Toronto 50 Bloor Street West | 230.11m | 70s | Morguard Corporation | Pellow + Associates

canarob said:
Why would this only relate to the western GTA? An office building by union is very accessible to anyone on the 7 GO lines as well as the subway. As much as I like working in the Yonge/Bloor area, it will never be the superior location.
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As he mentioned, not having to go south of Bloor on the Yonge line itself is a big advantage. Plenty of folks take the BD line and transfer at Y/B every morning. Plus, Y/B is obviously a much desirable area than something as boring as Union Station and its sourroundings.

As to people who take the GO, well, they choose not to live in Toronto and don't pay Toronto property taxes. The also make spawling and transportation worse. I would give them lower priorities in terms of what is more convenient for them.
 
canarob said:
Why would this only relate to the western GTA? An office building by union is very accessible to anyone on the 7 GO lines as well as the subway. As much as I like working in the Yonge/Bloor area, it will never be the superior location.
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If they build a better GO TTC link at Main and Dundas West alot of Go riders could switch to TTC earlier as well..
 
As to people who take the GO, well, they choose not to live in Toronto and don't pay Toronto property taxes. The also make spawling and transportation worse. I would give them lower priorities in terms of what is more convenient for them.
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People who own office buildings aren't as concerned with parochial 416/905 divisions though.

If they build a better GO TTC link at Main and Dundas West alot of Go riders could switch to TTC earlier as well..
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Fair enough, although on my line (Stouffville) many take GO to union and head north to Bloor instead of transferring at Kennedy. Even though it's a bit more expensive, I do this to get a seat on the way home, avoid TTC delays (I can walk from Union if I need to, but not from Kennedy), have more time on GO and less time on the TTC, and to avoid the overall scumminess of Kennedy station. I would expect some of the same relating to Main Station.
 
Toronto does not have a very downtown centric office market, its unfortunate in my books but in others a positive.

Take Montreal, a larger percentage of the office space throughout the region (i.e. GTA equivalent) is located downtown, same with Chicago and other cities. You do find both extremes though i.e. other cities similar to Toronto or with even more in the suburbs.

In my mind, you'd have so much more office space in the core, particularly in Toronto but I mean in general.

I don't want to start anything but in Toronto the factors that have led to this I believe are:
- Sprawl, worse then most Canadian cities but not so compared to Americans (i.e. Chicago).
- Week transportation system into the core, that is streets / hi-ways / public transportation.
- Much much higher taxes in the city proper compares to the surroundings.

As much as people like arguing the later doesn't matter; Well I don't think anyone will argue it doesn't matter when comparing an office on both sides of Steeles, but in the core I can buy the argument means much less. But this is the case for larger corporations, for smaller ones I think it is a factor, even in the core.

Rant done !
 
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greenleaf said:
So, I was curious about Pellow + Associates. A quick search reveals that this proposal, located in one of the highest profile locations in Toronto, is being handled by a company known for its mall renovations. Great.
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Fret not. Morguard likely knows Pellow from their retail holdings and just needed someone to throw together a proposal to beat the fee increase.
 
I came across this blog mentioning that Holt Renfrew will expand its Toronto store:

"Today we were reviewing plans for an expanded/renovated Holt Renfrew flagship store at 50 Bloor Street West in Toronto. Plans include eight (8) levels of Holt Renfrew retail totalling about 200,000 sq ft, plus four levels / 90,782 square feet for an unknown retailer or retailers (or for Holt Renfrew as well?) and several levels of offices, all under a substantial residential tower.

City planning documents for this project can be viewed here: http://www.toronto.ca/planning/50_bloor.htm

We note store square footages set out at this link: http://www.toronto.ca/planning/pdf/5...ans.pdf#page=2 and specifically note the size of the newly expanded Holt Renfrew store. From our calculations, the new store will be about 200,000 square feet. We're basing this on the 'project statistics' on the page above, subtracted some basement non-Holt Renfrew retail, added about 2,000 sq ft of new Holt's basement retail, and added about 3,800 square feet occupied by Holt Renfrew on the ground floor of the 60 Bloor Street West building. We are unsure what will happen to the Holt Renfrew Personal Shopping Suites, awkwardly placed within the 60 Bloor office tower with elevator access from the main store. These add an extra few thousand square feet, if included (and from the plans we don't see them or their dedicated elevator).

Of further interest is a new, four-level retail portion to the project, totalling almost 91,000 square feet of retail. We are unsure if this will belong to Holt Renfrew (making a ~290,000 sq ft store), or if the space will be for one or more larger retailers.

Finally, the project will include about 78,000 square feet of office space. Could this be the new corporate office headquarters for Holts?


Source: http://www.retail-insider.com/2012/06/update-holt-renfrew-in-toronto-to.html
 
Where are there current headquarters ?
 
New condo tests the height of fashion on Toronto’s Golden Mile

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/new-condo-tests-the-height-of-fashion-on-torontos-golden-mile/article4494886/

Interesting concluding paragraph that echoes the criticism of many other projects on the forum...
....I leave it up to the experts at city hall to decide if the scheme satisfies the elaborate official expectations. But, for what it’s worth, I am impressed by how carefully Morguard and their consultants argue for this proposal. The skyscraper seems to fit the bill perfectly. And that, to my mind, is a dispiriting thought. For despite its apparent compliance with the regulations, this building is far too artistically ordinary. It is a responsible, respectable and very tall lump of architecture – not the daring and stunning landmark that Bloor and Yonge cries out for. Toronto will have to wait a little longer, it appears, before the creative levels of our highest structures, and not merely their steel frames, touch the sky.
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^ John Bentley Mays writes well here. I couldn't agree more.

Concerning the current 50 Bloor proposal, I will not give a hoot if the possible real estate downturn spells doom for the project.

The exterior of Holts is another matter, it should be updated / repaired asap. The marble tiles are looking unkempt and uneven, and tawdry.
 
RocketAppliances said:
Interesting concluding paragraph that echoes the criticism of many other projects on the forum...
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Oh come-on please, some people are never happy with anything that is built/proposed here in TO.
Same was said about the u/c and built, Shangri-La, Four Seasons, Trump, Ritz, Aura, L-Tower, U, Ice, Five,
etc. etc. etc............
and is also being said about other new proposals, Massey, 88 Scott, Indx, 460/501 Yonge, Casa-2, 10 York, 90 Harbour, Karma,
etc. etc. etc.....
 
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Automation Gallery said:
Oh come-on please, some people are never happy with anything that is built/proposed here in TO.
Same was said about the u/c and built, Shangri-La, Four Seasons, Trump, Ritz, Aura, L-Tower, U, Ice, Five,
etc. etc. etc............
and is also being said about other new proposals, Massey, 88 Scott, Indx, 460/501 Yonge, Casa-2, 10 York, 90 Harbour, Karma,
etc. etc. etc.....
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I rest my case then.

Each project is not going to be a stunner but surely 83 storeys at Yonge and Bloor is a great location to push the boundaries of design.
 
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