Toronto city council wants
two more Housing Now projects in Scarborough on sites that would contain a mix of affordable and market-rental housing.
Scarborough Centre Coun. Michael Thompson said one of those projects, close to the Scarborough Civic Centre, is a mistake.
Thompson and Glenn De Baeremaeker, a former councillor for the area, say Scarborough politicians have tried for 17 years to sell 158 Borough Dr. to a developer.
Those efforts to finally seal the deal shouldn’t be abandoned by the city now, both men said last week.
“I think there’s a reputational issue here,” Thompson argued.
The 1.48-acre Borough property is a two-level parking structure with about 350 spaces used by staff at the Civic Centre.
The complexities of a parking garage the city would share with the developer kept an agreement from being signed, but a deal was “95 per cent finished,” said De Baeremaeker, who added sale proceeds would have gone into a fund for improvements around the Civic Centre.
He believes a deal for 158 Borough would have included at least 100 affordable condominiums, a type of housing he said he supports.