London Construction - Development News Thread#1

[drjohnnyfever]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Damn. Not another one.

Another what?

Large building? If that's what you meant, then I would reply "at least it has interesting architecture".

Place of worship? If that's what you meant, then I would reply "as a Christian I'm offended by your statement... but you are entitled to your opinion".

[ldoto]

Numbers show fewer vacancies, new loans and a positive vibe.

Yesterday was a good day for downtown London.

"The downtown isn't just coming back, it is back," Bob Usher, London Downtown Business Association (LDBA) chairperson, declared at the group's annual meeting, held at a rapidly expanding art gallery owned by Jonathon Bancroft-Snell.

Numbers show fewer vacancies, new business loans, new street art and a positive response to a new revitalization strategy.

Owners of vacant property can apply for a tax reduction that in turn lowers the levy paid to the LDBA and Usher said the levy "clawback" has dropped from $85,000 to just $7,000 in the last five years, an indicator the downtown is in healthier times.

The LDBA also announced two new programs:

- An interest-free loan program for tenants who want to improve their business properties.

- The Spriet Trees -- 30, 4.5-metre metallic trees with multi-coloured leaves that will be installed as public art.

Earlier, at a board of control meeting, a new city plan for "downtown enterprise zones" received support.

It involves business incentives, tax holidays and a heritage district for a corridor of Dundas and Richmond streets.

Controller Gord Hume said the plan was "very well-received" and controllers had other suggestions, including improved lighting on downtown buildings.

Hume added that the current "lame duck" council can't make a financial commitment and the matter has been deferred until the new council takes office in December.

Hume expects the plan will be embraced by the new board of control because the only new member, Gina Barber, appears to be a strong downtown supporter.

At the LDBA meeting, five new "champions" were recognized for their contributions to the downtown.

Andy Spriet and Lindsay Elwood were honoured for the work with the LDBA and developers Joe Carapella, Jamie Crich and Bernie Bierbaum were recognized for recent residential projects their companies have built that have boosted the downtown population.

[ldoto]

A Century 21 survey shows London has been the second-hottest real estate market in Ontario for the last five years.

The semi-annual survey showed the price of a "typical" house in the London market was $220,000 last month, up 13 per cent in the last six months and 68 per cent over the last five years.

That ranked London second among 13 Ontario communities surveyed. The leader was the Beaches area of Toronto, where prices soared 106 per cent over five years.

Century 21 sales agent Sam Meddaoui said London had been a real estate bargain for years and has been catching up with other major markets in recent years.

"This is a great city and housing is still very affordable," he said.

There are signs the London market is slowing this fall, with more listings coming on the market, he said.

"The market is starting to dry up somewhat. It won't be the sellers' market it has been."

He said it may take some time for sellers to adjust their expectations, but more stable prices will be good for the market, helping London avoid the volatility seen in Toronto and Vancouver.

"The sellers have had some fun, now it's time for the buyer to have their fun."

Century 21 survey figures differ from those used by the London and St. Thomas Real Estate Board because they're based on a "typical" home -- in this case a two-storey home in the Byron area -- instead of accounting for all home sales.

Don Lawby, president of Century 21, predicts house prices will be stable across Ontario, saying Canada should escape the slump in housing prices seen in the United States.

The U.S. market has been skewed by "no-interest" mortgages and rules allowing homeowners to deduct mortgage interest from their income tax, he added.

"People start using their homes like an ATM. Once you start doing that, you treat your home as different vehicle rather than as a place to live."

[ldoto]

With nearly 11,000 suggestions to choose from, it's a toss-up which will be the taller order -- building London's newest high-rise, or naming it.

When Tricar Group began work on the $100-million, twin-tower apartment complex this fall, it invited Londoners to name the new downtown landmark in a contest offering more than $5,000 in prizes.

Nearly 11,000 submissions came in by the time the contest closed Friday. "The people of the city really seemed to embrace the contest. It's amazing," Joe Carapella of Tricar said yesterday. "We're really happy about it."

Many of the submissions are identical to others -- variations using the two street names, King and Ridout, where the towers are being built. Carapella and his staff will spend the next few days reviewing entries, the winner to be announced this Friday.

