January 28 2013: This sandwich board sign with a rendering of the forthcoming 365 Church condo by Toronto developer Menkes …
… has appeared on the development site, currently a surface parking lot at the northeast corner of Church & McGill Streets …
… while this “pre-sale” promotional flyer has been distributed to hundreds of households in the area by a Thornhill, Ont.-based real estate brokerage firm.
Sales launch approaching: Promotional activity has begun to rev up for the 29-storey 365 Church condo tower that will rise in the heart of the McGill Granby Village low-rise neighbourhood near Church & Carlton Streets.
A “coming soon to this location” sandwich board sign, bearing an architectural rendering of the rectangular glass building that Menkes plans to build at 365-375 Church Street, was set up just in the past couple of days in the parking lot that presently occupies most of the development site. And last week, a Thornhill, Ontario real estate brokerage firm distributed flyers promoting a website and “pre-sale seminar” for the 365 Church project to hundreds of households in the surrounding area.
But an official full-scale sales launch for the project could be weeks or even several months away, since a legal proceeding concerning the development is due to be heard by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) in mid-March.
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The so-called McGill-Granby Residents Association has around 57 members, whereas the area is highly populated, with in fact 4 condo towers, and several tall apartment towers between 18 and 35 stories. The Association’s members are a bunch of nimbyists who do not represent the neighbourhood. Unfortunately the local councillor Wrong-Turn (Kirstin Wong-Tam) panders to them. Kirstin: please notice that this Association is extremely small relative to the population of the area it claims to represent, and that its views thus have no credibility. Notice also that what is currently on the site is a parking lot and an extremely run-down 2-story building, and Menkes is doing everyone in this city a huge favor by bringing this development. But the nimbyists prefer the current run-down mess. If they don’t like density downtown, they should move to Ulan Bator and take Wong-Tam with them. In downtown Toronto, she’s a disaster. I was at a City Hall meeting about this development, and she ignored local residents’ concerns about balconies on this building. She does not care what residents actually think. She did not have the prior councillor’s endorsement (Kyle Rae) and won by a small margin. It is really too bad that Rae retired.
I think that big developers will transform Toronto from Yonge to Dufferin or further and from Bloor to Queen St. They buy up family houses. They may force out residents using criminal activities, such as unforced entry to homes and vandalism of property. (Edward Snowden did not mention that defense contracts allow all manner of crimes to be hidden.)
They pay a to renovate, making the houses look junky with cheap facades and metal on bay windows. They then renovate, often without permits, making the houses into “furnished apartment units” or some sort of hotel-like occasional housing. They use agents who pose as residents. They vandalize the streets after forcing out the original residents. Then, they will be able to request rezoning, arguing that the beautiful houses are junky!
Look into this now, or say goodbye to your city. Seek to find out if there is a group of citizens that got tricked into selling or forced out of homes.
Look up “United Nations Agenda 21.” There will be no more private property, except for the tiny number of super wealthy.