Toronto 865 York Mills | ?m | 38s | Liberty Development | Wayne Long

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UGH!

I hope this gets turned down (is it already rezoned?)

Aside from the fact the City should let more good quality employment land go big box.............

The actual proposal contradicts the City's new green standard. (all parking must be located to the side or rear, building should meet the street (build to property line/sidewalk)

Its a car-oriented, low-quality job generating pile.

Yuck.
 
As I understand it the building will remain with many modifications made to the exterior to match what they have shown in that Behar Group drawing.

I worked in that building until they closed up last year. They have demolished the laboratory which was the newest part of the building (1987) likely because it stuck out in a long, narrow section at south end, where the parking lot for the grocery store will be.

That building was originally the Upjohn Canada headquarters until they sold the building and staff to a couple of Upjohn executives in 1995 who became owners of a private company contracted by Upjohn to keep making the stuff that was always made there. Patheon (the last owner) bought these owners out in 2000 and operated there until August 2009 when they moved out for good. The building was a full service pharmaceutical plant - manufacturing, packaging, quality control, warehouse, etc. all operated from there until the very end.

The place was added onto many times but the original 1954 building was at the very northwest corner of what you see now, with newer elevations done in the 1980's. A later addition in the 50's, 60's and 70's got them to what you see now. A new lab was built in '87 at the south end and as mentioned above has been demolished. The street there is called Upjohn Road likely because this plant would seem to have been about the first thing up there. I don't think there was any TTC service there until about 1960. I wasn't born yet but it must have felt like you were going to work out in the country in 1954.

It seems that they are way behind the March 2010 opening date that the Behar .pdf suggested. Work continues there, you can see some drywall and construction stuff but there is still a lot of empty space. I wonder if they have found tenants. It doesn't look like they'll be opening up at least until the summer or fall.

The original Liberty plans called for two ten story towers, in a hotel-conference center type of project. There was a lot of water in the ground around there and that was going to give them some hassles about building up. That and the economy were the reasons I heard for the change of heart to just leave the original building and put retail in it. The building across the street (at 861 York Mills, with the Kelseys and other food joints in it) was also an Upjohn building that was sold off and converted in the late 1990's.

It was a wonderful old building in it's final years as a pharmaceutical plant. There was a lot of empty space, a lot of old rooms full of history, an awesome mechanical room which is still there - you can see the stairs from the front door - and a staff that by enlarge wasn't as cutthroat as you'd find in other places. I miss the building and most people but not the job nor the company. It's fun to go around and see what's happening to it nowadays. The interior demolition was interesting to watch from the windows. I am kind of curious to see what it will look like when they're done.
 
hmm, only 18,000 people work in the area according the the PDF, not sure how large the area is but that sounds low ... I wonder what the figure was 10 years ago?
 
Two 25-storey office buildings... not bad.

865 YORK MILLS RD

Ward 34
- North York OPA / Rezoning 11 330777 NNY 34 OZ Dec 23, 2011 ---

Proposal is to amend the Official Plan to permit residential and retail uses on the site. The proposal includes two 25 storey office buildings each with 26,695 sq.m. GFA, 16,700 sq.m. of retail space, a 20 storey hotel with 15,300 sq.m. of GFA and 3 residential buildings with 892 residential units with heights of 32 to 38 storeys. Total GFA proposed is 184,770 sq.m. with an overall density of 5.5 FSI.
 
very interesting.

Curious to see a site plan.

Will the new buildings be in the rear of the renovated building and they face upjohn? -- I don't know how well the residential buildings will be implemented in the rear from a marketing/site appeal.
 
2 25 story office buildings ?? Yea right ... I'll be dead the day that happens. Good luck to them.


Here's my take, its zoned commercial, they want residential development for the money, so they'll build those first and the offices will never happen.
 
You mean the offices and the residential component ?

These are employment lands so you figure they're building offices to make up for it. Though I have a hard time believe those offices will ever go ahead.

Can the city stimulate they must be built out ?

I say this as there hasn't been an office development outside the core of that size, in maybe 10+ years, longer ignoring NYCC and small medical buildings that go up every once in a while.
 
Wow. NeoPoMo? Or maybe RePoMo?

All that ground floor parking seems excessive, even if it is covered. And the city should force them to reverse the site plan so that the offices are on York Mills. Seems like they'd be less likely to get "forgotten" if they were effectively the front of the building.
 
taal:

That's what I meant - putting the office component in there in order to get approval for the condos, which is the only part of the proposal that will realistically go ahead. I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

AoD
 
I believe Liberty Development owns this site ~
 
Liberty also bought the Steelcase Factory in Markham and several industrial buildings along HWY 7 in Vaughan.
 
this one is still alive...from today's Daily Commercial News...looks like there is now a hotel component...

APARTMENT BLDGS, OFFICES, HOTEL, RETAIL Proj: 9153162-2
Metro Toronto Reg, ON PREPARING PLANS
865 York Mills Rd, M3B 1Y6
$173,320,000 est

Note: Owner's representative has submitted applications for both Official Plan amendment and Rezoning approval. Schedules for design and construction are undetermined at this time. Further update spring 2013.

Project: proposed construction of a development which will include two 25-storey office buildings each with 287,342 sq ft, a 20-storey hotel totaling 164,687 sq ft, and three apartment buildings between 32 and 38-storeys containing a total of 892 residential units. The total GFA of this project is 1,988,847 sq ft.

Scope: 1,988,847 square feet; 38 storeys; 6 structures; 892 units; parking for 3200 cars; 8 acres
Development: New
Category: Apartment bldgs; Commercial offices; Hotels, motels; Retail, wholesale services
 
I'm not sure of the status of this project since the last post here was 3 years ago but these are from the sign located at the site. Saw it tonight after leaving the BILD party across the street.

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