Jackhammer
02-09-2007, 05:55 PM
Yonge-Bloor may get new tower
DANNY GALLAGHER
Special to The Globe and Mail
The forlorn southeast corner of Toronto's busiest downtown intersection is poised for a makeover, with news the developer that had planned to build a 60-storey complex at 1 Bloor St. E. has sold the property.
Close to four years after Nastapoka Holdings proposed an ambitious residential and retail complex for that neglected corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets, the construction cranes will apparently crank up soon.
What has renewed this new hope is that five weeks ago Kolter Property Co. sold 1 Bloor St. E. to Bazis International of Thornhill for an undisclosed price. Nastapoka had been a joint venture consisting of Kolter and Simkesla Group, but Kolter bought out Simkesla three months ago.
The city's assessment value of the property for 2007 is $33.66-million.
"We've wanted to build at the site for a long time but our interests had become diversified in the U.S. and that property had become a non-core asset for us,'' Kolter vice-president Scott Webb said yesterday, speaking on behalf of Kolter president Robert Julien, a Torontonian who is a principal shareholder in the company.
"My assumption and understanding is that is the intent of Bazis to commence the project and develop the property based on the density rights of 60 storeys that they purchased. I believe that they will go ahead."
Calls to the Bazis International offices in Concord, Ont., were not returned.
The proposal approved by city council in 2002 was a landmark skyscraper containing retail space, a cinema, a small amount of offices and condominiums, and was to have involved parts of Yonge and Bloor and nearby Hayden Street, where the Naval Club is located.
Famous Players Theatres was to build a 2,900-seat, 8,554-square-metre multiplex on the fourth and fifth storeys of the podium. The 1,161-square-metre Naval Club would have been rebuilt as part of the development. The 205-metre-high residential tower was to have contained 525 condos and would have been enclosed in glass and metal with an average floor plate of 775 square metres.
DANNY GALLAGHER
Special to The Globe and Mail
The forlorn southeast corner of Toronto's busiest downtown intersection is poised for a makeover, with news the developer that had planned to build a 60-storey complex at 1 Bloor St. E. has sold the property.
Close to four years after Nastapoka Holdings proposed an ambitious residential and retail complex for that neglected corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets, the construction cranes will apparently crank up soon.
What has renewed this new hope is that five weeks ago Kolter Property Co. sold 1 Bloor St. E. to Bazis International of Thornhill for an undisclosed price. Nastapoka had been a joint venture consisting of Kolter and Simkesla Group, but Kolter bought out Simkesla three months ago.
The city's assessment value of the property for 2007 is $33.66-million.
"We've wanted to build at the site for a long time but our interests had become diversified in the U.S. and that property had become a non-core asset for us,'' Kolter vice-president Scott Webb said yesterday, speaking on behalf of Kolter president Robert Julien, a Torontonian who is a principal shareholder in the company.
"My assumption and understanding is that is the intent of Bazis to commence the project and develop the property based on the density rights of 60 storeys that they purchased. I believe that they will go ahead."
Calls to the Bazis International offices in Concord, Ont., were not returned.
The proposal approved by city council in 2002 was a landmark skyscraper containing retail space, a cinema, a small amount of offices and condominiums, and was to have involved parts of Yonge and Bloor and nearby Hayden Street, where the Naval Club is located.
Famous Players Theatres was to build a 2,900-seat, 8,554-square-metre multiplex on the fourth and fifth storeys of the podium. The 1,161-square-metre Naval Club would have been rebuilt as part of the development. The 205-metre-high residential tower was to have contained 525 condos and would have been enclosed in glass and metal with an average floor plate of 775 square metres.
