Toronto 629 King Residences (was Thompson Residences) | 53.34m | 15s | Freed | Saucier + Perrotte

Pic taken Dec 3, 2012


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Freed Development's appeal to the OMB has been approved - looks like it will be 11 floors for the south building, on Stewart Street, 15 floors for the north building on King Street, for a total of 404 units. Decision Number: PL120107
 
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No complaints with that verdict, my only issue is with how many units they're cramming into the building. This goes for most condos nowadays, but the size of units is absolutely ridiculous. I guess a 365 sq ft unit is the only way regular people can afford to purchase downtown nowadays...
 
Good for Greed - he got a few more floors. Not so good for the individuals that purchased early 2010. At least he will be consistent with delivering product about 6 - 7 years after people purchased...
 
Ya, if you want to actually live there - forget it about it. It should be called "Thompson College Dorm". Expect the rent-orists in this place to tear up the lobby, puke and piss all over the common elements from Thursdays to Saturdays. It is these kind of buildings which give downtown condos a bad rap. But don't you worry, Peter Freed and his young family will be sleeping soundly every night in their shiny new and quiet Forest Hill home, away from all of this debauchery.
 
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When I first saw the building when it was launched it was a very nicely design building with a striking architecture, however I was shocked on the size of the units. They did offer plans to combine two units together to form a unit in the 700-800 sq.ft. range, but the prices became really expensive after that point.

I don't really agree on the height increase, as I like the very consistant building heights along Stewart Street which almost have a European sort of feel to it. Meanwhile on King Street 15 stories may seem a bit out of place as King has a lot of short buildings or have new condos that have setbacks from the street. The building presents itself as a tall black slab, albeit with some interesting articulation to it, to the street.

The heightened building design also elimiated many of the large penthouse units with private roof access to their own cabana patio that faces the pool which I thought was a great feature. I'd guess there wasn't as much demand for these units as originally anticipated. About half of these units were replaced by the typical 350-600 sq.ft. units found on the other floors but with no roof access.

I agree that this building will end up like the other Thompson condo across the street, probably even worse due to the large amount of tiny units and investor purchasers. People have been renting their units at the Thompson as hotel rooms on sites like www.airBnB.com, which is clearly against condo rules.
 
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Bye bye King Street West. This is going to have the same effect as M5V had on the neighbourhood east of Spadina. I guarantee the current stock of heritage buildings along King St W will be gone in 10 years.
 
Jayomatic said:
Bye bye King Street West. This is going to have the same effect as M5V had on the neighbourhood east of Spadina. I guarantee the current stock of heritage buildings along King St W will be gone in 10 years.
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Yep. Up next is the block between Spadina and Portland. Anything that is commercial will be redeveloped. Allied has already started the ball rolling there, and it is to be demolition.
 
AHK said:
Freed Development's appeal to the OMB has been approved - looks like it will be 11 floors for the south building, on Stewart Street, 15 floors for the north building on King Street, for a total of 404 units. Decision Number: PL120107
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Thanks for nothing, OMB. This city might as well be zoning-free Houston, it's wide-open now. Here comes Sixty Colborne next, Art Shoppe, carte blanche for Petey.

It's like OMB figures if you're going to drink, you might as well get smashed.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I fully agreed with the City's assessment of what was reasonable here.
 
I'm torn on the OMB. On the one hand I agree that, in principle, it can undermine the integrity of the planning process, and indeed the democratic process. On the other hand, I find myself quite pleased with the ultimate results of their decisions. I support the height of Thompson Residences, Sixty Colborne and 50 floors for the Art Shoppe. I don't think that height and density necessarily share an inverse relationship with liveability and vibrancy. My only real concern, specifically with respect to King West, is increased development pressure on the existing heritage buildings, but I'd prefer to see a solution involving stricter heritage-protection and mixed-use laws than stricter height limits.
 
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Nail on the head with that one, Ramako. My biggest issue with the OMB is that they don't seem to care about heritage related aspects of new developments. So much time is spent bickering over height that more important issues, such as heritage protection and streetscape design/urbanity, get overlooked.
 
egotrippin said:
Nail on the head with that one, Ramako. My biggest issue with the OMB is that they don't seem to care about heritage related aspects of new developments. So much time is spent bickering over height that more important issues, such as heritage protection and streetscape design/urbanity, get overlooked.
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That's not the function of the OMB. They don't deal with heritage designation. They deal with building envelope.

In effect, what this decision did was to kill the secondary plan for this area. It allows for 45 metres straight up off the sidewalk on King Street. The secondary plan's setback provisions are gone. No developer need consider them anymore as the OMB has created the precedent for all new proposals. The older commercial warehouse buildings are already facing punishing MPAC assessments courtesy of the new height regime on the east side of Spadina, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of this building stock doesn't disappear in the next ten to fifteen years - unless if the structures can be given heritage designation. That will take years.
 
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