Tag Archives: Dundas Street East

Community meeting tonight will review plan for 46-storey Pace Condos tower at Dundas & Jarvis

Pace Condos at Dundas and Jarvis

Great Gulf Homes is proposing a 46-storey condo tower for this site at the SW corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets, seen here on March 22 2011.

 

Public feedback: A community consultation meeting this evening will give city residents the opportunity to voice their views about a Toronto developer’s proposal to build a 46-storey condo tower at the southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets. The meeting about Pace Condos, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Metropolitan United Church, was recommended in a March 22 2011 preliminary report by the city’s Planning Division.

Great Gulf Homes is proposing a 46-storey mixed-use building for the corner site, which includes municipal addresses at 200 Jarvis Street and 155 – 163 Dundas Street East. The tower would have five underground levels and a 10-storey podium, and would contain 417 residential units in studio, 1-bedroom, 1-bedroom + den, 2-bedroom and 2-bedroom + den configurations. Prices start at $209,990.

An article on the Great Gulf website claims that Pace Condos “offers unbeatable downtown Toronto value in new condo living,” and raves that its prime location — which is just a “leisurely pace” from leading downtown attractions and key city transit services — will be ideal for people seeking “a new urban lifestyle.” The article further boasts that the condo building itself will be “a paragon of architectural brilliance. This shimmering, sleek and streamlined glass tower designed by Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc. will artfully rise from a podium comprised of dark charcoal-coloured bricks. Pace will embody urban elegance at its best — and will define a new generation of urban elegance. Landscaping by Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg will frame the building in startling greenery and colour.”

What the article doesn’t describe is the gritty neighbourhood; as I mentioned in a March 22 2011 post, the Pace Condos location is on the edge of one of the poorest residential areas in the city, if not the entire country. Within mere minutes’ walking distance are dozens of hostels, homeless shelters, subsidized housing apartments, soup kitchens and social service agencies for the poor. From my experience, it has been difficult to walk past the Dundas/Jarvis intersection, or along nearby streets, without encountering numerous panhandlers, street people, and a slew of sketchy people openly selling and doing drugs or drinking alcohol. Despite the neighbourhood’s seedy character, the condo tower proposal has generated tremendous local interest — from excited potential buyers, from citizens who think Pace could kickstart wider urban renewal in the immediate area, and from nearby residents who are alarmed by the height and size of the building that could soon become their new neighbour.

Given wide interest in Pace Condos, tonight’s meeting could attract a large turnout and spark colourful discussion, both positive and negative.  I’m keen to hear if the Pace Condos proposal generates reactions similar to those expressed at other public meetings I have attended recently. A community consultation for a massive condo project planned for the St James Town area drew overwhelmingly negative feedback from the audience, while a Jarvis Street resident read an emotional and strongly-worded three-minute speech blasting the Pace Condo proposal at another public meeting about proposed guidelines for tall buildings in the downtown area. Unfortunately, I can’t attend the meeting, but I will continue to track further developments.

 

Pace Condos marketing billboard

Great Gulf Homes plans 46-storey condo tower for corner in sketchy Dundas-Jarvis neighbourhood

Pace Condos site at Dundas and Jarvis

Developer Great Gulf Homes has acquired this property at the southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets for its proposed 46-storey Pace Condos tower

 

Pace Condos billboard at Dundas and Jarvis Streets

On-site promotional billboard for the Pace Condos tower

 

Seedy site: I had been wondering when a developer was going to announce plans to build a condo tower at the seedy southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets. It’s not a nice neighbourhood by any stretch of the imagination, but real estate is all about location and that’s one of the few redeeming features for this prime piece of downtown property just a short walk from the Toronto Eaton Centre and the Yonge subway line. Late last year I noticed that the three businesses in the small commercial plaza on the corner had been closed and their windows papered over. I kept waiting to hear word about a development proposal for the property, but didn’t see any signs on the site in either January or February. But when I passed by the corner just over a week ago, and saw that chainlink fencing had been erected around the plaza, I knew an announcement was imminent. On March 14, it happened: prominent Toronto condo developer GreatGulf Homes filed a rezoning application with the City, proposing to build a 46-storey condo tower with 417 suites, five levels of underground parking and a 10-storey podium with street-level retail space. A billboard promoting Pace Condos — “downtown tower suites from the low $200s” — promptly went up on the corner where it’s certain to catch the attention of motorists driving along busy Jarvis Street on their way to and from the Financial District.

