How small is too small for infill?

[rodionx]

Some mystery company just bought the building up the street from me. The owners are moving to suburbia. Their former home (I hesitate to call it a house) seems a good candidate for infill - it's a leaky, semi-dilapidated 100+ year-old residential building (non-heritage), and right downtown. In fact, it's a couple of blocks away from Richcraft's planned condo development at Bay and Nepean. However, the lot size isn't that big: it's a corner lot of about 66 feet by 66 feet. The Centretown infill I've seen is typically on big lots.

Would a serious developer bother with a lot that size? How many townhouses could you fit in that space, anyway? Zoning is R4T. Is it significant that the purchaser brought in a backhoe and dug up a chunk of sidewalk in front of the building? Richcraft made similar cuts in front of its properties up the street.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by rodionx

Some mystery company just bought the building up the street from me. The owners are moving to suburbia. Their former home (I hesitate to call it a house) seems a good candidate for infill - it's a leaky, semi-dilapidated 100+ year-old residential building (non-heritage), and right downtown. In fact, it's a couple of blocks away from Richcraft's planned condo development at Bay and Nepean. However, the lot size isn't that big: it's a corner lot of about 66 feet by 66 feet. The Centretown infill I've seen is typically on big lots.

Would a serious developer bother with a lot that size? How many townhouses could you fit in that space, anyway? Zoning is R4T. Is it significant that the purchaser brought in a backhoe and dug up a chunk of sidewalk in front of the building? Richcraft made similar cuts in front of its properties up the street.

I am wondering if the cut was to disconnect utilities - if it is going to be a tear down - which it sounds like. They were making lots of these on Bank street last week to connect the temporary water lines to all the buildings.

Is there any possibilities beside it?

The other thing that comes to mind is some sort of commercial development if it is a corner.

Or some developer is just adding it to their land inventory for future considerations...

[mersar]

66x66 is actually not too bad a size lot, theres a lot of infill I've seen, especially in Calgary, thats smaller. Theres a number of units in the Hillhurst and Sunnyside areas for instance that are only about 30x80 (they are mid-block though).

In terms of the number of units, you could potentially get 2 side by side, or possibly 4 if you went with a single floor each, depending on how much grass they are required to keep on the property, etc.

[rodionx]

Thanks for the info. Most likely they're cutting off utilities, since they dug the hole in front of a section of the building that hasn't been used in years (it was once a cafe). We'll see if they cut off the other sections when the owners move out. There are no possibilities for expanding the lot, although there are some development opportunities across the street.

I did find one example of infill on a small lot in Centretown, at 246 Gilmour. Something like that would be nice. Hope they don't land bank it for ages.

[O-Town Hockey]

Why not build something like this?



It's a 58 storey condo tower that has a 260 square metre floor plate that they attempted to build in Columbia. The steel structure started to bend and almost fell over so they had to cancel the project. Interesting thought though .

[clynnog]

Originally Posted by O-Town Hockey

Why not build something like this?



It's a 58 storey condo tower that has a 260 square metre floor plate that they attempted to build in Columbia. The steel structure started to bend and almost fell over so they had to cancel the project. Interesting thought though .

Somehow, I would think that the shadowing folks and Ms. Holmes would have something to say about that.

[Luker]

wow thats funny and some of the stupidest things ive ever seen

[socialisthorde]

Luckily they didn't have time to slap on some cladding to hold it straight before anyone noticed. It would have been full of residents now, swaying gracefully in the wind.

[Luker]

i wonder how many floors they put up a day? lol maybe it was a one day project and then they just dissasembled it when it didnt work out lol