Downtown Eastside - Old Town - Corktown : Development News

Fans of the old Fish Market bar on Market Street, just south of Front, and of the Summerhill LCBO will be pleased to hear that the people behind the latter are getting behind the former. Woodcliffe Corporation is expanding the small Front Street LCBO into a 13,000 square foot space worthy of the growing St Lawrence Market neighbourhood.

Paul Oberman, Woodcliffe's president and CEO, says he'll be announcing it officially soon, but gave Yonge Street the heads up.
"The existing LCBO will be extended on the second floor level, and we're putting restaurants in on the ground floor, so the existing buildings will be renovated, the fish market will be restored, and the garage on the corner of The Esplanade will be demolished, and we're constructing a two-storey building there."

Woodcliffe will start work in April and complete the project in 2011.

"It'll be largely a restored space, with big, tall ceilings, lots of glazing, and we're fully enclosing all the shipping and receiving, the messy backroom stuff, shielding the street from it. It's going to be way cool, if I do say so myself," Oberman says.

Woodcliffe has also applied to the City to make Market Street a pedestrian-only zone, with a flower market on the east side of the street under the St. Lawrence Market overhang. The city's decision is pending.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Oberman

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Streetcar Developments began demolition last week on what will be their largest project to date, an 8-storey, 182-unit condo building estimated to cost $60 million and designed by Quadrangle Architects.

"We typically do 50-100-unit buildings," says Streetcar's vice president of sales and marketing, Jeanhy Shim, "so having a building this size is unusual for us."

Streetcar is demolishing a 3-storey office block at 510 King Street East to make room for the new condos, known as Corktown District phase II (phase I is going up down the street at 549 King East), and even though it's the biggest they've done, it's still well within the definition of mid-rise.

"Philosophically, we're commited to building in-fill downtown neighbourhoods, to improve existing neighbourhoods," Shim says. "We're not interested in doing towers."

The building is scheduled to be ready for owners and tenants by July, 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jeanhy Shim, Streetcar Developments

After a greater than average degree of secrecy and a not unrelated greater than average degree of anticipation, Origin, chef Claudio Aprile's latest restaurant, will open next week, according to Paul Oberman, president and CEO of Woodcliffe Corporation, which has been in charge of the restoration of the 105 and 107 King East location at the southeast corner of Church.

The easternmost of the two is one of the oldest buildings in the city, built between 1836 and 1841. Both 107 and 109 were the site of one of early Toronto's great unsolved murder mysteries, when a dead man was found slumped against the back wall in the laneway. In the 1960s, the upper floors of 107 were known as The Pit and were where Toronto artist Tom Hodgson, known for his wild parties, kept his studio.

"The space has been designed uniquely for him," Oberman says. "It's not a conventional design. He's been very personally involved in every aspect of it. It's been fun."

The  year-long restoration, which Oberman describes as a combination of restoration and adaptive reuse, included putting in full basements for the two buildings and opening up the walls inside to bring the two spaces together. "We're just scrambling now to complete the terrace, now that the weather is upon us," he says of the wraparound patio space for the corner lot.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Oberman

The Royal Bank has opened a branch in Regent Park. According to them, it's the first ever financial institution in this long beleaguered and now hopefully revitalized neighbourhood, built in the1940s as Canada's first social housing project.

Doors first opened for business in this 3,700 square foot bank on January 18, and it officially launched earlier this week. It will employ 9 people, of whom four live in Regent Park.

"We made a very concerted effort to hire from the community," says Melinda Henderson, a communications manager with the bank.

The branch, located on the ground floor of the new One Cole condominium building at the corner of Dundas and Parliament,will also be powered by Bullfrog, a 100 per cent green energy provider.
 
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: RBC

The competition to redesign the north building of St Lawrence Market, which has spent much of its existence in the long shadow cast by its more picturesque sister across the street, now has a shortlist.

On Feb. 3, Mayor David Miller and the St Lawrence neigbourhood's city councillor Pam McConnell announced the five-strong list. Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Cohos Evamy + Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects; Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects; NORR Limited, Architects Engineers Planners; Taylor Hazell Architects and Montgomery Sisam.