When I told some friends earlier this winter that I suspected a condo would be built on the site, they looked incredulous and said: “No way! Who the hell would want to live there?” Obviously, Great Gulf is confident they can find 417 potential buyers, and I’m sure they’ve done their research. After all, they know their stuff: they’re the company behind several of downtown Toronto’s hottest condo developments.  Their X Condominium tower only eight blocks north of the Pace Condos site was a huge hit with buyers, and two other condo towers Great Gulf is currently constructing — X2 Condos at Jarvis & Charles, and Charlie condos on King Street West in the Entertainment District — were enormously successful, too. One Bloor Condos is destined to achieve similar stellar sales; construction of that tower is expected to commence later this year at Yonge and Bloor Streets.

Still, it’s fair to say that the area around the Pace Condos site is a helluva lot less desirable than the locations of GreatGulf’s other projects. Dundas & Jarvis sits on the periphery of one of the poorest residential areas in all of Canada, a vast downtown district with one of the country’s largest concentrations of homeless people and residents earning poverty-level incomes or collecting social assistance — people who have no hope of ever being able to live at Pace Condos or in a condo anywhere, for that matter. Meanwhile, if Pace Condos does get built, anyone who buys an east-facing unit will have views overlooking dozens of rooming houses, homeless shelters, government-subsidized apartments and social service agencies — all just a short stroll from their front door. And as the Toronto Star pointed out in a photo gallery on March 18, the epicentre of the city’s worst area for overall crime is the intersection of Dundas and Sherbourne Streets, just two blocks east. While I was taking photos on Dundas Street this afternoon, a young black man approached me. “Make sure you take pictures showing this place like it really is — me standing here drinking from a bottle of booze in a paper bag in broad daylight, those guys over on that corner dealing crack cocaine, all those homeless people over there and the guys doing drugs down there,” he told me, pointing at each corner of the Dundas-Jarvis intersection before taking a long drink from his bottle. He, along with all the street people who kept staring at me or asking for spare change, made me wonder why anyone would want to pay $200,000+ to buy a condo there. Until he added: “And make sure you take pictures of how everything looks like now so you can remember it because, in a few years, there’s probably gonna be lots of new buildings all around here. This is gonna be a good place to live. It’s not always gonna look like this.”

Maybe he’s right — maybe things are finally starting to look up for this down-on-hard-times district. There’s already several condo buildings close by, including the popular and pricey Merchandise Lofts, as well as two hotels — with a third hotel and more condos in the works. Right across the street, the Ontario government is retrofitting and modernizing the massive building at 222 Jarvis Street into a new workplace for the Ontario Public Service. And the rapidly-growing Ryerson University campus is just a block away. Could the arrival of Pace Condos herald a turn-around for this sketchy streetcorner? We’ll have to wait a few years to see. In the meantime, here’s some photos showing the Pace Condos site and its immediate neighbours as they look now.

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

January 3 2011: Looking west at the small plaza at Dundas & Jarvis Streets

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

January 3 2011: The office towers of the Financial District are only blocks away

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

February 18 2011: The Eaton Centre is just a 10-minute walk west

 

proposed location for the Pace Condos tower

March 22 2011: Looking south on Jarvis Street toward the Pace Condos site. If built, Pace would obstruct this view of the 45-storey Spire condo tower on Lombard Street, visible in the center of the photograph.

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

March 22 2011: Pace Condos site seen from northeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

Commercial tenants of this plaza — including a convenience store, two restaurants and a coin-operated laundry facility– closed up shop months ago. The parking lot was fenced off just within the past 10 days.

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

The buildings to the west and southwest include luxury condos, rental apartments, co-op apartments and government-subsidized rental accommodation

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace Condos tower

South view of the Pace Condos site from the opposite side of Dundas St. The brown brick building is 192 Jarvis, a 14-storey condominium built in 1985.

