50 King Street / 28 Stories / ?? Height

[ldoto]

[Djeffery]

I assume that this property will not be tax exempt after this purchase goes through. I imagine that this will be a little bit of a tax boost for the city, especially as York develops it.

[ssiguy]

I hope they do something great with the site. We are also forgetting that this ids very good news for CitiPlaza by getting a large and permanent tenant filling up a lot oif leasable square footage and having those high paying government jobs in the mall to spend their money.

[Djeffery]

I was in the health unit space upstairs at Citiplaza a few weeks ago, they have done a great job in the areas I saw. Contractor said people would start working there in December, with the bulk of the workforce moving over in the spring. It will definitely be a boost to that mall.

[greenday99]

Is the old courthouse getting torn down?

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by greenday99

Is the old courthouse getting torn down?

Where are you reading that? There is close to a zero percent change the court house is touched (unless they are making it better or more accessible).

York's first comment was "Our intention is to enhance what is here, to respect the heritage of the site; that’s Priority 1"

[greenday99]

I thought I missed something!

[jammer139]

Zero chance of the court house being demolished. It is a heritage site. Even the jail behind it is not likely. There are also graves onsite from the prisoners. I suspect the health unit building and parking lots and green space will be were the development happens. How they can creatively incorporate the court house and jail will be very interesting. Quite a challenge for the architects and designers that will be tasked with it. York should be able to drum up some healthy competition from high end architecture firms to bid on it.

[inimrepus]

The start of this project has been delayed at least a year according to York https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ue-to-covid-19

[jammer139]

Not the least bit surprised. Actually didn't expect them to start here for years given all the other proposed buildings they have in various stages of development and construction. Certainly hope they design a showpiece tower in the 40+ story range.

Originally Posted by inimrepus

The start of this project has been delayed at least a year according to York https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ue-to-covid-19

[johnnyhamont]

Sorry to hear about the delay, but I'm glad to hear plans are progressing regardless. Here are the latest renders from the architect






Source: http://www.atrr.ca/projects/in-progress/50-king-street

[jammer139]

Those were the renders from 6 years ago when the county was going to built a project there. I doubt York is going to keep those plans or design. I expect something very different from York when they finally have a proposal to goto Council in 2022/23. Would be safe bet this is a dead project.

[ssiguy]

I actually think this building will get built. It's a beautiful location and York has a pretty solid record of actually building the projects they announce. I also don't think they would announce a delay of the project if they weren't serious about building it. They simply would have let the conversation die ala Farhi.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I actually think this building will get built. It's a beautiful location and York has a pretty solid record of actually building the projects they announce. I also don't think they would announce a delay of the project if they weren't serious about building it. They simply would have let the conversation die ala Farhi.

I don't think anyone is saying that. Just that the old pictures posted above likely aren't going to be it.

[TallerIsBetter]

IIRC, York paid something like $36-40 million for the site. I doubt their plan is to just build something say 7 stories more than the Peter McGregor building, and then sprinkle some picnic tables around the rest of the site.

[Djeffery]

Planning Committee votes to approve demolition of 50 King, goes to council next week.

[Djeffery]

I happened to be watching the planning committee meeting when this was discussed. It was made clear that 28 stories is "locked in", although I imagine only locked in until council approves something else at a later date. It was also made clear this will not be a parking lot. They said the parking lot that is already there is very under utilized as it is.

The other discussion was about what will happen to the site in the meantime after the current building is demolished. A couple of the citizen groups that spoke to the meeting wanted to ensure the site is fixed up and not just left as an eyesore until the new construction eventually starts. They mentioned the site being sodded or flower beds built. Committee was hesitant to add that condition because they feel York is a good corporate citizen and they have already made plans to fix it up with "decorative hoarding". I think the committee missed on this one, as all that sounds like is putting up a painted construction wall that will quickly become an eyesore itself. Councillor Lewis seems to feel that York will be coming to the city with a plan for the site sometime in the new year, although, that could just be hopes and dreams. Another small issue that was brought up was getting demolition finished before the nice weather hits and the area gets busy with wedding photoshoots and other outdoor activities.

[jammer139]

The 28 story limit is absurd. The Arena block was zoned for 150 meters decades ago. The Renaissance Tower NIMBY's need to be ignored.



Hopefully the next council after the Municipal election Fall 2022 will have a new group of city building and visionary members that think about the future decades from now and not the infantile stagnant views of a few heritage NIMBYs stuck in the past.

[plcan1]

That right ������