London Construction - Development News Thread#1

[MolsonExport]

^is this of any significance to development?

[FazDeH]

^^ NOPE!!! but hey what does that matter?

[Snark]

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[ldoto]

Biotron super garden

UWO facility to be leader in climate-controlled plant, ecological research


mar Singh gave a presentation on London's new Biotron experimental climate change research facility. (Dave Chidley, LFP)
Western's new Biotron research complex will help make London a player in the biotech revolution, say university officials.

Members of London city council got a briefing yesterday on the $28-million project now under construction at the University of Western Ontario.

The Biotron will operate like a super-sophisticated greenhouse with a series of sealed chambers or biomes that control temperature, humidity and sunlight to simulate any climatic zone on Earth -- from rainforests to Arctic tundra.

Ted Hewitt, Western's vice-president of research, said the Biotron will become North America's leading facility for climate-controlled plant and ecological research.

The builders of the Biotron had to pioneer new standards, because the facility is unique in the world, he said.



"We figure we are five to 10 years ahead of anybody else."

The facility should open late in 2007 and employ about 100 to 120 people.

Amar Singh, Biotron's business operations manager, said the complex will support a wide variety of biological research into agricultural crops, ecosystems and insects.

Some of the research could include:

- Documenting the effect of climate change on crops and ecosystems.

- Improving biofuels refined from corn and other agricultural products.

- Analysing intact soil samples in Arctic temperatures to determine how pipelines and drilling could affect that region's tundra.

- Developing bioactive paper that would detect and neutralize dangerous bacteria and viruses.

- Creating new fibres that would replace plastic, allowing for disposable food and liquid containers that would naturally decompose.

- Producing new vaccines and medicines nurtured inside plants such as tobacco.

"The irony is that someone with cancer may be treated with a pharmaceutical that was produced in tobacco," Singh said.

All of the research and equipment will be connected to a central control that will be wired into the SHARCNET super computer network based at Western.

Singh said that will allow researchers to monitor and control their experiments from anywhere in the world via the Internet.

Hewitt said Biotron, which is being developed in partnership with the University of Guelph, will restore Western's leadership in agricultural research.

"Back in the 1950s, London had a good reputation as place to do research in biology and agriculture. We lost that. Now we're roaring back with this facility," Hewitt said.

The Biotron presentation was part of the series of events celebrating Biotech Week in London.

[ldoto]

Fri, October 6, 2006

The $647-million building permit record set in 2004 is expected to be shattered this year.

By HANK DANISZEWSKI, FREE PRESS BUSINESS REPORTER




Partners in Premiere Framing Aaron Suhr, second from left, and Scott Sabourin, second from right, started their construction business last spring and Sabourin says that they are turning business away. Other members of the team are Neil Thirkettle, left, and Fanshawe College co-op student Mark Alers. (Susan Bradnam, The London Free Press)
London is poised to set a construction record this year.

By the end of September, the city had issued $550 million in building permits, not far from the annual record of $647 million set in 2004.

The city's director of building controls, Rocky Cerminara, said he knows of at least $80 million in building projects likely to start by the end of the year, including a $33-million apartment tower being constructed in downtown London by Tricar Developments and $35 million in projects at the University of Western Ontario.

Those big projects, along with new single-family homes, make it quite likely the old record will be beaten, said Cerminara.

"It's very possible that we would surpass $647 million. Apartment construction really helped," he said, adding that relatively low interest rates are helping to drive the big projects.



August was an especially strong month with $87 million in building permits and another $48 million added in September.

Figures released yesterday by Statistics Canada show an even higher figure of $633.5 million for year-to-date London building permits, but Cerminara said the StatsCan figures are not accurate.

London's construction industry is bucking a slump seen in almost every other major centre in Ontario.

Year-to-date building permits are down in Hamilton and Ottawa and almost unchanged in Toronto and Kitchener.

London's building permits are up 12.7 per cent from January to August, compared to the same period last year.

London is getting a boost from the anticipated spinoff from the new $1.1-billion Toyota plant under construction in Woodstock, said Cerminara.

But he says London is also becoming a prime spot for retirees and empty-nesters, who are drawn by affordable prices.

"We're getting people from Toronto. . . They can sell their house for half a million in Toronto, buy (here) for $250,000 and bank the rest."

Meanwhile, builders continue to scramble to keep up with demand.

"It's so busy now, we are turning down two or three jobs a week," said Scott Sabourin of Premiere Framing.

