It was stated at a meeting this week that this project has been cancel from City Staff
 
I suppose in its wake...

1) Something more residential will be planned.

2) As the office towers proposed are thinned out, the ones (or one) that remains may likely be in better shape to secure a key tenant.

3) And there's always bright side to life... *whistles a melody*
 
drum118 said:
It was stated at a meeting this week that this project has been cancel from City Staff
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Just checked, and yup, this application no longer appears on the City's dev app, so yup, withdrawn.

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UtakataNoAnnex said:
I suppose in its wake...

1) Something more residential will be planned.

2) As the office towers proposed are thinned out, the ones (or one) that remains may likely be in better shape to secure a key tenant.

3) And there's always bright side to life... *whistles a melody*
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1) Assuming the Westin's Conference Centre here still gets booked for events, I think you'll see this site continue as is for the foreseeable future, no physical changes. Only if it starts losing money for them would they have any reason to make changes, as closing during a rebuild will present difficulties for them for quite a while.

2) Sure. There are still piles of other potential office towers to go up, enough so though that I don't think this withdrawal makes any of the others more likely in particular. If there was just one other one, I'd say its likelihood of proceeding had just doubled, but this would only add a couple percentage points on the likelihood for any of them now.

3) There is!

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interchange42 said:
1) Assuming the Westin's Conference Centre here still gets booked for events, I think you'll see this site continue as is for the foreseeable future, no physical changes. Only if it starts losing money for them would they have any reason to make changes, as closing during a rebuild will present difficulties for them for quite a while.

2) Sure. There are still piles of other potential office towers to go up, enough so though that I don't think this withdrawal makes any of the others more likely in particular. If there was just one other one, I'd say its likelihood of proceeding had just doubled, but this would only add a couple percentage points on the likelihood for any of them now.

3) There is!

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Fair enough!
 
With the cancelling of this project, it removes the plan for a new entrance to Queen Quay station as well a 2nd elevator. It leave the stations still a mess for users. Even the plan new entrance was a failure on many levels.

It would be nice to see this site a mixture of various use with office space playing a smaller part than plan.

It only shows how bad off TO is when coming to funding project these days.
 
The selfish side of me is rejoicing, as this would've killed my views, but the construction geek in me is a tad disappointed, as the current bunker has zero street appeal. I'm hoping they will at least fix up the sidewalk, update the crappy old billboards, and clean up the exterior.
 
wmedia said:
The selfish side of me is rejoicing, as this would've killed my views, but the construction geek in me is a tad disappointed, as the current bunker has zero street appeal. I'm hoping they will at least fix up the sidewalk, update the crappy old billboards, and clean up the exterior.
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I have no doubt something will happen there sooner or later. It's a very good site - for both residential and offices!
 
I was never really sold on the design for this one. I have no problem with letting it clunk around as a slowly deteriorating convention centre for another decade +. Who knows what the next development cycle will bring? This could become a prime site for a supertall mixed-use building (convention centre + hotel + condos + retail or some office?).
 
I don't think we'll see another office building of this size break ground for another 8-10 years, although would be more than happy to be proven wrong. While I have no great attachment to this building, I do prefer the city having a vibrant central working core, which in future can expand. This is one such location which would make logical sense. Additionally, I find a few large buildings such as this, peppered in with those new tall narrow condos, adds visual interest from the island.
 
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Riseth said:
Not sad to see this one go. Was never a fan of the design or the height for this location.

I'm sure something else will eventually be proposed here but who knows when.
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I would like to see an iconic supertall tower take its place being situated close to the harbourfront area at the bottom of Bay st ! That can be marvelled from the Toronto Islands etc lol!
 
My modest proposal:

This site is City-owned land, leased to the proponent here.

The City should offer to 'sell it' to the proponent, for $1, subject to certain requirements; (landmark architecture among them).

But, the proponent must agree to sell approximately 1/2 of the current hotel site to the City, also for $1.

The owners will be allowed to retain the current total density on the site, on a reduced footprint, but must also commit to 'landmark architecture' (design competition overseen by Waterfront Toronto.

The owners get considerable enhanced value, because 100% of the land they turn over will be used as parkland and considerably enhance the value of the site for hotel/rental/office or condo; the parkland dedication requirement will be satisfied through the below market-transfer of a portion of the site, already part of this proposed deal.

The City agrees to subject the new/improved park space to the same design competition process as the proponent and be bound by the result.

From TO_Maps below, the yellow area is the footprint a new building would retain, while the balance would be conceded to the City for new park space/Ferry Terminal lands.

Note the the proponent does not own any land beyond the southern limit the building, and the same for the eastern extent as well.

1680300574904.png


This proposal would see the City claim ~0.35 ha of the current Harbour Castle site (or about 0.85 acres)

Meanwhile, the City would 'trade' a ~0.8ha or about twice as much land on the north side of Queen's Quay, and provide the proponent with roughly double its current density.

****

The City gets prime park space, expanded terminal space, enhanced view corridors and landmark architecture, the proponent picks up additional land, removes a pesky City lease, gains significant density, and
the signature park dramatically enhances the value of the their property.

****

Just a thought.
 
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