HULLMARK/EASTROOM, MONEY, LIES AND EVICTIONS IN THE TIME OF A PANDEMIC

MONEY:

Jeff Hull of HULLMARK PROPERTIES went into a partnership with Derek and Sam Martin of The EastRoom to “develop” 507 KING ST EAST in order to exponentially increase the buildings financial yield by the forcible evictions of long term residential tenants to convert the building to a commercial only format. Diminishing the residential housing stocks in the downtown east district of Toronto.

LIES:

In order to manipulate Toronto City Council and the City of Toronto Planning division Hullmark claims to have been “lied to by the previous owners of the Building”. In reality 507 KING ST EAST is still owned by the “previous owners”. The Martin Family, (Derek and Sam Martin of The East Room) have owned the building for three generations and still own the building with Hullmark as new partners. Before going forward with the deal Hullmark did their due diligence photographing every unit of the building, digitally scanning the complete interior and exterior of the building and interviewing the tenants, as any legitimate investor would. There is no question that Jeff Hull knew that the building was residential, it was no secret. Through a wave of intimidation and bully tactics Hullmark/Eastroom evicted several tenants. The Landlord and Tenant board has agreed that the tenants are and have been residential for many years. The Martins (Eastroom) and Hullmark still enjoy a good relationship working together daily on this project. It is obvious that there was no deception between the Martins and Hullmark. When the tenants attempted to respond or question Hallmarks’ tactics the response was condescending treatment and indifference. The deception lies between Hullmark/Eastroom and The City of Toronto, the people of Toronto and the longstanding tenants of 507 King st e. They even manipulated a city councillor into telling lies on record, on their behalf.

EVICTIONS:

Hullark/Eastroom have been attempting to evict the remaining residential tenants using every available tool unsuccessfully. Now in the middle the Covid 19 crisis they have served the residential tenants with 3 eviction notices. Rescinding the first saying “its morally wrong to evict now” then weeks later delivering the same eviction notices twice. Hullmark/East room seem to think they are above law, common sense and the “morality” that they mentioned weeks before. It’s this kind of predatory gentrification that is undermining the ability of normal people to live in big cities. The tenants of 507 King east are working people living off their vocations in the arts and creative fields. Among the tenants are senior citizens with health issues being ordered to leave their homes and workplaces in the middle of this pandemic. In their advertising and promotional content Hullmark/Eastroom portray themselves as forward thinking arts friendly, people friendly, city friendly stewards of neighbourhoods and communities. The reality is that they have no regard for any of those things. The bottom line is the end that justifies the means: Money, Lies, and Evictions.
 
@Oswald H

seems like the tenants are sore losers on a city ruled edict. 20 years of cheap rent in a high density part of downtown Toronto, re-allocation payment in a commercial zoned property etc. I’ve read the BlogTO article no harm, no foul.The city is changing, move on. Looks like Hullmark / East Room have plans to do great things with the building. Historical restoration. No glass condo! yay!
 
radiantson said:
@Oswald H

seems like the tenants are sore losers on a city ruled edict. 20 years of cheap rent in a high density part of downtown Toronto, re-allocation payment in a commercial zoned property etc. I’ve read the BlogTO article no harm, no foul.The city is changing, move on. Looks like Hullmark / East Room have plans to do great things with the building. Historical restoration. No glass condo! yay!
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I think they're understandably objecting to the fact that they have been evicted during a global pandemic whilst the entire city is locked down, as much anything. I'm totally sympathetic to that perspective; these are not normal times and I don't think it's fair to lump this in with the sort of complaint you're characterizing.
 
ADRM said:
I think they're understandably objecting to the fact that they have been evicted during a global pandemic whilst the entire city is locked down, as much anything. I'm totally sympathetic to that perspective; these are not normal times and I don't think it's fair to lump this in with the sort of complaint you're characterizing.
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True, except this has been dragged out for MONTHS and started LONG before covid-19 was invented.
 
