[Northern Light]

* Cross-Post to Bloor-Yonge Station Capacity Expansion thread *

Well now, this quiet report to next week's gov't and licensing Ctte got my attention:

Agenda Item History - 2022.GL29.10

Note that I am not linking the background file as it is not yet live.

The report seeks authority to expropriate such portions of 2 Bloor East and 90 Bloor East as may be necessary for the Station Expansion Project.
Otherwise known as The Hudson's Bay Centre.

Interesting move! Negotiations over the future of the site have been dragging on; it would appear the City has decided to light a fire under the negotiations....

From the Report:

Edit to add:

Background file is now live:

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/gl/bgrd/backgroundfile-222632.pdf

Not much else in the way of material info; but I will post the summation from the report.

 

[Northern Light]

No zoning application.......but this:

Application Details

app.toronto.ca

 

[ADRM]

No zoning application.......but this:

View attachment 396834

Application Details

app.toronto.ca

…and this, from Matt Elliott’s newsletter:

• Lobbyists for Brookfield Properties met with Mayor John Tory on April 7 to discuss the Hudson’s Bay Centre at Yonge & Bloor. Brookfield reps at the meeting included Managing Partner for Real Estate Jan Sucharda, Senior Vice President of Development Jonathan Fung andManaging Partner for Portfolio Management Mark Murski. Tory’s director of legislative affairs Edward Birnbaum also attended the meeting, as did CreateTO CEO — and former Tory staffer — Vic Gupta. In February, Craig Patterson of Retail Insider reported that the Bay store here would be permanently closed this spring, making way for large-scale redevelopment. And given that it’s Yonge & Bloor, you can probably emphasize the large in large-scale.

 

[Northern Light]

.....making way for large-scale redevelopment. And given that it’s Yonge & Bloor, you can probably emphasize the large in large-scale.

To my understanding, this is not reflected in the SPA above.

****

That said, I too had been assuming something large, so I'm unclear if things have stalled out between the City and Brookfield, or if this is a fallback or negotiating position.

We'll know better when the details are public.

 

[Northern Light]

Description of the SPA is now public:

 

[Northern Light]

Looks increasingly like the bigger plans for this site have fallen through, but we'll have to wait and see more:

Larco has registered to lobby and is set to file an SPA for its portion of the Hudson's Bay Centre. (eastern portion)

As per below from the Registry:

 

[Hoppysquirrel]

LARCO owns maple leaf property management, which manages 88 Bloor St E.

90 Bloor St E is currently where the entrance to the concourse will be from the north side of Bloor St E.

 

[Northern Light]

* Docs are Up *

Architect is KPMB

I would call this disappointing, and not at all what I understood was planned for here............sigh.

 

[Blovertis]

My God, why even bother? Why go to the trouble of tearing down the old HBC, only to replace it with something of the same height? And what about the dead-zone NE corner of Bloor-Yonge?

 

[Amare]

Just when I thought the Bunker on Bloor is the ugliest thing in this city, Brookfield finds a way to make it even worse?

Wow that's a real accomplishment and feat, congrats to them for somehow discovering how to downgrade things.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

So they replaced a bunker with a jail.

AoD

 

[innsertnamehere]

Is this an interim renovation perhaps? Perhaps a filing to fight an evaluation on the TTC expropriation here? I would be surprised if Brookfield actually plans on building this, and wouldn't be surprised if they filed an SPA to indicate to expropriation proceedings that the site has value as it was "currently in the process of being re-positioned" or something.. An A-class office space is worth a whole lot more in an expropriation hearing than a down-market department store space with little potential in terms of tenants..

 

[DavidCapizzano]

lmao curtain wall & fins - surprise surprise

this seems to be the go-to move for commercial developers lately = supremely boring.

 

[Tuscani01]

My God, why even bother? Why go to the trouble of tearing down the old HBC, only to replace it with something of the same height? And what about the dead-zone NE corner of Bloor-Yonge?

It’s not being torn down. It’s being repurposed and reclad. The corner of Bloor Yonge is getting touched up as part of this, but I believe it’s under a separate application.

 

[Northern Light]

Is this an interim renovation perhaps? Perhaps a filing to fight an evaluation on the TTC expropriation here? I would be surprised if Brookfield actually plans on building this, and wouldn't be surprised if they filed an SPA to indicate to expropriation proceedings that the site has value as it was "currently in the process of being re-positioned" or something..

I'm wondering............I was told of something much different and much more ambitious some time ago..........

There was talk of the Mayor's Design Excellence Initiative and there was residential contemplated at one point.

How we got here from there......baffles me.