34. Toronto’s Real Estate Boom

July 24, 2015 • Uncategorized

While the Toronto residential housing market continues to skyrocket, rather than getting involved in ugly bidding wars on tree-lined streets, many living in the city are opting for the condo life instead. The reality of Toronto’s population surge over the past decade (the GTA’s projected population is expected to hit 10 million by 2035) is such that as semi and fully-detached homes become increasing unattainable, more and more residents will be forced to live in high-rises. The result of this changing landscapeis that developers will have to increasingly consider how their developments impact the quality of life in the communities they build in.

Take a look at three of Toronto’s most influential projects currently underway.

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Mirvish Village

For the past 67 years, Honest Ed’s has been a mainstay of Toronto’s retail and cultural identity. During that time, Ed Mirvish provided more life to Toronto than any man should ever be capable of, and the people were always grateful. From his world class theatre district on King Street to the iconic Honest Ed’s storefront sign a Bathurst and Bloor Streets, when you were in Mirvish world, you knew it. But all great things must come to an end it would seem. In July 2013, the massive 160,000-square foot property was quietly put up for sale.

When the news came, Torontonians were understandably shocked. And many took to the internet to talk about how to preserve some elements of the store’s architectural presence from unsympathetic renovation or new development. The biggest concern was that the storefront would be torn down to make room for some unsightly 80-story tower that cast a shadow over the Annex neighbourhood.

A huge sigh of relief was breathed, however, when Ed Mirvish’s son, David Mirvish, announced that he had signed a deal to sell the site of the discount retailer to Westbank Corporation, a Vancouver-based luxury residential development company, known for its high-end modernist hotel and condominium complexes.

Any lingering worrieswere put to rest when architect Gregory Henriquez unveiled his plans for the space, revealing a mind-blowing 55 building complex with structures ranging from 2.5 to 29-stories, including 1,000 rental units, 57 live-work spaces, and 35 artist studios.

Needless to say that all of this, along with a covered public market inspired by Barcelona’s Santa Caterina Market, has everyone thinking this condo boom may not be so bad after all.

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Mirvish + Gehry

Like his father, David Mirvish has also had a big impact of the cultural fabric of Toronto.The different between the two is in their publicity.While Ed was forever the charmer, as happy in the limelight as he was working the cash register at Honest Ed’s, David has preferred to stay out of the spotlight, letting his work speak for itself.

And his work has been game-changing for a city that’s forever evolving. He’s been Canada’s leading theatre impresario for more than a few decades, and the guy who started the luxury condo and hotel movement in Toronto.

Business aside, David is also known to be a very generous philanthropist and supporter of the arts. His personal collection is commonly regarded as one of the best in the country. So when his latest real estate development undertaking was announced, it’s no wonder that the Frank Ghery-designed towers (two 82-story buildings and one 92-story) included not only a 25,000-square foot facility for OCAD students, but an additional 9,000-square foot public gallery that will eventually host a rotation of Mirvish’s personal art collection.

Sure, the first design had three towers, but as soon as the developers settled on a slightly scaled-back design, City Hall couldn’t have approved the project quick enough.

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The One

Stollery’s presence in Toronto predates the Mirvish’s by far. In fact, the crusty store that wouldn’t die on the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor finally did just that. That the store had seen better days was never a mystery. Anyone who’s walked in will remember the musty smell and inventory that looked like it hadn’t been updated since 1985.

But somehow Stollery’s still had a weird charm to it. For decades, the salesmen who often outnumbered customers in the store, were as much a part of the mystique as the dated window displays. The building’s character reflected what was inside to the point where Toronto’s Heritage Board didn’t deem it historically-significant enough for protected status.

That is until it was quietly sold late last year to developer Sam Mizrahi. Once the sale was made public, City hall rushed to declare the property a historically designated space. But the Heritage Board it was too late. If the designation had stuck, it would have allowed the city to hold the hammer on all plans for the eastern border of the Mink Mile. But Mizrahi knew that even “rushed” at City Hall is pretty slow.

All of the sudden, on a sunny Saturday in January, workers erected scaffolding around the site and began to tear it down brick-by-brick. For the first time in 114 years, the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor sat empty with nothing but slurry walls. But Mizrahi has a plan for space: an 80-story tower that will be more than 1,000 feet tall, making it Canada’s second-tallest building after the CN Tower. A whopping 72-storys will be dedicated to residential apartments, while the bottom eight levels will be used for a luxury shopping mall, bringing in the total budget to a staggering $1 billion.

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