[TheKingEast]

OMG, shocking but on 1 March 2011 I spied a gorgeous blonde working near the top of this building--site office? Liquor license application on the front as well, but that entrance sure doesn't look welcoming....

Zero action on neighbouring Langston Hall site btw.

Just over 3 years ago the building looked like this:

Is it just one worker building this thing?

 

[TOareaFan]

Is it just one worker building this thing?

When he can afford a case of beer and a bucket of KFC his buddies come over.....but not if the Leafs are playing.

 

[HHC]

Yeah... I'm not too impressed. Kinda ruins the building beside it. That strip of aluminum's better suited for the cladding of a bomb shelter in Siberia.

 

[junctionist]

When he can afford a case of beer and a bucket of KFC his buddies come over.....but not if the Leafs are playing.

This is starting to sound very enticing. How can I live the dream and build a downtown hotel in my spare time?

 

[gristle]

Wait until it opens in 2013 and the weekend occupants on the north side discover that they are right next a gargantuan night club.

 

[Automation Gallery]

All we can hope now is that some developer buys and implodes that chewed up heritage structure and builds something half decent that will hide that ugly wall.

 

[Tewder]

I appreciate the desire for density, and agree, but I wouldn't want to lose that heritage building. It stands out nicely against the Templar's blank wall. The little addition on the front has to go though! In fact, a pretty extensive renovation is probably needed.

 

[junctionist]

It's a good looking Second Empire heritage house despite the neglect and cheap-looking commercial space tacked onto the front. (The commercial space might have looked better at some point in the past.) It deserves restoration and possibly a modern or historicist Victorian renovation of the commercial space.

 

[Automation Gallery]

It deserves restoration and possibly a modern or historicist Victorian renovation of the commercial space.

I agree, but who pays.

 

[gristle]

An owner with some imagination regarding what the property could become. There are some of them around. One needs to only look at the buildings in the immediate vicinity to see some possibilities.

 

[Tewder]

Are there not some tax breaks available for heritage restoration?

It looks to me like the owner's business might benefit from the make-over. It looks like a dump, for a place selling New York Furs.

 

[Automation Gallery]

An owner with some imagination regarding what the property could become. There are some of them around. One needs to only look at the buildings in the immediate vicinity to see some possibilities.

Yeah but not everyone out there is willing to spend the 1/2 million or more bucks on a reno to find out that city property taxes have increased and the building isnt worth much more on the market...After a nice reno they may look good to the general public but again do nothing for the owner who has to cough up a happy pocket full of money. Now-a-days, no one wants as an investment to touch a heritage building with a ten foot pole.

 

[jje1000]

Yeah but not everyone out there is willing to spend the 1/2 million or more bucks on a reno to find out that city property taxes have increased and the building isnt worth much more on the market...After a nice reno they may look good to the general public but again do nothing for the owner who has to cough up a happy pocket full of money. Now-a-days, no one wants as an investment to touch a heritage building with a ten foot pole.

Really? What makes you think of that?

 

[gristle]

Yeah but not everyone out there is willing to spend the 1/2 million or more bucks on a reno to find out that city property taxes have increased and the building isnt worth much more on the market...After a nice reno they may look good to the general public but again do nothing for the owner who has to cough up a happy pocket full of money. Now-a-days, no one wants as an investment to touch a heritage building with a ten foot pole.

I agree that there is an enormous problem regarding MPAC assessments, but there is a move to alter tax assessments for heritage buildings in order to help them survive the enormous development pressures in the area. And let me underscore, it is the intense highrise development in the area that is driving the crazy assessments.

Regarding deep pockets, my guess is that 1/2 million won't get you too much renovation on this building. That being said, its corner location and generous frontage says "high-end restaurant" to me.

 

[urbandreamer]

I'd buy the house/lot, clean it up and wrap it in a glass box. For the effort, I'd ask for 55s of condos above it, with no underground parking.