Category Archives: Empress Hotel 335 Yonge

Massive retail complex with condo tower in the works for SE corner of Yonge & Gould Streets

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335 Yonge Street

This illustration, from an online CBRE flyer, shows a mixed-use condo, retail and commercial development project being planned for the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould Streets

 

335 Yonge Street 335 Yonge Street December 25 2012 518 px IMG_0705

December 25 2012: The redevelopment site includes the vacant corner lot at 335 Yonge St., where the Empress Hotel heritage building once stood, and the adjacent 3-storey HMV retail building at 333 Yonge. At rear is the hulking 10 Dundas East restaurant, retail and cinema complex, formerly known as Toronto Life Square, that occupies the remainder of the block bounded by Yonge, Gould, Victoria and Dundas Streets.

 

335 Yonge Street

December 21 2010: A view of the historic Empress Hotel building at 335 Yonge Street only two weeks before it was destroyed in a fire set by a serial arsonist

 

335 Yonge Street

January 7 2011: A demolition machine razes the fire-ravaged remains of 335 Yonge only four days after the heritage building was set ablaze

 

Arsonist sentenced, redevelopment proposed: Only days after an arsonist was sentenced to prison for torching a heritage building at the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould Streets, signs have been posted on the property to advertise potential leasing opportunities in a major retail and condo redevelopment project being considered for the prime downtown site.

On December 14, convicted “serial arsonist” Stewart Poirier, 53, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a blaze that destroyed the historic Empress Hotel building at 335 Yonge Street. The 124-year-old building, which was a city-designated heritage property,  was consumed by a 6-alarm fire in the early morning hours of January 3 2011. The fire-charred ruins were demolished that same month and the property has sat vacant ever since, being used from time to time as a construction staging area for the new Ryerson University Student Learning Centre being built on the opposite side of Gould Street. In the nearly two years since the fire, speculation has run rampant about what type of redevelopment the property’s owner, Lalani Group, might propose for the site. Potential plans for the property now seem to be coming into focus.

 

 

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Aftermath of the big fires: Empty lot at 335 Yonge; 200 Wellesley undergoes major structural repairs

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335 Yonge Street

Empty lot where heritage building once stood at 335 Yonge Street


200 Wellesley Street East

Major structural repairs to three floors at 200 Wellesley Street East


Cleaning up: Two fires that made headlines four months apart have left their mark on downtown Toronto. The heritage building at 335 Yonge Street that was irreparably damaged in a fire early in January has been completely demolished; all that remains is an empty lot where the historic structure used to stand, and scorch marks on the walls of the 10 Dundas Street East entertainment complex and HMV store next door. The only good news — for drivers and pedestrians, anyways — is that the road and sidewalks should be re-opened for full regular traffic soon, for the first time since part of the brick facade of 335 Yonge collapsed onto Gould Street last April.  Hoarding that surrounded the site was removed this week, and barricades that restricted vehicular and pedestrian traffic on the east side of Yonge Street should be dismantled shortly. What will become of the property now that the fire debris has been cleared away remains to be seen. Meanwhile, major structural surgery is being performed on the exterior skin of 200 Wellesley Street East as cleanup continues on damage from a September blaze that displaced hundreds of residents from their apartments. A three-storey-tall section of the building’s west wall has been cut away, and crews have been working for weeks on major repairs to at least three balconies. Looks like it will be many weeks, if not months, before several dozen residents will be able to return to their homes (most tenants have been allowed back in). Below are photos taken this week at each of the two fire scenes.

335 Yonge Street

Yonge Street view of 335 Yonge Street fire site on February 3


335 Yonge Street

Yonge Street view of 335 Yonge Street fire site on February 3


335 Yonge Street

Gould Street view of 335 Yonge Street on February 3


200 Wellesley Street East

200 Wellesley Street East fire repairs on February 1


200 Wellesley Street East

200 Wellesley Street East fire repairs on February 1


200 Wellesley Street East

200 Wellesley Street East fire repairs on February 1


Update: Demolition continues at Yonge St. fire site

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January 14: There’s very little left of the first floor of 335 Yonge

 

Remains of the day: Crews have demolished the top two floors of the heritage building at 335 Yonge Street that suffered extensive and irreparable damage in a suspicious fire on January 3, and are working to clear the rest of the site.

The fire marshall’s office has yet to report if it has determined what started the fire; however, a police criminal investigation is underway based on surveillance videos that showed a man entering the building and then leaving only minutes before the blaze broke out.

On January 26, city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam will meet with the building owners, local businesses, and officials from Ryerson University to discuss what will happen with the site.

Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail reported today that a contracting firm is suing the owners for allegedly not paying a $70,000 bill for work performed after part of the building facade collapsed last April. I’m sure there will be even more legal proceedings in the months ahead to determine what will happen with the property.

 

Local TV celebrity Marilyn Dennis smiles down on the ruins of 335 Yonge

 


Covered fence blocks street views of demolition at 335 Yonge

 

Was heritage building deliberately torched?

