Toronto Massey Tower Condos | 206.95m | 60s | MOD Developments | Hariri Pontarini

junctionist said:
I'm not so sure that the City is at fault for acquiring the property, restoring it, and then selling it to someone to use for business. It seems like they came through for the building and Toronto's heritage, but the owner is neglecting it now. That is, unless the City really could have been more selective in who they sold it to.
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No fault implied by the sigh, just the current result...
 
No, Lastman was the mayor when the building was sold off. Which means, "blame Mike Harris" (take that either literally or sarcastically, depending on your stance)
 
There was an article in the star a few months back on these two buildings.

Yonge but not young: Street's historic facades http://www.thestar.com/news/article/...c-facades?bn=1



"A Tale of Two Banks 1
Address: 205 Yonge St.
Built: 1906
Worth: $3.65 million in 2007


Four years later, the Irish flag flies between the pillars as a sign of his hold on the heritage site. The flag does come down from time to time when Farrell opens up the bank to film producers who use it as the setting for vintage bank heists in movies. Farrell doesn’t seem to have much time for his French Canadian neighbours (Parasuco) or their plans to build a 25-storey hotel in the parkette between his bank and theirs.

“I’m trying to buy them out,” he says. “I had a deal agreed to and then it fell through.” If he had his way, Farrell says he’d use the two banks as bookends to a modest development project that would see a three-storey residential building built above the rear of the banks. Plan B, he says, is to open up the bank’s ground floor to a restaurant and to rent out the second floor as office space. And the dome? “That could be a really nice apartment,” he says.

A Tale of Two Banks 2
Address: 197 Yonge St.
Built: 1905
Worth: $5 million in 1999
The story: Designed by Frank Darling, the same architect behind the original Royal Ontario Museum and the building that’s now home to the Hockey Hall of Fame, this neo-classic bank is one of the most spectacular heritage buildings in the entire city. Even so, it’s in an advanced state of decay.

Abandoned for decades, the twin pillared bank has long been entombed by a chain-link fence, though it was designated a heritage site back in 1974. Current owners Parasuco Jeans of Montreal bought the property in 1999 and have been absentee owners ever since. According to the city’s Heritage Preservation Services, the site is frequently used by passersby as a makeshift garbage dump. Longtime (and now former) downtown city councilor Kyle Rae calls Parasuco’s treatment of the property a public disgrace. Calls to the number listed on the front of the building went unanswered, but according to Parasuco’s website, the company intends to build a 160-room hotel above what’s left of the existing bank: “The Yonge Street landscape will be forever changed when fashion, architecture, design and bliss come together to create the most ambitious project . . . the Parasuco Hotel.”

The hotel makes for an interesting concept drawing on the company’s website, but neither of the city’s heritage agencies have heard of the project.
 
This a clear case where the city should be using its powers of expropriation to deal with such blatant dead-beats of the public realm.
 
freshcutgrass said:
This a clear case where the city should be using its powers of expropriation to deal with such blatant dead-beats of the public realm.
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Perhaps dead-beat instead of dead-beats. The owner of 205 Yonge seems to care more about his building compared to the owners of 197 Yonge.

Who owns the land between the two buildings anyways?

If 197 Yonge ultimately collapses, do you suppose the city can do a Guild Inn-sort of thing by saving just the front facade?
 
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freshcutgrass said:
This a clear case where the city should be using its powers of expropriation to deal with such blatant dead-beats of the public realm.
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Purchasing these white elephants is the last thing the city needs to do. There's a new sheriff in town as of the last election, who would have little patience with this type of spending, much as some of us want to see a higher priority placed on heritage preservation. Some kind of nudging needs to be done (unofficially) to encourage the present owners of these two properties to repurpose them.
 
jje1000 said:
Perhaps dead-beat instead of dead-beats. The owner of 205 Yonge seems to care more about his building compared to the owners of 197 Yonge.

Who owns the land between the two buildings anyways?

If 197 Yonge ultimately collapses, do you suppose the city can do a Guild Inn-sort of thing by saving just the front facade?
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It's been stated elsewhere (and I believe in the Post article) that it is believed that Parasuco (the people who own 199 Yonge) own it.
 
Perhaps dead-beat instead of dead-beats. The owner of 205 Yonge seems to care more about his building compared to the owners of 197 Yonge.
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That Irish business man bought it on a whim while in town for other business. And why not...he paid dick-all for an amazing building. Except he had/has no idea what to do with it. Meanwhile, it and its neighbour sit there making a stretch of Yonge look very, very bad.


