Toronto ToyBx Industrial Condominium | ?m | 4s | ToyBx

artyboy123

artyboy123

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A car condo is being proposed! Located at 20 Towns Rd, Toronto at Kipling and Horner Ave at the intersection of the Gardiner and Hwy 427. It will have 234 private car units.

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WOW😀 a car condo in Toronto, every car enthusiasts dream , I wonder how much per unit, i would consider buying one , cheaper then trying to buy a house with double car garage in GTA
 
slickpete83 said:
WOW😀 a car condo in Toronto, every car enthusiasts dream , I wonder how much per unit, i would consider buying one , cheaper then trying to buy a house with double car garage in GTA
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I would not even want to know what the monthly maintenance fee would be... hopefully the car condo are sold to car enthusiasts so definitely is not cheap.
 
Now this is what I call a fantastic waste of space!

Would've been better off as self-storage, instead of having our arterial road space being wasted on those same storage developments.
 
^not a waste of space, there would be a real market for this, if you want a parking spot downtown its like +$80K and shared with everyone, you can't work on your own car without condo board flipping out, and you can't store your other car stuff, tools, Jack stands, tires etc..., this city sucks for car enthusiasts, we need a break
 
Those weird angular structures on the side is what intrigues me. It almost appears to be an elaborate mechanical gateway to some mobile suit Gundam unit...I'm pretty sure it's something more prosaic though.
 
slickpete83 said:
^not a waste of space, there would be a real market for this, if you want a parking spot downtown its like +$80K and shared with everyone, you can't work on your own car without condo board flipping out, and you can't store your other car stuff, tools, Jack stands, tires etc..., this city sucks for car enthusiasts, we need a break
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I dont doubt there would be a market for this, but at the same time this is the exact opposite stuff of what we should be encouraging in this city. We dont need areas for people to be storing 3-4 different car models that they own just because they dont have space for it.

Sorry to say but if there are people around who want to store 3-4 cars and cant do it, or work on their souped up cars thats something that should be at the very bottom of the list of issues the city should be rectifying. Especially when we have a lack of builds for various other industrial use buildings.
 
Amare said:
I dont doubt there would be a market for this, but at the same time this is the exact opposite stuff of what we should be encouraging in this city. We dont need areas for people to be storing 3-4 different car models that they own just because they dont have space for it.

Sorry to say but if there are people around who want to store 3-4 cars and cant do it, or work on their souped up cars thats something that should be at the very bottom of the list of issues the city should be rectifying. Especially when we have a lack of builds for various other industrial use buildings.
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What does this have to do with what "the city" should or shouldn't be doing? This is in a grimy old industrial area where some entrepreneur wants to fix up a grimy old existing industrial building for another purpose. It's not The City's place to tell an entrepreneur that they can't retrofit an industrial building to store fancy cars. I might not put the same value into cars as some, but to each their own… (although there'll likely be higher policing bills for the area afterwards; this'll indirectly foster more street-racing…)

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interchange42 said:
What does this have to do with what "the city" should or shouldn't be doing? This is in a grimy old industrial area where some entrepreneur wants to fix up a grimy old existing industrial building for another purpose. It's not The City's place to tell an entrepreneur that they can't retrofit an industrial building to store fancy cars. I might not put the same value into cars as some, but to each their own… (although there'll likely be higher policing bills for the area afterwards; this'll indirectly foster more street-racing…)

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I would argue that @Amare has a point.

The City does have a role to play in protecting 'employment lands'.

The City, (along with the Province) is the arbiter of what fits into that category.

Likewise, there is a need (as demonstrated by ultra-low vacancy rates) to protect for industrial uses.

I can't say this idea would be either 'industrial' or 'employment' as I would define them.

Is there a point in protected for needed uses, if we permit low-priority, arguably non-qualifying uses such as this..........which might more aptly be described as 'parking'?

Sure, we've let this slip before for everything from 'big box retail' to religious institutions.

