Taking advantage of years of increasing demand for housing in the Toronto market, Royal Park Homes has restarted work on one of their earlier development proposals, creating a new project on the site of their cancelled The Bean Condos, a development proposal from the early 2010's. Originally sold in 2014 at rates as low as $450 per square foot, the project at 2433 Dufferin Street at Hopewell Avenue underwent a series of resubmissions to increase its size in 2016 and 2017. The new scheme was approved at the LPAT in 2018 and original purchase agreements were cancelled in 2019 after it became clear that the original purchase price would not be able to cover the increases in construction costs seen in recent years.

Evening rendering for 8 Haus, image from Royal Park Homes

Construction hoarding went up in 2015, after which demolition of the on-site auto body shop and site clearing began. The site remained in the same condition for a number of years, waiting for development to progress.

Just last week, a new site plan application was put forth for the project, now called 8 Haus. The plan refines the built form agreed upon in the 2018 LPAT settlement, which negotiated the 2017 submission from a 9-storey height to an 8-storey height. The building has nearly doubled in size from its original version, proposing an 8-storey elevation compared to the original 5-storey proposal from 2014. The building would have 7 bachelor, 54 one-bedroom. 28 two-bedroom, and 10 three-bedroom units, for a total of 99 condo suites. 

Looking southwest to 8 Haus, image via submission to the City of Toronto

The latest design, by Romanov Romanov Architects as per the original plan for the site, employs a look consistent with the marketing rendering released in October, 2019. The southwest corner of the building features a curved façade clad in dark grey brick, while the southern component is clad with red brick on the first 6 levels, and steps back to darker cladding above. A taller red brick extrusion breaks up the two components, and white geometric accents add to the dynamic façade. The north and east sides feature less brick, and more window wall.

Site work began again in November 2019, image by Forum contributor salsa

Additional information and images can be found in our Database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment below.

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