 

Pace Condos marketing billboard

A billboard advertises Pace Condos to passersby on Dundas and Jarvis Streets

 

192 Jarvis Street condo building

The 192 Jarvis condo rises above the fenced-off plaza on Dundas Street

 

Dundas-Jarvis site for proposed Pace condos tower

A view of the exterior of two of the plaza’s former commercial tenants

 

the site for the proposed Pace Condos tower

These now-vacant properties — ICITS computer training at 155 Dundas East, New Moon Bar at 157 Dundas East, and Palmers West Indian Restaurant at 159 Dundas East — are all part of the site for the proposed Pace Condos tower

 

Vacant properties next to the Pace Condo towers site

The Grand Hotel on Jarvis Street and the 192 Jarvis condominium building sit to the south and southeast of the site of the proposed Pace Condos tower

 

Vacant properties next to the Pace Condo towers site

If approved by City Hall, Pace Condos would stand three times taller than these two buildings; it would be the highest tower in the neighbourhood

Ho Lee Chow and Grand Hotel on Jarvis Street

The Ho-Lee-Chow takeout restaurant on the southeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis; the Grand Hotel is situated a few doors south at 225 Jarvis Street

 

Hilton Garden Inn on northeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis

The Hilton Garden Inn on the northeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis. Years ago, before it was converted into a hotel, this building housed offices of the federal unemployment insurance department

 

222 Jarvis across the street from proposed Pace Condos site

222 Jarvis sits across the street from the Pace Condos site, directly to the north. At one time the headquarters for Sears Canada, the building is being retrofitted and modernized as offices for the Ontario Public Service

 

Mutual Street Deli

Mutual Street Deli on the north side of Dundas St. across from Pace Condos

 

Regent Park revitalization creates massive construction zone on Dundas Street East

Regent Park Toronto

May 2 2010:  A view from the northwest of apartment and condo buildings constructed during Phase 1 of the multi-year Regent Park revitalization project

 

Regent Park revitalization

February 15 2011: Parliament-Dundas street view of apartment and condo buildings completed during Phase 1 of the Regent Park revitalization

 

Regent Park revitalization

February 15 2011: Revitalization project activity next to the Paintbox Condos and Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre construction site on Dundas Street East

 

Regent Park revitalization

A rendering of the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre and Paintbox condo tower currently under construction on Dundas Street East

 

Tearing down & building up: One of the biggest construction zones in the city is along Dundas Street, east of Parliament Street, where the 50-year-old Regent Park neighbourhood is undergoing a tremendous transformation from an outdated social housing project into a modern “mixed-income, mixed-use community.” Regent Park Revitalization is an ambitious project that will take between 10 and 15 years to complete in six separate construction phases.  Multiple city blocks of old low- and mid-rise public housing buildings are being systematically razed and replaced with new social housing units, rental apartments, townhouses and condominiums, as well as cultural and recreational centres, and retail shops and services. At the same time, the “long-isolated” Regent Park neighbourhood is being re-connected to the surrounding community with new through-way streets that replace the former warren of lanes that dead-ended in apartment parking lots.

Phases 1 and 2 involve a 30-acre area bounded by Gerrard Street at the north, Shuter Street at the south, Parliament Street at the west, and Sumach Street at the east. Phase 1 got underway in 2005 when tenants were relocated and demolition of several old apartment buildings began.  In 2006, construction commenced on three new rental buildings: the Dundas-Sackville apartments at 246 and 252 Sackville Street, designed by Toronto’s architectsAlliance, the midrise Oak-Parliament Apartments at One Oak Street, designed by Toronto’s Kearns Mancini Architects Inc., townhouses along Oak and Cole Streets, and the One Cole condominium complex — a 19-storey east tower with 201 suites, and a nine-storey west building with 92 units — designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects in association with Graziani & Corazza Architects Inc. Last year construction got underway on another new condo building, One Park West, at the northwest corner of Sackville and Oak Streets, as well as on 40 Oaks, an 87-unit affordable housing project of the Toronto Christian Resource Centre.

When I rode my bike around Regent Park last spring, the new apartment buildings were finished construction and fully occupied, people were moving into their brand-new One Cole condominiums, RBC had just opened its new bank branch in the One Cole complex on Dundas, and construction workers were busy building townhouses on Oak and Cole Streets. When I returned for a repeat visit just over two weeks ago, I was astounded by the scope of construction activity that was both recently completed, and in progress. The One Cole condo complex is fully sold out and completely occupied; dozens of the townhouses are occupied while even more are nearly finished construction; the One Park West boutique condo building is in the final stages of construction; the steel frame for 40 Oaks has been built; and the new Freshco supermarket, Rogers Communications retail outlet and Tim Hortons coffee shop are all open for business at the corner of Dundas and Parliament.

