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Conrad Black

Conrad Black

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Canada Lands Corporation is putting the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the market. Want to sell the entire complex including hotel.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...S/Atom&utm_source=Toronto&utm_content=1970312

A large piece of prime real estate is for sale in downtown Toronto.

A federal holding company has put the entire Metro Toronto Convention Centre complex – including the meeting halls, a theatre, a hotel, an office tower and a parking garage – onto the market.

The complex covers an entire block on Front Street West. The site is near the CN Tower and the Gardiner Expressway. It is also a few blocks west of Union Station, the country's busiest rail hub, and the city's financial district.

The 1.95 million-square-foot facility sits on a 7.41 acre site. It is owned by Canada Lands Corporation, a federal crown corporation.
 
Conrad Black said:
Canada Lands Corporation is putting the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the market. Want to sell the entire complex including hotel.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...S/Atom&utm_source=Toronto&utm_content=1970312

A large piece of prime real estate is for sale in downtown Toronto.

A federal holding company has put the entire Metro Toronto Convention Centre complex – including the meeting halls, a theatre, a hotel, an office tower and a parking garage – onto the market.

The complex covers an entire block on Front Street West. The site is near the CN Tower and the Gardiner Expressway. It is also a few blocks west of Union Station, the country's busiest rail hub, and the city's financial district.

The 1.95 million-square-foot facility sits on a 7.41 acre site. It is owned by Canada Lands Corporation, a federal crown corporation.
Click to expand...

7.41 acres? Wow! We could put 7 to 15 monster houses on that site!
 
Now if whoever's gonna buy it isn't just going to sit on it.....Hmmmmm.....boy. If there was one piece of central downtown real estate that could use a massive rebuild, revitalization and rethinking, this one would be the one.

Ground level retail, colour, detail and texture, would be great - and there's plenty of room out back over the tracks to expand....if they did, the whole profile of the center could be changed. A wonderful new entrance to the CN Tower over the tracks would be a natural. The Simcoe Street side could be reworked, along with the West Side. A green roof could not only be an elevated park, but fold down into the CN Tower Base.
The new space could still be lofty - and even accomodate new and improved towers atop it.

There's a real chance here to do something great that would be of real benefit to this stretch.
Calling Zaha Hadid, Calatrava, MVRDV, Snohetta, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Will Alsop, LMN! Heeee!

*cough* Then again, whoever buys it might just want to sit on it.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Wishful thinking..but nothing this close to the CN Tower is going taller than the Skypod at 346 metres (1,135 ft ). I could see a couple future 200-220 meter buildings for the parking lot site.
Click to expand...

Shanghai has no problems building supertalls right next to each other. The Shanghai World Financial Centre is 492m tall with the world's highest observation deck. Right across the street construction is ongoing for the Shanghai Tower at 632m. Across the street from both towers is the Jin Mao Building, the previous tallest skyscraper in the city at 421m.

All three buildings either contain or will contain observation decks. I guess the lesson here is you can build however tall you want as long as your building has an observation deck on top.
 
But we *are* talking about Asian boomburgs there.

Anyway, not that the MTCC's lovely, but I think it's settled into a state not unlike Skydome, i.e. however unlovely it is, the city's "adapted to it" to the point where blowing it up American-style would seem a little over the mark...
 
Completely redesign the Front Street frontage, with retail and restaurants. Line the street with patios out front. Convert the entire roof to a green roof/elevated park; CanadianNational's ribbon park to the CN Tower sounds pretty interesting. Next build a pair of twisting towers to the south, thereby increasing the density substantially and giving the south end a brand new entrance gateway. I'd say go for the 200 metre range with the two. With such a massive site the possibilities seem almost endless.
 
egotrippin said:
Completely redesign the Front Street frontage, with retail and restaurants. Line the street with patios out front. Convert the entire roof to a green roof/elevated park; CanadianNational's ribbon park to the CN Tower sounds pretty interesting. Next build a pair of twisting towers to the south, thereby increasing the density substantially and giving the south end a brand new entrance gateway. I'd say go for the 200 metre range with the two. With such a massive site the possibilities seem almost endless.
Click to expand...


The south building isn't being sold, only the north part.
 
Forget supertalls - get Calatrava to design the expansion incorporating the site the space above the railway tracks - the current arrangement of the N/S buildings is atrocious.

AoD
 
The building's a bit ugly but it has a ton of value for downtown Toronto. I belive it gets more visitors per year than the CN tower. It would be a shame to lose it, but it would be great to spruce up Front Street and improve the N-S connection.
 
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