Shangri-La (Westbank, 66s, James Cheng/Hariri Pontarini)

[planlaw]

on p. 2 of the omb decision, the developers lawyer says that if the decision is not issued by November 30th, the developer is at risk to lose project funding

http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/e-decisions...ov-12-2008.pdf

[taal]

Looks like they've resolved the issue:

http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/ecs/CaseDetail.aspx?n=PL081213

The meeting that was to take place tomorrow was "adjourned" ... that or they are close to reaching some agreement and the meeting was delayed (if it will be needed to put more pressure on to meet the Nov 30 date).

[Edward Skira]

Are they still digging away?

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

Do you know, Ed, that for the past week and a half I've actually had to GO and LOOK AT PROJECTS MYSELF to answer questions like that?

(Thanks for bringing UT back. Now I can get back to not moving, ever.)

[Edward Skira]

Sorry about getting you off your couch. You should be OK from now on.

As for Shangri-La is anything happening on site?

[urbandreamer]

I drove by the site Saturday and noticed an eerie silence. It did look as if there's no equipment on site.

Surely someone here works nearby and can take a peek? If not, I'll try to get a photo this week.

[gabe]

Sorry about getting you off your couch. You should be OK from now on.

As for Shangri-La is anything happening on site?

I took this shot on Saturday. There was a few workers on site digging in the hole.

[Soho]

Walked by on Saturday and as usual the small crew was onsite jack-hammering what looks like slate to reach the final depth. The site usually has a Saturday crew breaking up rock about 50 meters down in preparation for a week of removing the broken rock. Think this is 8 levels of underground parking so it's a deep hole. Steady progress.

[3Dementia]

Someone's either building a 5-star hotel at this location, or the most extraordinary city swimming pool in urban history. Tower diving, scuba training.. the works! Given our relatively short summers, it makes more sense that a tower will rise from this hole and I'm putting my chips on "5-star hotel" for this location.

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

I'm rooting for an (En)Wave Pool

[grey]

I walked past the site on my way to work this morning and there was definitely work going on despite the snow.

[Edward Skira]

I'm rooting for an (En)Wave Pool

Speaking of EnWave I saw core samples being drilled in that small parking lot next to their location south of Shangri-La. Its fenced off in that photo above. Anybody know what they're up to?

[grey]

Speaking of EnWave I saw core samples being drilled in that small parking lot next to their location south of Shangri-La. Its fenced off in that photo above. Anybody know what they're up to?

I think that's been going on for over a year now. I assumed it was part of the deep water cooling thing. There was also some work going on right at the corner of the intersection outside the Enwave building recently.

[taal]

I walked by the site today and watched for a little while;

They are digging but with very little equipment - 2 large trackers and one other piece of equipment. I'm not sure if that's normal for this phase of the evacation though.

One interesting point:

If you've seen the ramp down the pit in person you'll notice it's exteremly steep. I've often wonders how normal trucks (i.e. something without tracks on it) can make it down there, particularly when it's snowing!

I got my answer today. Getting down is the easy part it's getting up that's more difficult A truck went down for a little while (A pickup truck) and then attempted to get up the ramp. It couldn't make it - kept on skidding. Finally someone from the site went down and drove one of the little tractor and pushed the truck up the hill!! I kid you not It was quite the site to behold.

Anyway, I wish someone could find out more about this project and the recent OMB issue - it seems to me that they are digging but only with a little bit of equipment.

[androiduk]

The only thing I can add that may or may not be relevant, is that the pension fund that is financing this project (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) is in serious trouble, more so than the Canadian banks and they are trying to increase their liquidity. There have been a number of articles in the Financial Post about some unusual moves they've been making (they just sold $10 billion worth of equities at the bottom of the market) and the top dog took a leave of absence a short while ago. Apparently, pension funds only have to report their finances once a year, so it won't be until the end of this year before people find out how much trouble they're in.