London Construction - Development News Thread#1

[londoner_abroad]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

I am most interested in the York St one, wonder where they are thinking. There are quite a few parking lots...maybe call the office is getting knocked down lol.

This would actually be on the site where the abandoned "King-Wah Food Supplies" building is currently which is just west of the Greyhound Bus station. Personally I don't think its too "exciting"

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by londoner_abroad

This would actually be on the site where the abandoned "King-Wah Food Supplies" building is currently which is just west of the Greyhound Bus station. Personally I don't think its too "exciting"

Not terribly exciting if it's just a small building however I was thinking a residential tower with a retail/grocery type lower level would be ideal. If it's the picture shown it's nothing special however any grocery downtown is a good thing.

[londoner_abroad]

Let put dreams and fantasies (SoHo development) on hold and look at some real projects, shall we? hahaha

New projects going to the Urban Design Peer Review Panel this month:

- Proposed Big Box retail (yes another one..) at S/W Corner of Southdale and White Oak Rd ~ Seems like the old school way of designing.. especially with the drive through directly parallel along the whole Southdale Rd. frontage.

- Proposed Mercedes Benz Dealership on Southdale Rd. a couple sites west of the one mentioned above ~ the brief isnt opening, will try to contact someone at the city to see if they can get the link up and running.

- New Fire Station #7 to be on Webster St replacing the tired #7 currently located on Highbury Avenue between Cheapside and Huron ~ Looks neat, I am glad that this fire station looks like a civic building like a a true fire station as opposed to the house on Fanshawe Park Road. Similarly to the house on Colonel Talbot south of Southdale that also looks like a house with an over sized garage but is really and EMS station.. Why would anyone make something look like its not!? Glad to see the City seems to have changed directions.

- Carpenters Union building to be built on Highbury South of the 401 near flying J ~ looks like a nice building taking into consideration where it is located. I like how the architects placed the building closer to street and actually created an active frontage. There is parking on either side but I guess its a necessary evil again due to its location.

Anyway if anyone wants to check out the briefs with renderings go to:
http://london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Planning_...erjan18_12.htm

[north 42]

Originally Posted by bolognium

Anyone catch Joe's state of the city address? He touched on two pretty damn interesting developments.

One was a residential (maybe mixed use) complex on Wellington and South streets. And the other was a development somewhere on York Street which will apparently have a grocery store...

The details were really vague, but here are two screencaps:

So what are the chances of this project actually happening? It looks great and would be a nice addition to your growing skyline. Is So-Ho very close to your downtown?

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by north 42

So what are the chances of this project actually happening? It looks great and would be a nice addition to your growing skyline. Is So-Ho very close to your downtown?

I have no idea what the chances of this happening since the vast majority of us found out about it yesterday.

So-Ho is directly south of downtown. It begins 'south of Horton Street' and extends south towards the Thames River.

[bolognium]

Developer, theatre leaders see possibilities after years of talks. Deal also could see new residential tower built near Richmond and Dufferin.

A London development company has jumped on board a plan that could lead to a big expansion at The Grand Theatre.

Key to how far — and how quickly — the proposal moves will be whether city officials agree to a land deal.

Landlocked on three sides and unable to build upward, the only option for expanding The Grand (471 Richmond St.) is a parking lot owned by Sifton Development. The lot — with frontage on Dufferin Avenue — abuts the back of the theatre. Leaders of the arts venue have been eyeing it for years.

With no money to buy the lot in The Grand’s coffers and Sifton hesitant to give up parking for its nearby office building, plans were at a standstill, said Deb Harvey, the theatre’s executive director.

“Without that parking lot, we really cannot expand,” she said.

Now, the ball’s rolling again.

Theatre officials and Sifton have approached the city with a proposal: They want control of a municipal parking lot on Queens Avenue, east of the London Club (just east of Richmond). Richard Sifton, the development company’s president, said that would allow the company to give The Grand its Dufferin lot without losing parking spaces.

If the city is willing to give up the lot, it would be an important step to making the expansion a reality.

Earlier this week, members of a city council committee forwarded a letter explaining the proposal to staff for review. Harvey said the idea — plus architectural renderings — has been pitched to city leaders, including Mayor Joe Fontana.