And finding qualified workers is tough, he added.

"Everyone I know who does framing can never find enough good people."

Sabourin, who also teaches at Fanshawe College, said many of the workers have been heading to booming cities in Western Canada.

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[FazDeH]

^ I'm hoping that this last article had inacqurate information. It would be a terrible shame if the tricar developement was slashed.

When it comes to developements is the rendering not supposed to show what the final product is suppose to look like? I've never understood why the finished building often looks so difference from the artists concepts, Money I guess but that doesn't seem logical because I would assume the cost of construction would be already calculate before the first shovel hit the dirt. hmmm,...

[ldoto]

Londoners have reasons to be thankful

The weather went to bat for area farmers, the city's building boom piled up a mountain of sawdust and an improbable end to a junior hockey season left fans on the edge of their seats.

Southwestern Ontarians are celebrating Thanksgiving in a thousand personal ways, from quiet family reunions and dinners out to movies and sports.

That's the Canadian way -- understated and personal, unlike the U.S. version of the fall harvest holiday that hits with a blizzard of civic events, football and parades.

But the London region as a whole -- despite the inevitable tragedies and grim headlines each year brings -- also has a horn of plenty stuffed with things to be thankful for during the last year on this holiday.

Following, culled from Free Press reports and listed in no particular order, is a breakdown of 10 area reasons to celebrate this Thanksgiving:

1. The harvest: Crop commodity prices may be in the muck and area farmers face no shortage of rising costs. But this year, for a change, the weather co-operated in the country's richest farm belt, with none of the natural disasters -- drought, excessive heat or flooding -- that make agriculture such a risky business.

2. No election snore pie: Longtime London MP Joe Fontana's late entry into the London mayoral race guaranteed voters a high-profile contest for the first time in years, with the 18-year veteran of Parliament Hill taking on a popular incumbent, Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, as she goes for a three-peat in office in the Nov. 13 civic election.

3. An axe blunted: Bleeding billions of dollars and market share, North America's Big Three automakers shed thousands of workers and began massive rounds of plant closings in 2006. But Ford's huge St. Thomas assembly plant, crucial in the area's manufacturing muscle, dodged the bullet and will even gain a new product, the Lincoln Town Car, though production will remain at only one shift daily.

5. Knight fever: In a junior hockey world where keeping talented teams of teenagers together is tough, the London Knights followed up their first national championship with an improbable run for a return trip in 2006 to the Memorial Cup tournament, finishing oh-so close in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs before falling to the Peterborough Petes.

6. Busing compromise: The school year began this fall on a sour note for thousands of area kids, for whom busing for field trips and sports events was jeopardized when bus lines threatened to pull that service without more money to cope with rising costs. A last-minute deal between the bus lines and area school boards rescued the service.

7. Rainbow politics: The rare, mid-winter federal election in January produced a first for London -- its first New Democrat MP. Irene Mathyssen won the London- Fanshawe seat vacated by longtime Liberal Pat O'Brien. Now, with Fontana retired from the Liberal ranks and his seat vacant, London is one of the few Canadian cities that covers the waterfront in mainstream political choices, with one MP each from the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP.

8. Building boom: The hammers keep swinging and sawdust flying in London, with its building boom this year poised to shatter the city's record construction year, 2004, which produced $647 million in projects. This year's frenzy includes a just-started, twin-tower residential project near the John Labatt Centre that will add the first new highrises in years on the downtown's western end, adding a new twist to the city skyline.

9. Once dubbed by a Toronto paper as "the dozey village on the Thames," London showed it's no cultural backwater when filmmaker and native son Paul Haggis picked up two Oscars at the Academy Awards this year, including best picture, for his movie Crash. Haggis was feted in a hometown tribute when he returned to his old London stomping grounds last month.

10. Underlining the old adage that charity begins at home, area residents ponied up big for the United Way in 2006, helping it set a $6.57-million fundraising record and providing a springboard for an even more ambitious goal this coming year, $6.85 million.

[ldoto]

Update!

Auburn Developments's 23-storey, 200-unit apartment building at Ridout Street and Dufferin Avenue -- a project valued at $35 million.And the Lerners office building

[upinottawa]

Originally Posted by ldoto

Update!

Auburn Developments's 23-storey, 200-unit apartment building at Ridout Street and Dufferin Avenue -- a project valued at $35 million.And the Lerners office building

So is it $35 million or $100 million? Is it one or two towers? What's going on here?