Purchasing these white elephants is the last thing the city needs to do.
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Well...I think selling them was the last thing the city should have done. That's right...back in the 80's, the city owned 197, 197R, 201 Yonge, the old Colonial Tavern (now empty lot) & 170 Victoria St (sold to Parasuco Jeans Inc in 1999) as well as 205 Yonge (sold in the early 2000's). The great ironic kick in the ass is that 205 Yonge was the home of the city's Historical Board (which the city extensively renovated in 1992).

The city purchased these properties back in the 80's as part of fabulous grand scheme of turning the entire area bounded by Yonge, Queen, Shuter & Victoria into the "Theatre Block". This was at the same time the Ont gov't bought and restored the Elgin/Winter Garden. This area also included the venerable Massey Hall. The Mirvishes were to be involved, but bailed and built their new theatre on King (Princess of Whales). The 90's economic doldrums pretty much killed the idea, and the properties were sold off as "surplus" land, but hoping it would just be part of the Yonge revitalization initiative.

yea...some revitalization...while the rest of lower Yonge has seen some progress in this, these former city properties are the ones sitting there rotting. What a joke.



Some kind of nudging needs to be done (unofficially) to encourage the present owners of these two properties to repurpose them.
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The problem with the city, is that it does not have the foresight to include clauses in these sales agreements putting a time limit on doing something with the property. They made the same retarded mistake with Penequity at Dundas Square. They expropriated the land...gave it to Penequity for practically nothing, to watch them sit there and do eff-all for 500 years...and then construct some peice-0-shite. And all because the city didn't have the brains to put some teeth in the deal (in fact, they shouldn't have sold it to such a non-starter dumb ass company such as Penequity in the first place).


There's a new sheriff in town as of the last election, who would have little patience with this type of spending, much as some of us want to see a higher priority placed on heritage preservation.
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Well, the new sheriff and his deputy better get their fat heads out of their fat asses ASAP. It's called investing in the city. It pays off in dividends. Someone might want to educate these old boys on some basic city building.

I think the Theatre Block concept was a great one, and just because the 90's put a hold on it, I actually think it's still a doable idea (or something similar along those lines). Why let opportunities like that slide? As somebody said, this is a dead zone, and the city just can't afford to have such a prominent spot be a wart on the city....it's bad for the city. Letting the buildings rot until the dead-beat owners manage to find some steak house operation try and make a go of it for a few years before they go bust and it sits empty again is simply not a good plan. This is a clear case where the city has to take some initiative.

But you're right, the current jokers running city hall are more interested in hollow, symbolic gestures of getting rid of the sandwich cart at city hall and chocolates from Holt Renfrew than doing any meaningful city building.
 
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freshcutgrass said:
T

I think the Theatre Block concept was a great one, and just because the 90's put a hold on it, I actually think it's still a doable idea (or something similar along those lines). Why let opportunities like that slide? As somebody said, this is a dead zone, and the city just can't afford to have such a prominent spot be a wart on the city....it's bad for the city. Letting the buildings rot until the dead-beat owners manage to find some steak house operation try and make a go of it for a few years before they go bust and it sits empty again is simply not a good plan. This is a clear case where the city has to take some initiative.
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I agree that the theatre block concept is a good one given that there is already a critical mass of performing arts venues in the immediate vicinity. Why wouldn't somebody capitalize on this? I read recently that Soulpepper was looking for a possible waterfront location but why not continue with their already immensely successful track record of locating in historical properties and develop here (as with at the distillery)? They've already shown how creative they can be by joining and reconfiguring the tank houses they currently use as the Young Centre. 199 and 205 Yonge could combine beautifully as a theatre arts centre, providing there is enough space between and behind for an adjoining addition. If not Soulpepper, what about a city partnership with Aubrey Dan who desperately needs his own theatre space to get his production company off the ground? I can see why the Mirvishes wouldn't be interested given that they own or manage practically all of the major commercial stages in town already, but this only underscores how important a new venue is for any production companies trying to compete, such as Aubrey Dan or even Drabinsky.

With Massy Hall, the Elgin/Wintergarden and the Canon close by a performing arts centre at 199/205 Yonge would create a strong entertainment node that could potentially equal that of King West with the Alex, Princess of Wales, Thompson Hall, Second City... and as with King West a strong entertainment node here could combine with Dundas Square/Eaton Centre/City TV/AMC in anchoring and building a dynamic city zone that would only continue to attract complimentary businesses such as restaurants, bars and touristy retail outlets.
 
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