For those that scroll through photos and text – I’ve got video!
I went back to Yonge Street for a second look, and I think this condo development could be a new landmark…
The building is already a landmark, but for all the wrong reasons.
Being known as “the bird poop building” isn’t a positive, nor is the fact that it’s been vacant for twenty-five years.
Yonge Street itself is already a Toronto landmark, as is the Eaton Centre, the Elgin Winter Garden Theatre, and a slew of other buildings and locations along this strip. I guess “Yonge & Dundas Square” is a Toronto landmark, but I remember when that was the site of a giant jeans shop in the 90’s! Remember – they had “GOING OUT BUSINESS” written on the exterior of the building in letters as big as windows, and the word “for” hidden in between “out” and “business.” I never bought anything from there, but I digress…
I think that Massey Tower could be a Toronto landmark, and as I’ve said before with respect to developments that I’m luke-warm about, “Anything is better than what stands there now.” If the best way to draw attention to these two beautiful heritage buildings is to build a giant condo over top of them, then let’s do it.
Not only that, I like the artist’s rendering (thanks to Buk for providing this) which even incorporated the HomeSense next door into the drawing! I suppose this glorified-Winners is a landmark in itself!
Other than the traffic congestion resulting from ongoing construction, I don’t see any drawbacks to this development.
Of course, I have no idea what price they’ll be looking to charge, but I can only imagine it will be in excess of $600/sqft, without parking, and I think I’ve made my opinions on pre-construction abundantly clear.
So while I won’t be buying at this development, or selling it to my clients, I still think it’s a great idea. It adds to the allure of Yonge Street, and helps restore two heritage buildings.
Now if they could only start construction on that damn St. Lawrence Market on the north side of Front Street already!
earlybird
at 7:21 am
I agree… I would have loved to see ‘bird poop buildings’ get developed into a library or something. Something like the Boston city library… Awesome landmark!
Phil
at 12:01 pm
There are so many empty lots, some fairly large, east of Yonge st in the downtown core that wait to be developed into something useful. Walking from Eaton Centre to St Lawrence Market is like walking through a network of parking lots of different sizes — I would say anything is better than a parking lot in the middle of downtown as well.
George
at 2:31 pm
The only good thing about those lots is that you can cut through them to shorten the diagonal walk. But yes, I agree that is a particularly undeveloped area. It has a weird feel to it…so completely different from the bank towers that are 2 minutes away.
Chuck
at 4:48 pm
I heard the old jeans store was a hotbed of drug selling back in the day.
Used to go record shopping up and down Yonge all through the teenage years. Good times.
BillyO
at 8:51 am
Prices are at closer to $700 PSF (not including parking or locker) and most of the floor plans are atrocious (I believe the largest unit is a 2 bed low 800s sq ft)
Naturally, the project has been selling well at the early VVVVVVVVVVIP stages already.
dmcgovern
at 3:14 pm
You might be interested to see what’s INSIDE – Dave LeBlanc got in two years ago….
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/see-the-beauty-under-the-decay-of-an-old-toronto-bank/article536675/?from=536013
waqasalirealtor
at 2:37 pm
“the bird poop building” building joint tower will not change the fact.