Here’s what developers want to build at the corner of College and Beverley
What it is: A 33-storey, 356-unit condo tower that would replace the existing office building on the southeast corner of College and Beverley streets, just south of the University of Toronto. (Better known to U of T students as “where the Starbucks is.”)
Pedigree: The architect is Page + Steele IBI Group, and the developer is Parallax Investment Corporation, a company that made headlines in 2012 when it announced that it would begin preselling condos that were only three inches high and 10 inches wide, for use as safety deposit boxes. (So far, that project hasn’t come to fruition.) In 2013, Parallax completed its Downtown Condos on Wellington Street.
Most promising feature: The tower would have a three-storey podium with about 275 square metres of retail space—big enough for a new U of T coffee shop or two.
Risk factor: Although College Street has had a couple controversial tower approvals in recent years, 33 storeys is still very tall for the neighbourhood.
Likely opposition: Politicians may not love the fact that this building would cast long shadows on College Street. And residents of the Grange, a low-rise neighbourhood to the south that already struggles to coexist with its student population, would form a natural opposition bloc.
The odds: Considering the amount of angst that preceded the approval of a 25-storey student residence a block to the west, it wouldn’t be surprising if this proposal ran into trouble.
A tower full of overpriced condos, for rich foreigners to buy up for when their kids attend UofT
A 30+ story building in a city with thousands of them, who cares, it’s not North Bay. The GTA increases in population by around one million people every decade, where do ya think everyone’s going to live? What’s wrong with foreign investment and universities? These provincial Canadian type articles and comments are funny!
Yes, intensification is desirable in Toronto. However, as former Councillor Adam Vaughn mentioned in another article ( http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/06/13/councillors_shut_door_on_private_student_residence.html ) College St. and Spadina Avenue (which is close by) have been identified as not being the best place for large towers in an Tall Buildings Report.
There are many considerations when building towers such as: ability for existing infrastructure to support new residents; access to light which will be restricted by large shadows cast by towers; preserving the existing historical landscape; honoring the heritage of the area by not tearing down all old development; making sure there is sufficient green space to have a high quality of life for the new residents; having a complete neighborhood with services such as grocery stores.
Everyone can live in Toronto. However, I think the city and people would be better served with a greater quality of life by one or two hundred beautiful six to ten story buildings along main throughfares such as Spadina, Bathurst, College, Wellsley, Bloor, St. Clair, Jarvis, Gerrard, and Parlimant.
Make no mistake, the drive to build large towers is not a philanthropic act to bring more affordable housing to residents of Toronto. 10 story towers don’t make as much money to foreign or domestic developers as 30-80 story towers. Many developers are interested in making as much profit as possible, and this is the primary motivator in our capitalist society.
Like most of Toronto’s areas College and Spadina is extremely well serviced with streetcars every few minutes on both streets. The area also has Chinatown and Kensington Market for phenomenal grocery shopping which is how I know of it. It’s perfect for intensification, especially since it’s currently underdeveloped and people that would otherwise live there can’t do to lack of housing. Where are all of the students to live, rich or not? I’m not interested in your political NIMBYism!
‘Extremely well serviced with streetcars’
LOL
I hope they notice that building they’re hoping to demolish literally is a high school.
203 College St, Toronto, ON
http://goo.gl/maps/qfJLD