[Snashcan]

Originally Posted by upinottawa

So is it $35 million or $100 million? Is it one or two towers? What's going on here?

I thinbk this is the Harriston, nothing to do with the twin tower proposal

[upinottawa]

Originally Posted by Snashcan

I thinbk this is the Harriston, nothing to do with the twin tower proposal

If that's is the case, then that is a very good answer!

With respect to the earlier discussion concerning the downtown twin tower complex, what is the latest?

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by upinottawa

If that's is the case, then that is a very good answer!

With respect to the earlier discussion concerning the downtown twin tower complex, what is the latest?

The twin tower complex is going ahead and has nothing to do with the 23 storey building going up beside the law firm's building. The twin tower complex is directly across from the JLC. My guess is that it is only 33 million right now because they have only applied to the city to put up the first tower. No one is going to put up two towers at the same time. They will build the first and then build the second after like CityPlace did. They have demolished the former Carwash and have started digging a hole. I imagine we will see a crane in a month.

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[ldoto]

We're not superstars but we're skating with the three heavy hitters -- Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.

London housing prices jumped enough in the latest monthly tally to place this city in the top four of 21 cities monitored by Statistics Canada.

London prices rose 1.7 per cent in August over July to lead Ontario increases.

Edmonton recorded the biggest gain with a 6.8 per cent rise, with Calgary (3.5 per cent) and Vancouver (2.5 per cent) rounding out the top three spots.

The spike in London prices reflected the ability of builders to pass on increased costs for materials and labour to consumers, said Ken Sumnall, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage Housing Corp. in London.

"They're not able to do that in a slow market," he said.

London can't be compared to Edmonton and Calgary, said Sumnall.

"They're in a league of their own. It's not uncommon for house prices to jump $15,000 to $20,000 in a month in those two cities."

From August 2005 to this August, house prices rose 60.6 per cent in Calgary and nearly 38 per cent in Edmonton, Sumnall said.

During the same period, they jumped 5.7 per cent in London, more than the increases for the last few years and more than most Ontario cities for the last year.

By comparison, Toronto house prices rose 3.8 per cent, Ottawa 3.4 per cent and Kitchener 3.5 per cent.

House prices rose 6.6 per cent in Hamilton and not at all in Windsor.

Despite a 16-per-cent drop in single-family housing starts last month, London's market is still "reasonably strong," Sumnall said.

Housing starts in September 2005 were unusually high, he said.

He expects year-end start totals for London to be about 10 per cent below 2004, the record year.

"That would still be a very good year," Sumnall said.

While no dollar figures were given for the new homes, Century 21 reported in May that the value of a typical three-bedroom bungalow in London had risen 48 per cent to $191,000 from $131,000 since 2001.

Price increases since June would put the value of that resale home in the $200,000 range.

HOUSING PRICES

Monthly Yearly

increase increase

Edmonton 6.8% 37.8%

Calgary 3.5% 37.8%

Vancouver 2.5% 7.9%

London 1.7% 5.7%

Sudbury 0.8% 1.7%

Montreal 0.5% 4.7%

Hamilton 0.5% 6.6%

Toronto 0.4% 3.8%

Kitchener 0% 3.5%

Windsor 0% 0.2%

[GreatTallNorth2]

I actually just spoke with the owner of Tricar on the phone. Just out of the blue I decided to call him. I asked him if he planned on building both buildings (across from JLC) the exact same height, etc. He said yes. I then told him that he should instead build one taller and told him that London already has too many unpleasing twin towers. He said that I shouldn't worry about it looking unpleasing as these towers look nice. He then hung up on me. This tells me that they are indeed building both towers.

London needs to really push for better design in buildings. Other than One London Place, everything else looks pretty bland.

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[GreatTallNorth2]

Let's just say that we didn't have a long conversation. He was wondering why I was calling and who I was. I just said that I belong to a community of people with an interest in downtown. He was kind of short with me which is to be expected. I am totally convinced they are building both towers and it will be 100 million. They will start with the first tower and then build the second.

[ldoto]

It sounds like good news to me!

Today I decided to send an E-mail to the city of London Building Division about the inquiry regarding the former central library land.

This is what they sent me!

Dear Sir. Thank you for your inquiry regarding the former central library. We have no permit application on file at this time. For future plans and timing you may want to direct your question to the property's owner.

Thank you
Manager of Plans Examination
City of London
Building Division


*** This message was sent to you from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld ***

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