Toronto King East Centre | 140m | 39s | First Gulf | WZMH

2. The Greyhound Bus Depot serves an important purpose, but it has been there for a long time and the neighbourhood has clearly evolved around it. I see no reason why Greyhound couldn't sell this land (probably for a pretty penny) and move the depot to another area that remains more industrial. Even if the drivers had to drive another 5 or 10 minutes to get to it, they'd probably save time in the long run if the area was less populated with traffic and they could quickly turn in and out of the lot (often now they have difficulty making left turns onto Sherbourne and block the sidewalks for long periods).

Greyhound has always wanted to move its freight facility to be co-located with the passenger terminal. If and when a new one is built near Union Station, their Front Street East site will likely be sold.
 
Perhaps, in keeping of Greyhound's tradition of abandoning its downtown agencies for suburban terminals, maybe Greyhound is looking at Honeydale Mall instead of Union Station.
 
Noticed Murray Demolition has fenced off part of the parking lot along Front. And a garage door into the old printing plant has been boarded up. Are they tearing down the old printing plant or just doing internal demo? Anybody know?
 
2. The Greyhound Bus Depot serves an important purpose, but it has been there for a long time and the neighbourhood has clearly evolved around it. I see no reason why Greyhound couldn't sell this land (probably for a pretty penny) and move the depot to another area that remains more industrial. Even if the drivers had to drive another 5 or 10 minutes to get to it, they'd probably save time in the long run if the area was less populated with traffic and they could quickly turn in and out of the lot (often now they have difficulty making left turns onto Sherbourne and block the sidewalks for long periods).

The site actually does not belong to Greyhound, until last summer they rented it from the TTC - who owned it because their stables (yes, horse stables) used to be on the south side of Front just opposite. Last summer the TTC transferred the site to Build Toronto as part of the City's move to sell off surplus property and Greyhound are now on month-to-month leases. The intention is that BT will sell the site - no doubt more condos are in the works!
 
This info on the SUN BUILDING was posted, not by me, on the East Lofts thread. I copy it here though Mods may want to move the whole post plus additional comments.

Quote:
Originally Posted by robertotoronto
I heard that the Toronto Sun building located east of East Lofts was for sale. Does anyone know if it sold and if so to whom?

Apparently it is sold and its FirstGulf, if these sources are correct.

http://torontosunfamily.blogspot.com/

Re the sale of 333: The Toronto Star has quoted sources saying the new owner of the 34-year-old newspaper building "is likely Toronto developer First Gulf, a division of the company that recently purchased the 1 Bloor condominium site in Toronto."

With the sale of 333 and the Sun becoming a tenant in the building it built in 1975, what becomes of the Andy Donato mural on the wall of Red's cafeteria and John and Alexandra Hood's 180-foot-wide commissioned outdoor mural unveiled in 1993?

Then read this:

http://torontosunfamily.blogspot.com...e-changes.html


Tuesday, November 17, 2009
333 sale changes

The sale price and identity of the new owners of the Toronto Sun building have not been released, but employees learned yesterday how "massive changes" will affect their working lives.

Rob Granatstein, editorial page editor, sent a mass e-mail to editorial employees updating last week's announcement by publisher Mike Power that 333 King Street East has been sold.

In a nutshell, the newsroom will be moved to tighter quarters on the second floor, where it will share space with executive, accounting and advertising; Red's cafeteria, named for Doug Creighton, will be closed; free parking for employees will be drastically reduced.

Rob's e-mail reads:

"Staff,

It’s come to my attention that many people aren’t aware of the announcement made last week by Sun Publisher Mike Power that our building has been sold.

Here’s the grossly abbreviated summary.

* The Sun has sold the building.

* The buyer’s name has not been released yet as there are still conditions attached to the sale of the deal.

* The Toronto Sun is not moving. We’ve signed a 10-year lease to stay in the building.

* There will be massive changes now that we’re becoming a tenant.

* First, all Sun operations – executive, accounting, advertising - will join us on the second floor.

* The newsroom will be moving. The exact location isn’t clear, but we expect to move to the north side of the building.

