Below is a post I just made over at skyscraper.
Reply to Filip.
(1) In regard to the Military club the deal will be that the developer, the one that has the inside track I know but can't reveal at this time, will assume all the costs of development and buy the air rights to the land from the club. Of course the deal is more complex than that but thats the basic principle.
(2) Richmond Adelaide Centre - As you probably know the building is being re configured with the tower being moved further north to Richmond with the bulk of the new building going were that ugly indoor parking garage is. They had a lead tenant lined up and demolishion /construction was scheduled for the third quarter of this year. Apparentley late last year the potential lead tenant was approached by the Blackstone group out of New York and was offered lead tenant space in it's new Bay/Richmond complex as this new yet to be announced development has a Bay Street address.
Currently there is a lot of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing going on with the Bay-Sheppard-Richmond -Temerence block. Blackstone just purchased 56 Temperence St. This is the small building Stinson had an option on when he was going with his original 1,100ft. Sapphire Tower.
The Blackstone group want to maximize the height of their building at the southwest corner of Bay and Richmond and are trying to buy up as much as possible within that block to increase site density and translate it into a taller tower on the corner.
With respect to the Richmond Adelaide Centre it will be built and end up a much better development encompassing the whole block from Richmond to Adelaide. By the way there are still at least two more office developments to be announced this year that are going to be built in downtown Toronto.
In case you are wondering how all this new space is going to get rented there are currently five or six companies in Toronto or coming to Toronto looking to put their name on a 600,000 -1,000,000 sq. ft. building.
(3) Manulife Centre - I don't know why but I seemed to take a lot of flack for this from certain members of the Urban Toronto Forum. I don't have any further updates other than what I reported to you last fall when I had lunch in Miami with Ott and Chen. Carlos I am sure knows who the architect is but he isn't saying . As I previosly said I think it's Foster but thats just my educated guess based on the few facts I know. This project, and I honestly don't know why, is really hush hush. Right now all I can tell you is it's a mixed use tower over 1000ft. and it's going south of Queen Street.
I personally do not have the time to ferret out information on projects the way some of the more industrious members of the forums do as I have a substantial business to run here in Dallas. However I am still very well connected in the architectural & development world and when I receive relevent information on Toronto projects I will gladly pass it on.
It's funny but it was at that lunch that Chen told me Shangri La was actually going to be 704ft tall not the the 740ft I had reported (from information given me by the VP of Westbank) when I first broke the news about the hotel being built in Toronto. It just goes to show you how even the people in the know sometimes don't even know all the facts