Toronto Bathurst College Centre | ?m | 4s | RioCan | Turner Fleischer

LUVIT! said:
Maybe I'll like the finished product here in the end? What's up with the SW corner of Bathurst and College? Anyone?
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I suspect no one wants to build on this corner because it's full of loud nightclubs (Nest/Den, El Rancho, Sneaky Dee's, etc), drug dealers and has a murder or attempted murder every 6-12 months. There are lots of properties ~300m away from here that are much harder to build on because of existing use (new condo near college and spadina, proposal on the car rental lot, Silver Dollar room site, etc) but it seems like no one wants to touch this disaster of an intersection. If the land had the same value as the entertainment district you'd probably see some progress but it only supports development <10 stories (my guess). If the city stopped the serving of alcohol after-hours and enforced its own noise by-laws in this area you'd see 2 of 4 the corners get developed.
 
This area is expensive and is absolutely a desirable spot for development.

The lot on the corner is designated as a park in the Better Bathurst study, the city is looking to buy it. The Better Bathurst study contains a bunch of site specific policies for the area and is currently under appeal at the LPAT, so I expect you will see more pop up once that finishes up.

Also, there is a fair amount of development along College to the east and west of Bathurst, but nothing immediately on the corner.
 
Well the building right behind it kind of restricts the buildable footprint of that lot I assume. The venues east of Bathurst are kind of lame but they can easily market a condo here to the suburban/small town millennials as being 'hip'. No issues there. Bathurst and Dundas is a bit difficult but Bathurst and College is fine. Especially the West side of it.
 
Blitz901 said:
I suspect no one wants to build on this corner because it's full of loud nightclubs (Nest/Den, El Rancho, Sneaky Dee's, etc), drug dealers and has a murder or attempted murder every 6-12 months. There are lots of properties ~300m away from here that are much harder to build on because of existing use (new condo near college and spadina, proposal on the car rental lot, Silver Dollar room site, etc) but it seems like no one wants to touch this disaster of an intersection. If the land had the same value as the entertainment district you'd probably see some progress but it only supports development <10 stories (my guess). If the city stopped the serving of alcohol after-hours and enforced it's own noise by-laws in this area you'd see 2 of 4 the corners get developed.
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There are multi-million dollar homes a stone's throw away from this site, and Sneaky Dee's could hold a Metallica concert inside and you wouldn't hear it at this site. Do you know where this site is?
 
Admittedly I lived very close to this site and the poster isn't wrong about the crime here. I lived in a slumlord's basement unit for a year and in that time there were at least 5-6 shootings within a block of my unit, 2 fatal. One of those shootings was literally right in front of this construction site - I could hear it from my unit. This was easily the worst neighbourhood I lived in over the five years I was downtown. And the impression I've always gotten is that the crime is similar to Entertainment District crime (ie. locals aren't causing the violence, drunken idiots visiting the bars are) but still, it was unnerving hearing gunshots while trying to sleep.

That said, these issues are not going to stop condo development either. At most places like the Nest/Den and El Rancho will close or move due to raised rents (just like Crown and Tiger did) and Sneaky Dee's will either join them or clean itself up dramatically (its fame due to the Scott Pilgrim series makes it a special case). They'll likely be replaced by more low-key places like No One Writes to the Colonel just off the northwest corner of College and Bathurst or the Green Room (which moved into Crown and Tiger's old digs).
 
Helicopter constantly turning, 5 of us jammed in the back cabin—it's tough to maintain aim. Clouds also make for longer exposures and blurry shots…

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This looks shockingly good in the early going, given the participants involved.
 
I think Turner Fleischer gets a rougher ride on UrbanToronto than it deserves. They are behind plenty of good-looking commercial buildings, including most of the Loblaws out there, AFAIK. That said, here's hoping for reasonable quality finishes here, which depends more on the budget set out by RioCan.

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