kotsy said:
www.thestar.com

The old Toronto Star building at 1 Yonge will live for a little while longer — as a luxury hotel

Pinnacle is holding off demolishing the Star’s home base for 51 years, which is set to be part of a planned community including Canada’s tallest skyscraper.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

paywall bypass: https://archive.is/WmAdL
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I cannot see how this would be economically viable unless they have a very long term planning horizon for their southern phase of development. I have to wonder what their hotel operator in Sky Tower thinks of this? Would have thought they would put a restrictive covenant in place.
 
Not to mention, they have to spend an awful lot of money to refit this dated office tower as a luxury hotel. It would then make little financial sense to tear it all down to put up their planned proposal when that is a go...

...so Pinnacle either has lots of money to throw around with little care on their returns here. Or "temporary" really means "for the ages and a dog's life or so". Or even both.
 
I think this is a win ... I really hope they improve the street level experience though and I suspect they will.

I say this is a win because I suspect if this wasn't going to be a hotel it would simply be demolished and likely sit as an empty plot for years. Realistically it'll probably stay a hotel for ~ 20 years if it does well as such.
 
I agree with taal. This is a great win in most every way. Great location. Great opportunity to 'save' a 70's office tower despite me not thinking it's that pretty. Great destination tourists and locals alike. Great opportunity to do something interesting here (holding my breath). Great location for visitors to stay in a central location right by the lake. Did I say great?
Yes I did.
 
Fantastic news to hear the Toronto Star building will survive. It's a refreshing and desperately needed break from all the glass in the area. Obviously, it needs far better integration at street level but nothing money and converting the first 2-4 floors into a ground floor lobby can't fix.
 
This is indeed great news. A hotel will do more for the neighbourhood that the inevitable post-demo parking lot would ever have. I'm curious how much of the old printing press podium will be kept, or if some of that will still be torn down.
 
isaidso said:
Fantastic news to hear the Toronto Star building will survive. It's a refreshing and desperately needed break from all the glass in the area. Obviously, it needs far better integration at street level but nothing money and converting the first 2-4 floors into a ground floor lobby can't fix.
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I agree with you about the relief from all the monotonous glass, but the Star building is one of the more boring examples of Modernism. I wouldn't miss it.
 
Civdis said:
I cannot see how this would be economically viable unless they have a very long term planning horizon for their southern phase of development. I have to wonder what their hotel operator in Sky Tower thinks of this? Would have thought they would put a restrictive covenant in place.
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I think from the beginning there have always been plans for a hotel in the south block. I remember being surprised when I heard there was going to be another hotel in SkyTower (which turned out to be Le Meridien).
 
wmedia said:
This is indeed great news. A hotel will do more for the neighbourhood that the inevitable post-demo parking lot would ever have. I'm curious how much of the old printing press podium will be kept, or if some of that will still be torn down.
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I assume the printing press podium will still be demolished - I think it is too close to the new street that will be the continuation of Harbour Street.
 
DSCToronto said:
I assume the printing press podium will still be demolished - I think it is too close to the new street that will be the continuation of Harbour Street.
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I think so too. The Toronto Star building isn't in the footprint of the proposed towers, it's where their connecting podium would be. The previous plan illustrates this.

42494-160792.jpeg


I think they're buying themselves time for the condo market to come back in a decade. Meanwhile, they operate this site as a hotel in a prime location instead of letting it sit as an empty lot into the 2030's. Win-win for everyone. Maybe the building proves itself and gets integrated into the eventual towers flanking it.
 
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