1 Bloor East will rise again, this time to 67 storeys
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...again-this-time-to-67-storeys/article1454137/
Great Gulf Group plans to start selling condos in the spring in the tower that will rise from ashes of former owner's failed deal
Kelly Grant
Toronto — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010 12:19AM EST
A curvy 65-storey condominium could be coming to 1 Bloor East, site of a much-hyped hotel-condo project that fell apart when a Kazakhstan-based developer lost financing.
The new plan envisions a tower with
687 units atop a two-storey, 104,000-square-foot retail podium, according to a site plan application submitted to the city's planning department Friday. It also includes four floors of amenities for residents – possibly including a spa – on top of the stores.
The luxury hotel envisioned by the site's former owner, Bazis International Inc., is no longer part of the plan.
Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini is designing the proposed tower at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor streets, but the architects have yet to formally unveil drawings.
Great Gulf Group, which bought the site last summer, aims to start pre-selling condos at 1 Bloor East in the spring.
“We'll be going to sale within the next 60 days,” said Bruce Freeman, vice-president of the development company.
The fate of the vacant lot at one of the city's most-important intersections was uncertain after Bazis International's partner in the land deal, Lehman Brothers, went bankrupt.
Bazis sold the property to Great Gulf to keep it out of receivership.
Buyers and real-estate agents camped out for days in 2007 when the original condo was meant to rise to 80 storeys, which at the time would have made it Canada's tallest residential building. Prices ranged from $400,000 to $1-million. Bazis returned deposits to those buyers last fall.