195 Dufferin Avenue - Office to Residential conversion - 94 units

[jammer139]

Great news with another announcement of an office to residential conversion with Sifton donating this building to Anglican diocese to be operated by Homes Unlimited.





https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...rdable-housing


Now if only the "landlord" would sell off the Royal Bank Tower for a similar conversion.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Great news with another announcement of an office to residential conversion with Sifton donating this building to Anglican diocese to be operated by Homes Unlimited.





https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...rdable-housing


Now if only the "landlord" would sell off the Royal Bank Tower for a similar conversion.

This is great news and kudos for Sifton being a responsible company.

[MolsonExport]

Never happen with the Royal Bank tower unless the city pays Farhi a ton of cash upfront.
"an empty premises is our most prized asset" (Farhi Holdings, Ltd).

[ssiguy]

Ya, I can't imagine Farhi doing such a thing unless the city essentially bribes him but perhaps in some of his older, smaller, and completely vacant properties he may, certainly not due to philanthropy but due to the tax benefits. Due to Sifton handing over the property to the Anglican Church which is a non-profit, Sifton will be able to write it off as a charitable donation as opposed to just selling the property to a developer even if at a very cheap price. This is the only thing that would motivate Farhi. If he has empty small buildings, it might be worth it to get rid of them as a tax write-off as well as not having to any longer pay the property taxes on an empty building.

I looked up the building and it has 144,000 sq feet of leasable space so that will make a decent dent in London's high downtown office rate of about 15%.

[jammer139]

CTV story on this conversion project that could start as soon as June and be complete by Fall of 2025.


https://london.ctvnews.ca/converting...ndon-1.6849022


updated LFP article


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...rdable-housing

[inimrepus]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Due to Sifton handing over the property to the Anglican Church which is a non-profit,

Small correction, the Anglican Church already owns the land that the building is on, it is leased by Sifton. Sifton is donating the building to Homes Unlimited London Inc. but they are going to continue to lease the land from the Anglican Church.

[ssiguy]

^^^ Thanks for the clarification but by gifting the building to a non-profit, they can still write it off as a charitable donation.