Toronto SIX50 King West | ?m | 16s | Freed | Core Architects

9 September 2008 photo update

Rubble removed, the digging begins!

This rainy afternoon I captured:

DSC00058.jpg
 
There's a large banner on the abandoned building next to 455 Adelaide announcing its imminent demolition for Fashion House. Looks like Freed is quick on knocking buildings down, but slow on putting them up.

On a related note, 75 Portland is one slow moving building, too.
 
Hydrogen said:
Looks like Freed is quick on knocking buildings down, but slow on putting them up.
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Would property taxes decrease after the building on the property is demolished? If construction was not going to happen for a while and there's no revenue being generated within the building (i.e. short term office space leases), there would be no point keeping the building up and paying more in taxes. The building that was once Joker, among other clubs, was demo'd (and turned into a parking lot) quickly for the 310 Richmond/Gansevort Hotel project.
 
marcus_a_j said:
Would property taxes decrease after the building on the property is demolished? If construction was not going to happen for a while and there's no revenue being generated within the building (i.e. short term office space leases), there would be no point keeping the building up and paying more in taxes. The building that was once Joker, among other clubs, was demo'd (and turned into a parking lot) quickly for the 310 Richmond/Gansevort Hotel project.
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Without a building on a lot, the property loses some value, therefore making the taxes cheaper. This behaviour by property owners has been happening for a long while and appears to happen in cycles.
 
catcher_of_cats said:
Without a building on a lot, the property loses some value, therefore making the taxes cheaper. This behaviour by property owners has been happening for a long while and appears to happen in cycles.
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The surface parking lot is a bit of a different issue, though. A 10,000sf temporary surface lot in the DT core can generate net rent of about $20k/month. For the limited duration of the sales and approval process, many sites would be unable to achieve similar income from renting space in the building.
 
I could have sworn that the City was considering a plan a few years ago to tax surface parking according to its zoned density--ie, as though there were an x-story building on the site, in order to make it less economical. Seems rather sensible to me--especially in cases where owners demolish buildings just to sit on the lots. Wonder what happened to that idea.

The problem is that, except in very very dense cities, the economics of parking are just too good to pass up. In central Toronto, the market will easily bear fees of $30 or higher per car, and your expenses consist of a hut, space heater, radio, and one employee at a time making minimum wage.

I believe Montreal has an active anti-parking-lot campaign going on in the city government of some sort, but I don't know what the mechanisms are.

In any case, nobody is going to park at 650--that looks like a halted excavation, not a lot in the making.
 
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Hydrogen said:
There's a large banner on the abandoned building next to 455 Adelaide announcing its imminent demolition for Fashion House. Looks like Freed is quick on knocking buildings down, but slow on putting them up.

On a related note, 75 Portland is one slow moving building, too.
Click to expand...

Freed has 4 projects in construction, 550 Wellington, 75 Portland, 500 Wellington and 650 King. The only reason that I see to explain why 650 King, and 75 Portland are so slow it is that Freed is working very hard on the schedule for 550 Wellington and it is his priority, he has a contract with Thompson Hotels to complete the Hotel in August. Also, the weather is not helping too much in these days.
 
well in the mean time, we can continue looking at the rendering to see what the future holds for this site ~

six50ov1.jpg
 
carturo15 said:
Freed has 4 projects in construction, 550 Wellington, 75 Portland, 500 Wellington and 650 King. The only reason that I see to explain why 650 King, and 75 Portland are so slow it is that Freed is working very hard on the schedule for 550 Wellington and it is his priority, he has a contract with Thompson Hotels to complete the Hotel in August. Also, the weather is not helping too much in these days.
Click to expand...

Yep, this no doubt is a crappy winter for construction. I'd also imagine that there is considerable pressure to meet the Thompson Hotel launch deadline - even more so with the present economic situation.
 
Yea Freed is definitely pushing to have the Thompson Hotel finished for the Toronto Film Festival. I bought into this project, and I believe the latest move-in date is set for mid-August. However, I have a sense I won't be moving in until November or so...
 
I wouldn't count on this year unless you plan on living in the hotel. The residential side is falling far behind the hotel. Just an observation.
 
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