Things started to pickup steam in the fall when a multimillion-dollar plan for downtown was unveiled, she said.

With Fanshawe College developing its downtown arts campus and UWO considering taking over the block including Centennial Hall, it’s a good time to put ideas on the table, Harvey said.

“We are one of many people presenting proposals to the city these days,” Harvey said. “We have to dream a little bit and plan for our city. … I think that is happening right now.”

Source Metro - Grand plan to expand theatre gets boost

[Kokkei Mizu]

Originally Posted by bolognium

Deal also could see new residential tower built near Richmond and Dufferin.

Wait what? Nothing in the article talked about this...?

[bolognium]

It was mentioned at the top of the article right beneath the headline. If you click on the Metro link you'll see it in bold.

Dunno why they didn't go into more detail within the article itself, though.

[manny_santos]

Someone other than Schmuel "Alpha Male" Farhi owns something downtown???

[QuantumLeap]

Originally Posted by bolognium

Anyone catch Joe's state of the city address? He touched on two pretty damn interesting developments.

One was a residential (maybe mixed use) complex on Wellington and South streets. And the other was a development somewhere on York Street which will apparently have a grocery store...

The details were really vague, but here are two screencaps:

http://www.endripolettiarchitect.com/Projects.html if you look at 4, it looks distinctly like this is next to the Greyhound eg at King Wah.

[QuantumLeap]

Looks like the building went to committee of adjustment to get relief from - get this - the requirement to have 6 parking spaces on-site. Are you kidding?! This sort of anti-urban policy is the reason London (and other cities in North America, for that matter) are so suburban, and when garbage-atic when they aren't urban.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...KVDKfw&cad=rja

[ForestryW]

Still, it's encouraging that a developer would even think about building an office building with insufficient parking in downtown London and not be concerned about attracting tenants.

Added it to the consolidated projects page.

[Kokkei Mizu]

Originally Posted by QuantumLeap

Looks like the building went to committee of adjustment to get relief from - get this - the requirement to have 6 parking spaces on-site. Are you kidding?! This sort of anti-urban policy is the reason London (and other cities in North America, for that matter) are so suburban, and when garbage-atic when they aren't urban.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...KVDKfw&cad=rja

I think the municipality asking for parking on the property is not a bad thing per say. However, for a development like this, I would expect the parking to be one or two levels of underground parking.

[MolsonExport]

Must be Shmuel's brother or cousin. I think London should be rebranded...Western-style, so that we can be distinguished (from London England) by a couple of people living in Burkina Faso or Bhutan.

Shmuelsburg sounds nice. The Fahri Experience. The Fahri City (instead of the Forest City). The incredible Shmu.

Here's our new Font (Helmuth) and brand:

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Must be Shmuel's brother or cousin. I think London should be rebranded...Western-style, so that we can be distinguished (from London England) by a couple of people living in Burkina Faso or Bhutan.

Shmuelsburg sounds nice. The Fahri Experience. The Fahri City (instead of the Forest City). The incredible Shmu.

Here's our new Font (Helmuth) and brand:

And while we're at it, Farhi could buy the entire City of London and every property in it and run it as a private company. None of us would own land; we would lease our houses, businesses, and farms from Farhi.

(shudder)

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

And while we're at it, Farhi could buy the entire City of London and every property in it and run it as a private company. None of us would own land; we would lease our houses, businesses, and farms from Farhi.

(shudder)

And we would all be required to have a picture of Farhi in our living rooms lol.

[K85]

In soviet London, Farhi owns you!

[Symz]

Farhi started to invade Windsor, but I think he's got his hands too tied up in London. Whether or not that's a good thing for us I don't know, but based on how much you guys love him I would assume so.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

And we would all be required to have a picture of Farhi in our living rooms lol.

Churches throughout the city would all be converted to a single religion: The Church of Farhi. Worshippers would face in the direction of the Farhi building on Dufferin Ave, and Stobie's Pizza would be served instead of Communion.

And of course, each church would have a Farhi banner outside.

[MolsonExport]

from near and farhi, his kingdom stretched onwards