, was altered," says Anwar Mekhayech of the Design Agency, which is responsible for the re-design. "All the columns and the entrance were covered in drywall so we removed all of that to uncover the elevator shaft in the front vestibule and to expose all the concrete, steel and brick throughout. The main room was altered by adding the huge limestone, steel and glass bar in the middle that now divides the room into a caf�/lounge at the front and the main dining room towards the back."

New management -- a group headed by SHI Consulting's founder and president Borys Chabursky that is in the process of taking ownership -- and a new chef, Bruce Woods, kick-started the renovation. "The old look was more minimal and straight lined with lots of drywall, glass tile and stainless steel," says Mekhayech, who has also been an HGTV regular. "Our new design is what we call inspired by industrial chic or urban archaeology."

Brassai re-opened last week, and the patio will launch in May.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Anwar Mekhayech

Excavation is complete and the crane now operational on the site of the new Rotman School of Management expansion on St. George St. on the University of Toronto Campus.

The 15,000 square metre (160,000 square feet), $65-million project will more than double the school's space, says Ken McGuffin, Rotman's manager of media relations.

"We're actually bursting at the seams," he says. "The building we're in opened in 1996, when we were taking in 120 students per year. Now we're taking in more than 260 students per year. I'm sharing an office myself with two other people."

The building will house classrooms, offices, an event space and study spaces, and is being built on the site of two older St. George St. buildings, the old Classics building and the campus radio station CIUT's offices and studios. The former will be incorporated into the new design (the department having moved to the Lillian Massey Building at the southeast corner of Bloor and Queen's Park). The latter, which McGuffin says lacked both architectural significance and structural integrity, has been demolished.

The new building, designed by KPMB Architects s to be connected to the existing building immediately to the north of the site and will be completed by Spring, 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ken McGuffin

The University of Toronto will get its first suburban medical training facility next year, a $37-million health sciences complex on the school's rapidly expanding Mississauga campus.

Built on a little less than half of an existing above-ground parking lot, the 5,960 square metre (60,000 square feet) building will house the Mississauga Academy of Medicine, which will be the academic base for 216 medical students while they complete their clinical training, mostly at the nearby Trillium Health Centre and Credit Valley Hospital.

The province contributed $15.6 million to the project, designed by Kongats Architects, which the university expects will reach full capacity by 2014.

"The St. George campus has limited ability to expand," says UTM's chief administrative officer, Paul Donoghue, explaining the decision to extend the university's medical faculty to what was for years considered a satellite campus, but which is now gaining a centrality of its own.

The building will also house the  biomedical communications program, which trains students to be medical illustrators and animators.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Donoghue

The University of Toronto's Mississauga campus is getting a $70-million, 13,000 square metre (140,000 square feet) classroom block. Work is well underway for the project, which broke ground in October, and will ultimately house 27 new teaching spaces, from a 500-seat lecture theatre to 30-seat seminar rooms.

"We're just busting at the seams," says UTM's chief administrative officer Paul Donoghue, using a phrase common among staff at the rapidly expanding university. Donoghue says that 10 years ago, when the university established its master plan, UTM had about 5,000 students.

"We're now at 11,500," he says, growth he ascribes to the changing demography of Ontario and the GTA.

The Instructional Centre is being built on what was a 300-space parking lot, a space designated for development in the master plan. Once completed, UTM will be adding some accessible parking spots near the building.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Donoghue

Tridel has finished everything but the interiors of its latest development, Circa 2, which is also its first foray into Markham.

The 396-unit condo tower is the second phase of a two-phase project that also includes a tower finished in 2006, and several houses, which Tridel is calling carriage homes, which are also complete.

"Circa's a more family-oriented building," says Tridel spokesman Samson Fung. "Suite sizes are a little bit larger, with two-bedrooms and two-bedrooms plus den making up the majority of the suites," he says, adding that, appropriately for the location, Tridel is taking "a more suburban approach to condos" with Circa. The smallest unit will be about 1,000 square feet.

Turner Fleischer are the architects for the building, which should be ready for its residents by May.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samson Fung