2395 Bayview Avenue

[Northern Light]

Currently the site of the Bob Rumball Canadian Centre of Excellence for the Deaf; the lands have sold to the adjacent private school; The Crescent School.

Crescent School Acquires Bob Rumball Centre Property, a "Once-in-a-Lifetime" Opportunity

/CNW/ - Crescent School has acquired the Bob Rumball Centre property, the current site of the Bob Rumball Canadian Centre of Excellence for the Deaf, located...

www.newswire.ca

The acquisition is costing the school 42M, of which 12M is coming from a lead donor and Alumni.

This is a 7 acre parcel; and adds to the 30 acre campus Crescent already owns.

(personally, I'm not a fan of private or single-sex education, and this is not a great outcome to me, but C'est la Vie)

Crescent, as yet, has not made a final determination on future plans for the property.

The Rumball site is immediate north of the sports field in this aerial photo:

This is the existing Rumball building:

 

[AlbertC]

Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf residents applaud building's sale and hope for bigger, better space​

July 1, 2021

BRCCED is now looking for a new home after the seven-acre property that houses the centre was recently sold for $42 million to the neighbouring Crescent School, a private boys’ school that has 780 students from Grades 3 to 12.

Opened in 1979, the centre provides supportive housing to 42 seniors and 33 people with special needs. The centre also includes a church, a gymnasium, meeting rooms, a dining hall and administrative space.

John and Sherry applaud the sale of the property, saying they’re looking forward to moving to a “more modern” residence.

“The building that we have right now needs a lot of repairs, so rather than spend money on updating and upgrading the old building, I would rather a new place,” John said.

Sherry said she hopes the new building will be “bigger and better and closer to shopping centres.”

BRCCED president Derek Rumball said the centre doesn’t have enough housing for people who are deaf and in need. “Our building is getting old, and we can’t afford to stay on site and add more units,” he said. “But the value in the property allows us to get a really good foothold and working with our municipal, provincial and federal government, we’re going to double, if not triple, our level of service and support within the GTA.”

Rumball suggested “the resources” from the Bayview site sale will be used to build housing for the next couple of generations. “I think that without hesitation, if we had three times the number of residential units, we could fill them with deaf people, and there’s much more that we want to do,” he said. “We want to provide mental health services specifically for deaf individuals, we want to do more with our young parents, we want to do so much more with community outreach, and we’re physically out of space.”

As part of the sale, the centre can remain on site for up to five years before Crescent School assumes use of the property.

Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf residents applaud building's sale and hope for bigger, better space

For John and Sherry Phillips, communication has been a challenge during the pandemic. John is hard of hearing and his wife of 51 years, Sherry, is deaf.

www.toronto.com