At southwest corner of this site,.....November 6, 1929 1-storey North York Hydro Commission Building opens - built at a staggering cost of $20,000!
image source: Toronto Archives
This photo from 1957 - shows North York Hydro Building with second storey,.... brickworks look new so I’m assuming that’s when 2nd storey was added. Seems the township of North York was growing rapidly after WW2 and had money for infrastructure. That seems to be a radio tower antenna on rooftop.
digitalarchive.tpl.ca
In 1965, North York Hydro relocated to new location at 5800 Yonge,... City Green-P parking lot likely open on-site then,.... since then this building has hosted a number of businesses including Korean Foregone exchange (current KEB Hana) Bank in the early 1990s, North York Historical Society and now Added Beauty Beauty Supplies & Salon,... and surroundings is dominated by condo towers.
May 14, 2009 - 5151 Yonge former North York Hydro Building added to City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties
THE NORTH YORK Hydro Building on Yonge Street is poised to get its place in history.
trnto.com
This site along with many others were once considered for AffordableHousing 12 years ago. Back then City didn't have money for it - these days, City getting money from Feds - May 20, 2010 "Development of Affordable Housing by Build Toronto"
- This northeast corner of Yonge & Empress/ParkHome Ave with potential for direct subway connection has been available to Office Developers for decades - but City condition is for Office Redevelopment Only and Preservation of Historical North York Hydro Building (1929). No real demand for new office space in the area since late 1980s so developers are shy to build Office Tower here.
- Many Residential Condo Developer would pay arm and leg for this prime 5151 Yonge location with Direct Subway Connection; could easily sell for cash to buy twice as much land elsewhere for much larger redevelopment - City not managing Financial Assets well!
- Interestingly, there's a loop-hole in North York Centre Secondary Plan that would allow Developer to get $5million of Section 37 Community Benefit money back if they build at least 15,000sqft of Office Space,... as was triggered by Menkes 4800 Yonge. Thus, Office Space here is more likely to get Direct Subway Connection vs Affordable Housing
Hmm?..168.4 meters tall will be North Yorks tallest, unbelievable, looking at the 100m list there are 107 buildings ( planned, under construction, built) in the GTA that will be taller than that
urbantoronto.ca
The North York Centre Secondary Plan states maximum allowable height of 100m (about 30-storey) and maximum allowable density at 4.5FSI - except at prime corner lots with direct subway connection where maximum density will be 5.98FSI. These days many local development proposals are beyond the 100m limit and at double allowable density,.... they'll get rejected by City but appeal to OMB/OLT has proven successful. It'll be interesting to see if this CreateTO development proposal will follow guidelines in the North York Centre Secondary Plan.
