Construction crews have just finished demolition work at the site. A drill rig will be brought in early next year to begin geothermal drilling for pipes to be installed deep underground that will transfer energy for heating and cooling approximately 300 units in the 305,000-square-foot building.
“Demolition is all but complete,” says Pouyan Safapour, president at Devron. “The existing building was taken down and we are currently backfilling the site to get it ready for the geothermal drilling. We are nearing completion on that and there’s a little bit of cleanup remaining.
“It was more of an excavator and grabber process and was done slowly and carefully. It’s a very, very busy area with lots of car and pedestrian traffic so we did it slowly and carefully taking it apart.”
A two-storey building with a combination of retail and office space was torn down. United Wrecking did the demolition work and had five workers onsite daily. Michael Brothers did the backfilling.
In January or February, crews will begin installing pipes for the geothermal system. They will tap into the consistent temperatures underground. The sustainable energy source will help reduce carbon emissions.
“Essentially, it’s a whole bunch of very deep holes,” says Safapour. “They need to have those holes so that when we get to shoring and excavating it does not interrupt the construction process. When you have those pipes in the ground, they then get connected to heat pumps and essentially use the fact that the temperature of the soil at great depth does not fluctuate like the temperature outside.”
“Some people refer to it as a battery as it allows a heat exchange to provide heating and cooling for the building.”
The site, at the southeast corner of Spadina and Adelaide, is busy and space is tight. A city-owned parking lot is also amalgamated into the plan. As part of the project, four levels of underground parking will be built. Two upper levels will be for public parking, two lower levels will be for condo owners.
Devron hopes to start shoring up the site in spring, with construction on the underground parking starting after that.
The timeline of the build depends on when the company can get clearances for various aspects of the project, but Safapour says the plan is to have the venture completed in 2029.