Meanwhile, Phase 2 construction activity is going gangbusters on both the north and south sides of Dundas Street. Several blocks of buildings are being demolished; large swaths of land are being excavated for more new apartment buildings and an aquatics centre; and the Paintbox Condominium highrise and the new Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre are both under construction. It’s an incredible amount of building activity happening all at once. A school crossing guard on Dundas Street told me she still can’t believe the pace of change; I could understand where she was coming from since I, too, felt stunned by the extent of construction since the last time I saw the area.  Below are photos I took that morning.

 

Regent Park revitalization

One of the Regent Park apartment buildings, dating to the 1950s, which will eventually be demolished and replaced with new housing

 

Regent Park revitalization

New apartments, townhouses and condos along Oak Street in Regent Park

 

Regent Park revitalization

New townhouses along Oak Street

 

Toronto Christian Resource Centre

Toronto Christian Resource Centre sign on Oak Street

 

Toronto Christian Resource Centre

West view of the Toronto Christian Resource Centre building construction

 

Toronto Christian Resource Centre

Southwest view of the Toronto Christian Resource Centre construction

 

Toronto Christian Resource Centre

Northwest view of the Toronto Christian Resource Centre construction

 

Toronto Christian Resource Centre

Oak Street view of the Toronto Christian Resource Centre construction

 

Regent Park townhouses

New townhouses along the south side of Oak Street

 

Regent Park apartments and townhouses

Apartments and townhouses on Oak Street east of Parliament Street

 

Regent Park townhouses

A block of townhouses along the north side of Cole Street

 

Regent Park townhouses

Townhouses at the corner of Cole and Regent Streets

 

Regent Park townhouses

Townhouses on the north side of Cole Street

 

Regent Park townhouses

Cole street townhouses and the One Park West boutique condo building

 

One Park West condo

The west side of the One Park West condo building under construction

 

One Park West condo building

Upper west floors of One Park West condo building

 

One Park West condo building

One Park West condo construction progress

 

One Park West condo building

One Park West condo building viewed from Sackville Street

 

One Park West condo building

Southeast view of One Park West condo building rom Sackville Street

 

One Park West condo building

Street-level view of One Park West condo from Sackville Street

 

One Park West condos

Balconies on the east side of One Park West condos

 

Sackville Street Regent Park

252 Sackville Street apartments and One Park West condos

 

Sumach Street construction Regent Park

Northwest view of construction along Sumach Street; an aquatics centre and a new neighbourhood park are supposed to be built at this location

 

Sumach Street construction site

Southwest view towards downtown Toronto’s Financial District towers from the construction zone along Sumach Street

 

Sumach Street construction site

Another view of the construction site along Sumach Street

 

Regent Park revitalization

An apartment building being demolished on Dundas Street near Sumach Street

 

Regent Park revitalization

West view of the apartment building being demolished

 

Regent Park revitalization

Two apartment buildings being demolished near Dundas & Sumach Streets

 

Regent Park revitalization

The top floor has already been removed from this building

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre and Paintbox Condos construction

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre billboard on Dundas Street

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre and Paintbox Condos construction

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre and Paintbox Condos construction

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Apartment blocks that will be demolished stand behind the construction site for the arts and cultural centre and Paintbox condo highrise

 

Paintbox Condominiums

Paintbox Condominiums billboard on Dundas Street

 

Paintbox Condominiums

The Paintbox Condominiums construction site on the south side of Dundas St.

 

Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre

Condos go up while the old apartment blocks come down

 

Regent Park revitalization

Old apartment building being demolished on the north side of Dundas Street

 

Regent Park revitalization

Old apartment building being demolished on the north side of Dundas Street

 

Regent Park revitalization

Excavation activity just west of the Paintbox Condos construction site

 

Regent Park revitalization

Excavation activity just west of the Paintbox Condos construction site

 

Regent Park revitalization

Demolition, construction and excavation activity along Dundas Street

 

Regent Park revitalization

Excavator working on the construction site adjacent to Paintbox Condos

 

Regent Park revitalization

Red and white construction cranes above the arts & culture centre site

 

Regent Park revitalization

Huge excavation site at the corner of Dundas East and Pashler Avenue

 

Regent Park revitalization

Regent Park Phase 1 development at Parliament and Dundas

 

Regent Park revitalization

New Freshco supermarket at Dundas and Parliament

 

Regent Park revitalization

New Freshco supermarket entrance