Toronto 70 St Mary Street | 132.58m | 40s | Loretto College | a—A

There is something about all this that irks me, but I dont really understand how these convents work. Is it basically like this:

Church goers donate through offerings or estates so that Sisters can have room and board and perhaps many other things. Sometimes these monies are used to buy land or land is bequethed.

In this case the donated land is being redeveloped and some proceeds from the condos will pay for vastly nicer quarters for the Sisters. Presumably some of the residual will be used for charitable causes.

This feel like a windfall to me - a brand new residence in Yorkville for the Sisters with everyone else's view blocked.
 
They are probably cashing in here to create an endowment to ensure perpetual support and funding for operational activities because donations are dwindling.

While it is a new building, I really doubt they are going to be living in Yorkville luxury here.
 
I am deeply involved in the redevelopment of an academic site at another university. For a period of time, we explored the possibility of putting condos on top of a residence tower, thus paying for a significant portion of the cost of building the residence and other facilities. In the end, our consultants told us it wouldn't work. The two functions, student residence and high end condo, wouldn't mesh.

To give but one example, we were told it would be necessary to build two entrance lobbies and two elevator cores. To be a little crude, no one who buys a million dollar condo particularly wants a drunk freshman vomiting on his shoes in the elevator after a Friday night party.

In the end, we struck an entirely different sort of deal and construction of two separate structures is going on as I write. (I made the call about some furnishing and layout issues this morning, on the one we will continue to run.)

The Loretto site allows a bigger footprint than ours and perhaps an all female residence, especially a Catholic one, is quieter and better behaved than ours. (Though the worst trouble we have is more likely than not stuff that bubbles up in all female quads.) But clearly, the Sisters have made a different set of decisions than we did. I will be fascinated to see how they plan to work things out.
 
buildup said:
There is something about all this that irks me, but I dont really understand how these convents work. Is it basically like this:

Church goers donate through offerings or estates so that Sisters can have room and board and perhaps many other things. Sometimes these monies are used to buy land or land is bequethed.

In this case the donated land is being redeveloped and some proceeds from the condos will pay for vastly nicer quarters for the Sisters. Presumably some of the residual will be used for charitable causes.

This feel like a windfall to me - a brand new residence in Yorkville for the Sisters with everyone else's view blocked.
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Naahh. It is far more likely that sale of the condos generates the capital to build the student residences which will occupy far more of the building than the sisters' quarters, in all probability. If it has been a good deal for them, there may be money left over to go into the endowment to support their ministry activities, whatever they are. (And you could doubtless find out the mission of their particular order with a few minutes on Google.) As a male, I have never been in sisters' quarters, though I have been in several buildings that were formerly convents. I am confident that the idea of luxurious quarters for the sisters is a fantasy. I hope they are comfortable but, then, I am not prejudiced against religious orders.

And no, I am definitely not Roman Catholic.
 
greenleaf said:
They are probably cashing in here to create an endowment to ensure perpetual support and funding for operational activities because donations are dwindling.

While it is a new building, I really doubt they are going to be living in Yorkville luxury here.
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doesn't their perpetual funding come from outrageously high residence fees?
this convent already has a continual source of income for all eternity
 
Last time I walked by this site the sign had been taken down, but today it looks like this project is back!
40 stories
70 dorms
220 apartment units
1 chapel with 8 apartment units
204 parking spots, and the public meeting on Aug 12th!

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Well, this was one of the projects approved by City Council in August, and at 40 storeys, not 30. There doesn't seem to be any documentation online as to why Council was fine with it at 40 when planning stuff were recommending refusal of it at that height. If anyone is the wiser, please chime in.

42
 
Walked by this building again, it will be a shame to lose 70 ST. Mary, its a finely proportioned building and it adds a character to the Street. Would be much nicer to see it restored rather than jamming another tower into that space.
 
interchange42 said:
Well, this was one of the projects approved by City Council in August, and at 40 storeys, not 30. There doesn't seem to be any documentation online as to why Council was fine with it at 40 when planning stuff were recommending refusal of it at that height. If anyone is the wiser, please chime in.

42
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Hmmm.....unusual.
 
interchange42 said:
Well, this was one of the projects approved by City Council in August, and at 40 storeys, not 30. There doesn't seem to be any documentation online as to why Council was fine with it at 40 when planning stuff were recommending refusal of it at that height. If anyone is the wiser, please chime in.

42
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does anyone have the answer to this?
 
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