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335 Yonge Street ruins viewed from Gould Street (top) and Yonge Street (below) today after investigators knocked down the top floor and began searching the rubble for evidence of arson. Bottom pic shows 335 Yonge after its top floor was removed.

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Police seeking “person of interest”: The search for the cause of Monday’s fire at 335 Yonge Street turned into a criminal arson investigation after Toronto police found evidence suggesting that someone had entered the property and left mere minutes before the blaze broke out. Nearby surveillance cameras captured pictures and video of a “person of interest” who spent nearly two and a half hours in the building in the middle of the night, leaving the scene shortly before someone saw flames and called the fire department.

Meanwhile, work crews used heavy machinery to tear down the top floor of the fire-charred structure today so pieces of rubble could be extricated and examined for evidence of arson (the ruins remain far too unsafe for investigators to enter). Still no word from the building’s owners or city officials as to what will happen with the site once the fire marshall’s office has concluded its investigation.

While speculation about arson and “demolition by neglect” continues to swirl in the local media, noted journalist Christie Blatchford examines the serious fire hazards posed by vacant and abandoned buildings in an insightful column in today’s Globe and Mail. Below: photos showing some of the demolition equipment in use at 335 Yonge today.

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President envisions burned heritage building as Yonge Street gateway to Ryerson U campus

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The remains of 335 Yonge Street two days after the big blaze

 

 

Ryerson to the rescue? While firefighters and investigators today kept busy probing the cause of Monday’s destructive fire at 335 Yonge Street, the president of Ryerson University reiterated his keen interest in acquiring the historic property.

As I mentioned in a blog post the other day, I’ve been wondering if the university still wants the site — the William Reynolds Block — for its campus expansion plans. Turns out, it definitely does.

University president Sheldon Levy told The Globe and Mail that he’d still like to obtain the property for a possible Yonge Street “gateway” to the RU campus. According to the Globe & Mail story, “Ryerson has eyed the property as a potential venue for an additional entrance to the Dundas subway station for years, but failed to persuade the owners, the Lalani Group, to sell the land.” Ryerson is just about to start construction of a new student services building just a stone’s throw away — directly across Gould Street, on the site of the former Sam the Record Man store. Obtaining the 335 Yonge building would give the university the opportunity to create an impressive, stand-out entrance that its compact downtown campus has been sorely lacking.

But the big question, now, is whether City Hall and the provincial government have the wherewithal to finally get any kind of redevelopment of the site going — especially since they have allowed the property to sit neglected since part of its brick facade fell down last April.

“You don’t sit back and watch a building fall down and burn and then say, ‘Let’s think about this for another six months or a year,” Levy told the Globe. Sadly, that’s the way all levels of government typically act in Canada. They love to spend years talking about things they’d like to do before actually getting around to  it — if they ever in fact do it at all.

Frankly, I’ll be amazed if any kind of redevelopment activity gets underway at 335 Yonge in the next year — whether it’s by Ryerson, the City, or by someone else. But I’ll be thrilled if the university does acquire the site and is able to restore the burned building as part of a new main entrance to its campus. Below are some pics I shot of 335 Yonge this afternoon.

 

Traffic was still restricted on two blocks of Yonge Street today

What’s left of the building’s Yonge Street facade

Firefighters surveying the ruins from an aerial platform

Firefighters hosing down the remains of the collapsed building

Site of Ryerson’s new student services centre, to start construction soon

Overnight blaze destroys 123-year-old downtown heritage building … what will take its place?

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What caused the fire? That’s the question investigators with the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office will try to answer following a massive six-alarm blaze that destroyed a stately heritage building at 335 Yonge Street early this morning.

Built around 1888, and originally home to the Empress Hotel, the three-storey brown brick William Reynolds Block at the corner of Yonge and Gould Streets recently housed several retail stores and eateries. Its busiest and best-known tenant was Salad King, a Thai restaurant that was enormously popular with students from the Ryerson University campus right next door.

All of the businesses were forced to close last April after a section of the building’s façade collapsed without warning onto Gould Street (there’s more information about that incident in a Toronto Star article here). Since then, the two eastern lanes of Yonge Street and the stretch of Gould adjacent to the building have been fenced off as a safety precaution while the City and the property’s owners discussed whether the structure could be restored.  That now appears highly unlikely, since fire investigators say they must demolish what remains of the structure so they can safely inspect the rubble to determine the cause of the blaze.

While they’re busy grappling with that mystery, I’ll be keen to hear answers to some “burning” questions that have been on my mind since April: What’s going to happen with this piece of prime downtown real estate? Will the old Empress Hotel building be reconstructed in some shape or form? Will a new retail or office building or a condo tower take its place? Or will Ryerson University acquire the property to expand its downtown campus?

Just before Christmas, I snapped some photos of the cordoned-off building; they appear below, along with pics I took this afternoon. For more news, and to view additional photos of the fire and its aftermath, see this Toronto Star article and this follow-up story in The Globe and Mail.