[FazDeH]

11000 entries? wow glad I submited 10995, I think I have a pretty good shot?! It is cool how there seems to be a ground swell of support for this project. Does anyone know the aprox. completion times the buildings?

[ldoto]

McKay-Cocker will construct the plant in Woodstock.

A London construction firm will build the new Toyota plant in Woodstock.

McKay-Cocker Construction is looking to hire more than 500 workers as it prepares to start construction on the $1.1-billion manufacturing plant, which will employ 2,000 when it begins production in 2008.

"We're thrilled. This is great for us," chief executive Paul Cocker said yesterday. "This is a very important, highly visible project and it is a real boost."

The company -- which is partnering with Michigan construction firm Walbridge Aldinger to build about 75 per cent of the massive job -- will double its staff of 150 and add another 400 workers through trades and subtrades to get the job done, he said.

"We will be hiring everywhere from Toronto to Windsor, but most of those people will come from here," said Cocker.

The deal comes at just the right time, helping to offset a cooling of employment in the auto parts sector, added Mike Ropp, training and apprenticeship co-ordinator for Local 1059, Labourers International Union in London.

"This is a huge win," Ropp said. "That much local work will mean job security for some workers."

Although area manufacturers have complained of a skills trade shortage, London has a 6.7-per-cent unemployment rate, meaning there are still workers available to get the job done, said Jeny Wallace, director of workforce development with the London Economic Development Corp.

"We have capacity. This is a clear indication of a fabulous spinoff for London and a great opportunity for London and area workers," she said.

The remaining 25 per cent of the jobs will be contracted to other firms, but McKay-Cocker and its U.S. partner will build:

- A 675,000-square-foot assembly building.

- A 185,000-square-foot paint shop.

- A 495,000-square-foot weld shop.

- A 45,000-square-foot utility building.

- Site work, which means paving and drainage for the area.

"We are very fortunate," said Cocker. "Now, we're just sitting down to staff it and schedule it and will start tendering it soon."

McKay-Cocker will also be looking for project managers, superintendents, labourers and carpenters.

The company has also won deals to build the $65-million Toyota Boshoku parts plant in Woodstock, which will supply Toyota with seats, door panels and floor carpets. And it's also contracted to tear down a shopping mall on the site.

In addition, McKay-Cocker will break ground tomorrow on Aisin Canada, a 140,000-square-foot auto parts plant in Stratford.

"We're a medium-sized company, but this increases our visibility, which is great. It may lead to other things," said Cocker.

[Snark]

..

[MolsonExport]

^Thanks for the info.

[ldoto]

The Winning Name for proposed 600-unit, $100-million twin tower apartment project in London's core is The Renaissance!

[FazDeH]

wow original,...

[ldoto]

Renaissance rises to top as name for towers for towers

Sat, December 2, 2006

By HANK DANISZEWSKI, FREE PRESS BUSINESS REPORTER



The Renaissance is rising in downtown London.

That's the name chosen from 11,000 suggestions for the new $100-million, twin-tower apartment project now under construction by Tricar Group.

The name came from Londoner Gordon MacPherson and was announced at a champagne reception at Covent Garden Market last night.

"I was totally shocked. My wife called me at work and I jumped right out of my seat," said MacPherson, who works at Carlson Wagonlit Travel and had to keep his win a secret.

He and his wife, Joanne, will get a $5,000 prize package, including a vacation on the Mayan Riviera, and a $1,000 downtown shopping spree.

MacPherson wasn't the only one to suggest the name Renaissance for the new London landmark, but was deemed the winner because he submitted the name first.

Tricar owner Joe Carapella said he was overwhelmed by the response to the contest and chose Renaissance as the most appropriate name.

"It really describes what's happening in downtown London . . . It means rebirth, revival and that's what is happening in the core," he said.

[ldoto]

Update!

Tristar works on preparing the foundation of the new double-tower residential development at the corner of Ridout and King streets this week.

[ldoto]

With courage, strong planning and lots more people, London's core could be Ontario's envy, expert says.

