There was a posting a few months ago in another thread (I think the Lower Yonge Precinct discussions) about this hotel and at that time it appeared that the idea was to demolish and probably rebuild the conference centre part of it. I actually cut and pasted the following to a colleague.
"I was working at the Westin Harbour Castle yesterday and the manager that I was dealing with was very candid about the situation that they find themselves in where the hotel has its back turned on to a world class street, that their door step is built for cars on a now pedestrian focused realm.
Its presence on Queens Quay is in fact actively hostile to pedestrians with a maze of driveways full of cars and no sidewalks. The only pedestrian entrance is through a narrow hallway up several stairs and hidden away from view.
He said that they're currently in the process of redoing all their rooms and hallways and that once finished, they will shift their focus to the outside.
One way to improve is to bring their entrance closer to Queens Quay behind a simple Porte Cochère with escalators inside leading to the existing lobby.
One very interesting thing that he said is that "it will really affect us to lose the convention centre". I didn't know that this had been confirmed. Their property to the north will be redeveloped.
This is an excellent opportunity for a land swap and/or density transfer. Building a shiny new hotel tower on their convention centre land could open up the possibility of demolishing the old hotel and replacing it with a low rise building more suitable to the waterfront with an extension of Jack Layton ferry terminal park in the symbolically significant location at the foot of Yonge Street. Perhaps the city could grant them increased density at their north location in exchange for the park land with low rise commercial uses such as restaurants in the existing hotel land.
I don't expect that this will happen soon as they're refurbishing the hotel now but once the new Ferry Terminal is being built, when the foot of Yonge Street plans are being discussed and plans for the convention centre space come into focus, I hope that Waterfront Toronto is there to usher in an overall master plan that will serve everyone better. This is a huge opportunity and I hope we don't miss it.