Idk, it definitely sucks that they're being pushed out during all of this, but it's not exactly like they're being kicked to the curb with nothing. For example, from the article:

Alan Chandler, 70, a photographer who has lived in the same 1,250-square-foot unit for 22 years, was offered $20,000 to leave, plus an extra $3,500 if he vacated by June this year.
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I definitely feel for this dude as it must be hard at 70 to imagine moving, but $20,000 plus $3500 would more than cover a year of rent in an apartment in Toronto plus moving expenses . I don't know what he was paying monthly but it would cover about 14 months of rent in my apartment which is a 1 bedroom near Dufferin and Eglinton. That's not a bad offer. Yeah, you won't be able to find a 1200 square foot loft downtown for that price, but I also don't think you'll be forced out of the city either.
 
DavidCapizzano said:
Idk, it definitely sucks that they're being pushed out during all of this, but it's not exactly like they're being kicked to the curb with nothing. For example, from the article:



I definitely feel for this dude as it must be hard at 70 to imagine moving, but $20,000 plus $3500 would more than cover a year of rent in an apartment in Toronto plus moving expenses . I don't know what he was paying monthly but it would cover about 14 months of rent in my apartment which is a 1 bedroom near Dufferin and Eglinton. That's not a bad offer. Yeah, you won't be able to find a 1200 square foot loft downtown for that price, but I also don't think you'll be forced out of the city either.
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At least your apartment will be within a very short walking distance of Fairbank station once the station opens.
 
Hallmark strikes again, in another spasm of aggressive arrogant ignorance our angry malicious friends at Hullmark have issued another round of eviction notices. This time it’s a blatantly illegal unenforceable mid Covid N4 notice. It will be entertaining to see how they try to justify this misstep. This one, delivered one day after they intentionally flooded a 3rd floor unit causing water to flow into an occupied second floor units bedroom. They where caught red handed. Looks like Hallmark is the sore loser. In the current zoning artist live/work is permitted, offices are not. Its a point that Hullmark keeps ignoring for obvious reasons.
 
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For some context:
Hullmark/Eastroom has issued 3 N13's and one N4 since the covid 19 epidemic started. They have been harassing the tenants of 507 King e with every type of underhanded trick. Including demolition while tenants are still living in the building causing flooding of occupied units (several times), dust and debris issues making the air unbreathable, Ignoring stop work orders from Toronto Building Inspector Bill Tan. In an attempt to "clean windows" they sprayed the interior of occupied units with power washers. Cutting off an individual units hydro necessitating police to be called to remove a padlock from the units breaker box. Several times they operated gasoline powered equipment in the building causing dangerous levels of carbon monoxide to fill the occupied units. They have been starting demolition work as early as 5am. When 311 was called Hullmark claimed to be "just taking out some garbage". The demolition was done without permits, by the time the city came to inspect, the demolition work was mostly done. The inspector (Bill Tan) ordered them to stop. The demo crew waited for the inspector to leave then completed the demolition. They attempted to replace all of the windows in the building with non opening sealed windows even though the building has no Hvac system. There has been no proper tenant notification of work in the building. The list goes on... Hallmark/Eastroom claims that they didn't know that there where residential tenants in the building when they partnered with The Eastroom. Hallmark/Eastroom lied to city council saying they didn't know about any residential tenants resulting in the city rubber stamping their requests without any due diligence. Hallmark/Eastroom surveyed the building, toured every unit, interviewed the tenants, scanned and photographed every unit before all of this started. Hallmark/Eastroom knew that the building was residential, and yes this predates "the invention of Covid" and yes the tenants are "sore". You would be too DSC, Radiantson and Jeff Hull.

By-Law438-86: Artist Live/work permitted
By-Law438-86: Commercial Office NOT permitted

For further information contact Councillor Krystyn Wong-Tam at 416-696-4300, councillor_wongtam@toronto.ca. Hullmark info@hullmark.ca 416-510-1700 The Eastroom (416) 628-5333 info@eastroom.com
 
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They seem to have several active (?) permits and several fairly recent Refusal Notices
507king2.jpg
507king.jpg
 
When you bully people with illegal alterations and demolition the city refuses your permit applications. Hullmark/Eastroom isn't learning that lying to counsellors and forcing illegal evictions isn't going to work. City Hall is not thrilled with Hullmark/Eastrooms latest antics. Go figure...
 
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