* The newsroom will be the first to move. A new digital newsroom, likely costing well into the millions of dollars, will be built for us, including new furniture. Say goodbye to the ’80s-era desk you have now.

* The physical space of the newsroom will be far smaller than the footprint we have in the building now.

* The newsroom’s move will be done by the end of March, according to the schedule we have now.

* As a tenant we won’t have the same access to parking. We will have some spots, but not all the spots.

* The cafeteria will be closed.

* The presses will be removed.

* The library is staying where it is.

* Retail shops will likely move into the main floor on King St.

* Commercial offices will move into the building, too.

* Expect the building to become a huge construction site as the new owners change 333 King from a one tenant newspaper building into a building for many other uses.

* A sale price for the building has not been released.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me, James Wallace, or ask Mike Power directly. He stated he can’t answer all the questions will (sic) the sale of the building is not yet final, but will answer what he can.

Rob."

We never thought the day would come when the Toronto Sun would be a tenant at 333, downsized from six full floors to one floor, with no presses, no cafeteria and minimal parking.

Employees who lose their cherished free parking spots inside and around 333 will be looking at costly daily parking fees if they decide to continue driving to work. What is the going daily rate for downtown T.O. parking these days?

Outside meals will also add to the cost of working for the Sun.

Will the added costs be a union issue when the next contract rolls around?

As a tenant, the Toronto Sun has a 10-year lease, which is mighty optimistic considering 10 years of Quebecor ownership has reduced the once thriving tabloid to a storefront operation.

Most disheartening is the sale of 333 is not out of necessity due to tough economic times. This is minimalist, cash cow greed on the backs of employees.

PKP might be a hero to shareholders, but he has never looked so small in the eyes of his employees.

Toronto Sun employees will no doubt carry on doing the best they can with what they have left because they are pros.
 
There is an ad for the site in the Globe business section/property report today - it's zoned RA (regeneration area), I think they stated a potential for 3M sq. ft of floorspace.

AoD

It's an absolutely massive lot for downtown. Looking at this photo, it's approximately 3 times the size of St. Lawrence Market. You could build multiple condos in that space.

BTW...my favourite Sun headline was the day after Anna Nicole Smith passed away: FEMME FATALITY.
 

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They have now applied for a Zoning Review:

Application: Zoning Review Status: Not Started

Location: 333 KING ST E
TORONTO ON M5A 3X5

Ward 28: Toronto Centre-Rosedale

Application#: 10 110364 ZPR 00 ZR Accepted Date: Jan 27, 2010

Project: Non-Residential Building Addition

Description: PUBLIC - PRELIMINARY PROJECT REVIEW, Due Date is 25-FEB-10, >>Interior alterations to portion of ground floor and additon to ground floor for retail purposes.
 
There is a tremendous amount of new retail/commercial space being added to the surrounding square blocks:

-Toronto Sun (333 King Street East)
-Rezen retail 1st floor space
-East Lofts 1st floor space
-East Lofts 2nd floor office
-Vu Condo 1st floor space
-N/W corner Richmond and Sherbourne
-S/E corner Richmond and Sherbourne
-TCHC/ 288 King st e ground floor

In addition many of the smaller retail spaces (which can arguably be considered prime space) have vacancies/no tenants (i.e. building across from George brown, retail in Mozo, King George Square, St James condo to name a few).
 
The site actually does not belong to Greyhound, until last summer they rented it from the TTC - who owned it because their stables (yes, horse stables) used to be on the south side of Front just opposite. Last summer the TTC transferred the site to Build Toronto as part of the City's move to sell off surplus property and Greyhound are now on month-to-month leases. The intention is that BT will sell the site - no doubt more condos are in the works!

Saw a crew drilling core samples on site this morning. Something is coming sooner than we think.
 
didnt you guys read post # 20 by DSC ??? according to his information the building is staying and The Sun is simply condensing their space within the building.
 
didnt you guys read post # 20 by DSC ??? according to his information the building is staying and The Sun is simply condensing their space within the building.

I think this comment is related to the Greyhound Bus Depot nearby, not the Sun Building. I'm not sure how the Greyhound topic got pulled into this thread, but it did, and it's a bit confusing!
 

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