hawc
Senior Member
Haha, fat people are stupid.
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Captain John's Restaurant (1975-2012)
- Thread starter androiduk
- Start date
Haha, fat people are stupid.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Once Captain John's Jadram is gone, what do we do with the slip? I'd prefer it that it becomes a spot for visiting ships, such as RCN visits, Empire Sandy, large private yachts, etc.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
A distinctive - if not iconic wavedeck, serious plaza making the foot of Yonge but definitely leave enough space for visiting ships.
AoD
AoD
MetroMan
Senior Member
WATERFRONToronto and Fernbrook/Cityzen executed a land swap to widen the publicly owned strip leading down Yonge St. It is now wide enough to create a wide promenade uninterrupted from Queens Quay to the lake. WT originally envisioned a flagship wavedeck in the quay but it is now being reimagined to feature a boardwalk that will rival Harbourfront and may jut out into the lake as a pier.
An iconic structure would crown the terminus for Yonge St. Not yet designed, it's intended to be viewed from far up the street. You'll be able to look down Yonge St. from Dundas Square for example and see a gleaming icon at the lake.
hawc
Senior Member
A flagship wave deck? Am I the only one that finds this funny given how underwhelming the whole multi-million dollar wavedeck fiasco has been? WT has done some nice stuff of late, but the wavedeck ain't one of them.
So we're going to replace a gaudy boat with a gaudy pier?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
hawc:
Where did you get that from? By all accounts, the only remotely fiasco-like issue associated with the decks are a) some killjoy suing WT for slipping and b) a car went into the lake through it. As to the underwhelming bit - well, it certainly won more awards than I don't know, that pedestrian bridge thingy at Cityplace?
AoD
Where did you get that from? By all accounts, the only remotely fiasco-like issue associated with the decks are a) some killjoy suing WT for slipping and b) a car went into the lake through it. As to the underwhelming bit - well, it certainly won more awards than I don't know, that pedestrian bridge thingy at Cityplace?
AoD
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Jonny5
Senior Member
"Flagship" is the new "Artisan": applied to anything and everything. I don't see how it has been a "fiasco" though. Whenever I am down on QQ I see people walking up and down and enjoying them.
Lenser
Senior Member
The wave deck rules. Don't see anything wrong with it - certainly nothing that smacks of failure.
MetroMan
Senior Member
The wavedecks have been incredibly successful. They singlehandedly remade the waterfront. No, that's not hyperbole. Simply by expanding the quays several meters into the water, they've created spaces at regular intervals along the waterfront where people can congregate and be seen congregating. That last part is important because a waterfront that looks busy attracts yet more people, yet more events and yet more development.
People have short memories. Before the wavedecks, Queens Quay was not inviting to people. Toronto's waterfront was Harbourfront. That's it. You'd see a few people walking through the Music Garden who probably already lived in the area or had a boat at the marina, but most waterfront goers rarely ventured beyond Harbourfront Centre.
Today, you can't go to Queens Quay on a sunny day and not find the wavedecks teaming with people and the entire stretch from Portland to Yonge St. with a beeline of pedestrians walking along.
Creating destinations like hTO Park and Sugar beach while building a pleasant walk with places to stop -- the wavedecks -- between them was an essential first few steps. The rest will now come together by the demand of the increasing number of Torontonians experiencing the waterfront because of those first pioneering spaces.
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Red October
Senior Member
The wavedeck is awesome. It's amazing what such a small addition can do to make a harbourfront much more attractive.
hawc
Senior Member
So what's the latest on this eye sore? Any new news?
gregv
Active Member
http://torontoist.com/2012/11/for-sale-captain-johns-harbourfront-restaurant/
http://www.savecaptainjohn.org/
Captain John’s Harbourfront Restaurant, For Sale
By Chris Riddell
How will the captain repay his outstanding debts?
By Chris Riddell
For 42 years, Captain John’s has occupied some prime real estate: 1 Queen’s Quay, right near the foot of Yonge Street. Now, the City, Waterfront Toronto, and the Toronto Port Authority want him out.
John Letnik, the 74-year-old owner of the ship, seeks retirement from the floating restaurant biz, but a hefty $550,000 in unpaid property taxes, as well as some back rent allegedly owed to Waterfront Toronto and the Toronto Port Authority, keeps him landlocked. In order to climb out of this financial black hole, he’s been seeking donations with the newly launched website www.savecaptainjohn.org.
“It’s started and we’re getting donations,” said Jim Serba, the website’s administrator. “It’s not quite as successful as we’d like right now, but we’re going to continue to publicize it.”
The captain has been seeking a buyer since 2009. He initially listed the ship on Craigslist for a cool $1.25 million and, not surprisingly, nobody bought it. More recently, he enlisted the assistance of Canadian Business Sellers, a Toronto-based firm that advertises all over the world to find buyers for their clients. Even they have had difficulty selling the ship.
Waterfront Toronto, which is involved in redeveloping the entire lakefront around Captain John’s, leases Letnik the land on which his boat’s ramp rests. The agency wants Letnik’s hulk gone one way or another, meaning whoever buys it will also have to bear the cost of towing it out. The property is on a month-to-month lease, making for a particularly tough sell. And it doesn’t help that there are significant renovations and updates required, both inside and out.
Letnik says he did have one buyer, but things didn’t pan out. “If they don’t have a lease, or some sort of agreement, no one will put 10 cents inside. That’s where I am right now,” he said.
Tim Armstrong, owner of Canadian Business Sellers, says the buyer—someone from Italy—was willing to pony up $7 million, but was disappointed that the ship can’t stay where it is. If a 10-year lease were available, she would have bought it.
“We had another guy at the boat [last Friday]. He understands that it has to move, but he’s going to offer something really low, so we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Armstrong.
He says there are a multitude of potential uses for the boat, and that there are people who might be interested. A movable restaurant like Captain John’s is a rare find. Letnick even managed to live on the boat for many years in a cabin on its upper level.
The captain remains determined to pass the Jadran (that’s the ship’s name) into the hands of another restaurateur, even while the City, Waterfront Toronto, and the Port Authority continue to muscle him out.
“I’m not finished yet. I’m going to fight them until the end, and I’m not leaving the boat,” he said.
The Port Authority has barred the ship from leaving port until the outstanding debts are paid.
drum118
Superstar
Really!!!!!! Have you seen the kids use the Simcoe Deck as a slide and play area?????
If they built a wave deck along the lines of Simcoe, it will be a huge improvement for the area as well attracting people to it.
Some nice water fountain needs to be added to the water edge.
Having a place for kids to play would help also.
RC8
Senior Member
To be honest it's terribly unfair to be taxing him as if he owned that piece of land. Obviously the City should have been levying some rent and tax dollars from his restaurant, but the figures quoted are ridiculous.
We should just forgive his debt, let him sell his ship on the cheap to retire with that money, and move on.
It's not like he was making insane amounts of money (or much money at all) while he was operating his restaurant.
We should just forgive his debt, let him sell his ship on the cheap to retire with that money, and move on.
It's not like he was making insane amounts of money (or much money at all) while he was operating his restaurant.