2014 staff final report: “Before introducing the necessary Bills to City Council for enactment, City Council require the owner to incorporate elements of the north and west façades, as much as possible, of the existing building at 231-237 College Street into the design of the development, to the satisfaction of the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning Division.”
Well in fairness to the developer, they obviously learned it wasnt going to be possible to preserve the building after discovering an excavator sticking out one the exterior walls.
The biggest crime here isn't even the loss of the heritage facade - it's that a Kirkor monstrosity is going up in its place. It would be slightly more palatable if an architecture firm with some design aptitude was working on this site.
Yes, but you can see from the image above that the facade has been demolished. You can rebuild a facade, but I don't consider that "retention" of a facade of building.
As an aside, the city is increasingly moving toward keeping heritage facades in place while new construction is underway, as opposed to demo-rebuild.