Phase two of the competition now begins, with the winning design to be announced in June. The building is slated for a 2014 completion, with the Saturday farmer's market and the Sunday antiques market which are currently the building's main attractions being housed in temporary digs at 125 The Esplanade.

"We are extremely fortunate to have a distinguished list of jury members to help us realize the City's vision," said Councillor McConnell. "This is an exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity for the jury and for our city to build a legacy. We are all eager for the short-listed teams to unveil their models and concepts in May."

The jury consists of Christine Couvelier, President of Culinary Concierge; Dr. Ron Dembo, Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint; William N. Greer, B.Arch., FRAIC, CAHP, Professional Heritage Consultant; Andrea P. Leers, FAIA, Principal at Leers Weinzapfel Associates; Peter Ortved, B.Arch., OAA, FRAIC, Principal of CS&P Architects; Claire Weisz, Founding Partner of WXY Architecture.

There has been a market building on the northwest corner of Front and Jarvis since at least 1820.
 
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: City of Toronto

If you've walked by the corner of Front and Church in the last week you will have noticed that the perpetual book blow-out shop on the southwest corner has finally disappeared, replaced by a hoarding from Vancouver-based Concert Properties.

From 51 to 61 Church, and from the book blow-out shop up to but not including the Christmas Market at 51 Front Street East will soon be The Berczy, a 13-storey terraced condo with retail on the bottom floor.

Designed by Young + Wright/IBI Group Architects, with interiors by the Chapman Design Group, the short tower is set to be finished by 2012, and will be incorporating the historic building that currently houses The Keg at 12 Church into its fa�ade. Previous Young + Wright/IBI Group buildings include One St. Thomas and the Sharp Centre of Art & Design. Chapman have worked on the famous Cotton House hotel on the island of Mustique in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the renovation of the residences at College Park.

According to Concert's Toronto marketing department, though prices have not been definitively set yet, they will likely start around $280,000 for the larger-than-average one-bedroom units, which will be just under 600 square feet (as a comparison, the smallest units in the L Tower a block west on Front will be under 500 square feet).

The Berczy is named for the park across the street, which in turn is named for William Berczy (1744-1813), an early Toronto painter and founder of Markham.

V. Tony Hauser, whose photography studio is at 55 Front Street East, will be relocating,

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Concert Properties

Like any city, Toronto's had its planning ups and downs. Unlike many others, though, it's done a pretty good job of fixing some of its most egregious mistakes (see Regent Park). And then there's the waterfront, which Torontonians think we've been screwing up since about a generation after Simcoe ruled Upper Canada. But now Moshe Safdie along with Waterfront Toronto are stepping in to take another shot at it.

On December 7, the city announced the sale of a parcel of waterfront land known as Parkside (beside the-soon-to-be-inaugurated Sherbourne Park), to the Great Gulf Group of Companies, the folks behind the condo at 18 Yorkville. Safdie refers to his mixed-use tower-and-podium construction, slated for LEED Gold certification, as "gardens in the sky." The tower will be 36 storeys, with about 10 storeys in the podium, and will run from Queens Quay north to Lake Shore Boulevard.

The design team also includes Quadrangle Architects, known for their Candy Factory and Toy Factory warehouse-to-loft conversions (the Candy Factory on Queen west of Trinity Bellwoods Park, remember, was the one that got the whole trend on its feet). They've worked with Great Gulf before on condo projects called St James (adjacent to St Lawrence Hall) and the Morgan (at 438 Richmond St. W.).

This will be Safdie's first residential project in Toronto, and his first in Canada since his thesis became Habitat '67 for Montreal's Expo. "Rejuvenation of the waterfront is a noble task for Toronto," says Safdie, who also designed the National Gallery in Ottawa, Vancouver's Library Square, and is the author of The City After the Automobile. "And I trust that this building will set the standard for an exciting new kind of urban living."

One that acknowledges Toronto is a city on a lake, for instance. The city expects that ultimately the project will inject about $200 million worth of private investment into the nascent East Bayfront community and will be home to roughly 10,000 people.

Writer: Bert Archer