It sounds like Ryerson plans on using the existing buildings, at least initially.
Ryerson ramps up plan to win Sam's site
Founder Sniderman backs expropriation bid to make his defunct store university's `front door'
Jul 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Daniel Girard
Education Reporter
Toronto Star
Ryerson University will today announce plans to ask Queen's Park to expropriate the Sam the Record Man building, a move fully supported by the company's founder.
"I want Ryerson to get the building," Sam Sniderman, 87, said yesterday when told of the university's play for 347 Yonge St., which he established as the flagship store in 1961. "It's a relationship we've had from the very beginning of time. We've grown simultaneously.
"Now, Sam's is no more. But it will go on eternally if Ryerson takes over the building and establishes it as their front door on Yonge St.," he said in an interview.
Both Sniderman and Ryerson president Sheldon Levy prefer a negotiated deal for the recently designated heritage building, which ceased operating as Sam's on Saturday.
However, it's no longer the founder 's to sell. Sniderman and his late brother and business partner, Sid, long ago put the property in trust for their children. Sam's sons, Bobby and Jason, and Sid's daughters, Lana and Arna, now control it.
Sniderman said as recently as last week he told representatives of all four he hopes they sell to Ryerson.
Bobby Sniderman said yesterday the family's focus has been on "closing the store in a dignified and honourable manner" rather than making decisions on a deal to sell the property.
But Ryerson informed him last week of its plan to seek expropriation in the absence of a deal, Sniderman said. Any discussions could have waited until after the store closed, he added.
"I would have expected something more respectful from the university," he said of the timing.
In a news release to be issued today, Levy said despite 18 months of discussions, no deal has been reached. So, he's told the family, "given the closing of the business and our need to move quickly to accommodate growing numbers of students," expropriation will be pursued. Ryerson is making the move now because, the news release said, it has just two-thirds the space needed for a university its size.
"We also reinforced that our preference continues to be to purchase the property from them," Levy said in the release, a copy of which was obtained by the Toronto Star.
(Sam's) will go on eternally if Ryerson takes over the building. Sam the Record Man Founder Sam Sniderman
A letter requesting expropriation is to be sent to Queen's Park in the next couple of weeks.
A government source confirmed there have been preliminary discussions with Ryerson about expropriation but no formal request has been made.
If and when that comes, it will be "considered thoroughly," added the source, noting a decision will take some time.
"It's certainly not just a matter of a few short weeks," the source said.
Under the Expropriations Act, a university can ask the province to take over land for it without the consent of the owner in order to achieve academic or community goals.
If that happens, the price is fixed at market value.
In March, a building at Yonge and Gerrard Sts., right next to Ryerson's campus, sold for $19 million.
Sources have said the price offered in negotiations is a little more than $20 million.
Sniderman paid $140,000 to buy the building at Yonge and Gould Sts. in 1961.
If successful in getting the building, Ryerson plans to expand library and study space west across an alley and into the upper floors of Sam's. It would look for partners to operate commercial space on the ground floor.
Toronto councillor Kyle Rae, whose ward includes Ryerson and the stretch of Yonge St. between Bloor and Queen Sts., has long backed the university's bid to redevelop the property while maintaining Sam's heritage and a commercial presence on the ground floor of the building.
"This is the redevelopment of Yonge St.," said Rae.
"What a message to send about its safety and about its diversity," he said. "South of the border, where universities have gone through this type of transition they have brought the neighbourhoods up with them.
"There is an impact beyond the campus. The university will be a catalyst for improving the downtown."