But we ought not to have done so, in my opinion. No time like the present to stop repeating mistakes.
 
interchange42 said:
What does this have to do with what "the city" should or shouldn't be doing? This is in a grimy old industrial area where some entrepreneur wants to fix up a grimy old existing industrial building for another purpose. It's not The City's place to tell an entrepreneur that they can't retrofit an industrial building to store fancy cars. I might not put the same value into cars as some, but to each their own… (although there'll likely be higher policing bills for the area afterwards; this'll indirectly foster more street-racing…)

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Northern Light pretty much sums up exactly what my thoughts are when it comes to this.

At the end of the day, if i'm not mistaken, wouldnt the city have a say in rubber stamping the conversion of the use of this building?
 
Amare said:
Northern Light pretty much sums up exactly what my thoughts are when it comes to this.

At the end of the day, if i'm not mistaken, wouldnt the city have a say in rubber stamping the conversion of the use of this building?
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If we allow self storage buildings in industrial areas, which we do, then what place do we have telling people which objects—that they legally own—they can store or not. If the building is properly equipped to handle cars, then it should be allowed to be built. My politics are generally to the left, but they stop before I impose my choices on others. If you don't want buildings built to store certain cars, then push to make those vehicles illegal to own, or too expensive to own through higher taxation on them (which would better reflect their true cost to society, and that would be my choice of a way to go), but failing that, who are you to deny someone else a place to safely store their expensive, legally owned objects?

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interchange42 said:
If we allow self storage buildings in industrial areas, which we do, then what place do we have telling people which objects—that they legally own—they can store or not. If the building is properly equipped to handle cars, then it should be allowed to be built. My politics are generally to the left, but they stop before I impose my choices on others. If you don't want buildings built to store certain cars, then push to make those vehicles illegal to own, or too expensive to own through higher taxation on them (which would better reflect their true cost to society, and that would be my choice of a way to go), but failing that, who are you to deny someone else a place to safely store their expensive, legally owned objects?

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?

Do we not agree that the storage of cars already has a separate classification at law? (Parking).

If a commercial parking lot would be permitted here, so be it, I suppose; though not a wise use of a scarce resource (industrial/employment land) , to my way of thinking.
But I don't think vehicle storage is the same as 'self storage' in any reasonable way.

***

However, I would gladly accept the argument that self-storage is a poor use of 'employment' land or 'industrial' land.

So in the name of even-handed treatment, lets prohibit self-storage facilities from such lands. Self-storage can be built in MCR-zoned areas if accessorized by retail at-grade and residential or other commercial uses, preferably underground, in lieu of parking!
 
I find the whole booming self-storage trend comical. The whole reason why we're seeing the increased popularity is because developers are shrinking unit sizes/building storage space in order to increase the # of units available in buildings. Sure the # of units are increased on the one hand, but this leads to reduced land available to build anything (including residential builds).

Ironically, this is leading to more scarce land being used to build self-storage buildings to accommodate people's storage needs. Isnt this counterintuitive? Especially when developers are crying "oh we need to open up the greenbelt and allow more land to be developed". Sure a lot of self-storage buildings are built in industrial areas such as this, but others are built right around residential areas.

I respect different points of view, but my stance still remains on this one. We have a scarce resource in this city (land) which I believe could be used more optimally for uses that are far more important than permanently storing cars for a limited amount of people. Heck, even a parking garage would be of more use as it would allow for a larger share of people to share temporary car storage throughout the day. Take in point, Humber College wants to build a huge parking lot for their students (which I also believe is a waste of land) close to this area on Birmingham. Instead of using that huge swath of land, that use could be consolodated on a smaller footprint and would be used by various students/staff:

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Humber proposal in blue arrow, Car Condo storage proposal in red:
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UtakataNoAnnex said:
Those weird angular structures on the side is what intrigues me. It almost appears to be an elaborate mechanical gateway to some mobile suit Gundam unit...I'm pretty sure it's something more prosaic though.
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...of course, they are just external stairwells!
 
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