By JOE MATYAS, FREE PRESS REPORTER





A courageous city government armed with strong planning and urban design principles could make London the envy of Ontario cities, an internationally recognized planner said yesterday.

London has "a very strong ambiance" related to its architectural history and scale and river location, Larry Beasley, Vancouver's recently retired director of planning, said yesterday.

"Your inner city cries out for 60,000 people to live in it," he said.

"If you add 40,000 to 50,000 people to it, your downtown will be so alive, it will steal the show in Ontario."

Beasley was the keynote speaker at the 2006 City of London Urban Design Awards, organized by the city and sponsored by the London Development Institute and London Home Builders' Association.


Three projects received awards of excellence and one an honourable mention at the event attended by a who's-who of London planners, architects, designers and developers. Displays also celebrated four 2005 award winners.

'The awards are brilliant, because they start the process of people talking about design," said Beasley, who is listed by the United Nations as one of the world's top planners because of the way Vancouver was transformed in three decades.

Beasley said Vancouver was a terribly designed city, one of the worst in Canada, before the 1970s.

But political will and public interest created a climate of change that made it possible to put in place policies that led to highly designed development, he said.

The guidelines included high-density land use, compact growth, open space to control sprawl, underground parking and a conscious plan to encourage public transit and discourage use of automobiles.

"We do not build freeways, we limit them," Beasley said of Vancouver.

"We have fewer cars commuting in and out of the city than 10 years ago."

Good urban design sets back highrises, creates low-rise streetscapes in front of them and includes a wide range of businesses, services and resources, including schools, day-care centres, libraries, theatres and community halls, he said.

"You've got to bring the scale down to the street level," he said.

And it provides a mix of accommodation so the city is accessible to every income level, he said.

About 20 per cent of any new residential development in Vancouver must be social housing, he said, adding 25 per cent of new multiple housing units are geared to families.

Quoting Brazilian urban planner Jaime Lerner, Beasley said: "Every city has to have a design, a city without a design doesn't know where it's going and doesn't know how to grow."

London has assets to build on, including older architecture, medical facilities and the Thames River, he said.

Water engages people, whether it's an ocean, lake or river, he said.

2006 URBAN DESIGN AWARD WINNERS

- Buildings: London Hall student residence, University of Western Ontario. Project team: Architects Tillmann Ruth Mocellin Inc. and Murphy Hilgers Inc.; Vafiades Landscape Architect Inc.; Southside Construction Ltd.

- Landscape: London Life Queen Street Redevelopment. Project team: Kernow Garden Inc.; Vafiades Landscape Architect Inc.; Cintar Groundskeeping Services.

- Elements: No. 2 Fire Station on Florence Street for six bas-relief tablets of fire, wind, water, foundry, time and industry. Project team: Murphy and Murphy Architect Inc.; Puglia Mouldings and Plasterworks Ltd.

- Honourable Mention, buildings category: UWO child-care facility. Project Team: Ventin Group Ltd.; Jain and Associates Ltd.; Hastings and Aziz Ltd.; Wendy Shearer Landscape Architect Ltd.; Southside Construction Ltd

[MolsonExport]

"Your inner city cries out for 60,000 people to live in it," he said.

"If you add 40,000 to 50,000 people to it, your downtown will be so alive, it will steal the show in Ontario."

Pie in the sky. What is the current DT population? 6000? London is currently growing by ~4000 yearly. Only a small proportion of that mediocre growth will end up DT (unfortunately). Everyone else will end up in the exurbs, like Hyde Park (where I am ensconced), Lambeth, and other areas of the growing periphery.

[Snashcan]

Larry Beasley was at Fanshawe and I went to his Lecture, very very interesting.

He's done some amazing things in Vancouver.

Molson Export - the idea is not just to bring the new people in london to downtown but people throughout london to move back into downtown. So have burb londoners move back into the downtown. It worked in Vancouver, It could work here.

[MolsonExport]

^Most of the 'Vancouverites' that moved downtown were newcomers to the city.

[Snark]

..

[sbday]

I would have thought that with all of the residential development downtown in recent years (and that under construction now), the downtown population would have already significantly increased from what it was say just 5 years ago. Does anyone know what the downtown population is? For example the Cityplace development has approx. 400 units and if you consider and average of 2 people in each unit, thats 800 more people (theoretically) living DT.

I was in London for several weeks this past summer and the core seems to be healthier than it has been in many years. In fact, my inlaws have moved downtown into one of the towers this past summer, leaving their empty nest in Old North (subject of recent LFP article).

[ldoto]

Tue, December 12, 2006

By JONATHAN SHER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER



A battle of wills between a downtown developer and city hall has spilled over across Dundas Street.

In October, Shmuel Farhi threatened to vacate his downtown office building if the city didn't allow him to tear down the former Capitol Theatre building on Dundas Street and replace it with a parking lot.

Yesterday, city staff used that as justification, in part, to recommend against allowing the continued use of a parking lot across the street owned by a consortium of some of the city's biggest developers.

"A property owner across the street wants temporary parking . . . Dundas Street is our main street and surface parking is not appropriate," city planner John Fleming told the Millennium Downtown Corp., whose members include Brayl Copp, Andy Spriet, Glen Sifton, Sheldon Aaron, Geno Francolini, Mitch Baron and Vito Frijia.

Staff are willing to allow a lot for another three years along King and Clarence streets but want to reject a strip of the lot that fronts on Dundas -- space that now has room for about 28 cars.

The site was home to Smugglers' Alley, which was dilapidated in 1999 when council allowed developers to level it.

When some on the city's planning committees said they wanted to replace the strip along Dundas with a parkette, Aaron said that's impractical, as benches there had been trashed by paserbys, and illegal, because other businesses had a right-of-way to use it.

The committee deferred the matter to give staff time to seek a compromise.

[ldoto]

Fix eyesore cop shop plan, critics say

Tue, December 12, 2006

With construction mere months away, they say the exterior design needs more work - and cash.

By JONATHAN SHER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER



A proposed expansion of London's police station will be an eyesore unless city council spends more than $34 million it has already committed, residents and business owners say.

Police are months away from beginning work on an expanded headquarters that has little political opposition.

But neighbours in the Old East Village who support the expansion told a council committee last night they're repulsed by the proposed design, which features a windowless wall to the west, a lot of parking in the front and a facade that fails to hide the boxy structure behind.

"We'd like it rendered less like a modern, suburban mall," said Phil Singeris, who chairs the Old East Village Business Improvement Area.

The city should invest enough in the design to make the police headquarters an attractive gateway to the village, said Annecke Somann, president of the Old East Village Community Association.

Police want to address their concerns and will meet with them, but desire alone won't overcome what deputy chief Brad Duncan says is a budget that doesn't allow extras.

Duncan fears that if police must stick to their budget and improve the exterior, they'll have to scrap or scale back changes to the interior that affect how police function.

"We can't forgo a functional interior," Duncan told planning committee.

Police convinced council to approve expansion of the Dundas Street station because its staff are far more cramped than a typical force, with some working in former closets.

The expansion was initially pegged at $28 million and later raised to nearly $34 million.

That's a formidable sum for a council that has tightened its belt after years of spending on mega-projects such as the John Labatt Centre and the Central Library.

Council has adhered to a cap of $30 million it imposed on borrowing for capital projects.

But while restraint might be in order, it appears to conflict with two other goals that were important to council last term: Strengthening the Old East Village and improving urban design to help attract creative entrepreneurs to the city -- the so-called Creative Cities initiative.

Fears of a Dundas Street eyesore resonated with committee members.

"We learned from the Galleria (London) that a red-brick wall with no windows was not the way to design," Controller Gord Hume said.

If the city wants private developers to design attractive buildings, council must lead by example, Coun. Judy Bryant said.

"I'm reluctant to agree to zoning (changes for an expanded station) if we don't have an opportunity to get involved with the design," she said.

The zoning changes were approved by the committee, which voted for steps that might make the building more attractive:

- The public will have input on the design.

- The work won't go ahead until approved by council through site-plan review.

- City staff will speak with arts groups to see if there are ways to tap into funding for public art.