Toronto 48 Isabella Street | 225.7m | 69s | Hollyburn Properties | Kirkor

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Northern Light

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The Lobbyist Registry tells us this low/midrise apartment building is in play.

Site as it is, per Streetview:

1734447018133.png


Aerial Pic:

1734447454800.png


Site size ~18,000ft2

Comments:

Site generally has potential for a tower, but separation distances to the west and north are an issue. To the west is a heritage-type building which to my mind would require an LDA freezing that site.

The distance to the north is to a larger, more contemporary building less likely to see redevelopment with with sub 10M distances for the current footprint.

That almost certainly means setting back the building further from the north lot line. The rough footprint of what's there now is an 800M floor plate, which doesn't leave that much room for setbacks.

Will be interesting to see what they come up with here.
 
Ok....UT, You heard it here first..................but uhhh............well, you'll see.

www.toronto.ca

Application Details

www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca

@Paclo

Architect is KrrKor....

LOL

Really this is so them in so many ways, nice use of colour, but at least 4 different architectural expressions on one building.

Render below is 50% to fit.

1751965974826.png


These 2 are 90%

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1751966088981.png


Top of the tower at full size:

1751966316573.png


Ok......do you remember when I was above that separation distances would be a challenge here?

So how did they resolve that exactly?

Lets have a closer look at the render above that shows the relationship of the new build the lowrise apartment to the west:


1751966438467.png


Uhhh

Hold on...... let's look at the Site Plan here..........it can't be that bad can it?

1751966637836.png


Ok then........

Ground Floor Plan:

1751966694232.png


Stats:

1751966743043.png

Description:

1751966806634.png

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See that last paragraph ^^^^

Elevator Ratio: 814 units - 7 elevators for one elevator per ~116 units

Comments:

- Its Kirkor

- The separation distances are absurd. An 834m2 floor plate doesn't help any.............but getting it down to sub 750 still would not fix the separation issues.....it would barely mitigate them.

- Unit sizes are small. (they vary across floors but here is a sample:

1751967244611.png


So....fine w/the height, great on the colour, separation distances nuts, unit sizes small, too many architectural expressions.
 
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similar comments northern light.. there is a theme of tiny tower sites along these side streets off Yonge with massive tower proposals. At a minimum if you are going aggressive on tower separation you can't be asking for oversized floorplates on top of that.

The west setback is the most concerning - the site to the west could absolutely accommodate a tower with a bit of land assembly, and you can't assume that it's undevelopable.

That's not even talking about the 15m separation to the building to the north and 17m to the building to the east.. it's just not a tower site without further lot consolidation, IMO.

Pick up the heritage building to the west and you can shift the tower plate away from adjacent buildings and eliminate the potential for a tower to the west.

And that's not addressing Kirkor's... choices in architectural design, nor the unit layouts.

There is no shortage of zoned sites in the city at this point. The City needs to start enforcing regulations on these types of applications to the best of their ability. I'm all for flexibility for high effort projects, but stuff like this is bargain-basement and doesn't need the red carpet rolled out for it.
 
Love the colour, and I like the design.

Was wondering what the glass boxes were, and looking at the plans, they are 3 storey tall amenity spaces. If that is built, it will be a pretty unique feature.
 
ushahid said:
Thats Kirkor? i thought it was some Danish firm. goodness we hurt them bad with our comments. looks amazing
Click to expand...
They did all right here...

urbantoronto.ca

Waverley | UrbanToronto

Waverley, Toronto by 1, KIRKOR Architects and Planners
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

...and don't mind all the creaking sounds in the background. That's ProjectEnd-san shifting uncomfortably in their chair. >.<
 
I know some wonderfully weird queer artists who live in this building. Sad about the prospect of them being evicted but I guess if the result is more beneficial it's hard to complain.
 
abovegrade said:
I know some wonderfully weird queer artists who live in this building. Sad about the prospect of them being evicted but I guess if the result is more beneficial it's hard to complain.
Click to expand...
This would qualify for rental replacement, no? They will get a right to return to new units at protected rates. .
 
Interesting ...
How fast could something like this break ground? Is this something we could actually see initiated in '25 or '26 ... or is this one of those 'someday/maybe' proposals?
Curious what the timeline might be.
 
This application is just to try and get more value out of a building sale occurring in a year or two. Its a carrot to justify an over-pay.

There is no actual plan to re-develop seriously by Hollyburn here.
 
Based on what I'm reading, they won't have any parking for the property? I guess that would actually be fine.

Why? If they add parking, it's going to be a mess.

I used to live on this street not too long ago, for many years, and lived in the neighbourhood for almost 17 years. Isabella and Charles are already completely overloaded with traffic during rush hours and the recent condo/rental towers, that have been added in the last 15 years, have amplified the issue dramatically, with even more to come.

I remember traffic being so bad, you'd hear cars honking for hours because of the traffic being backed up during rush hours. The good ol' days. 😒 I can't even imagine adding more huge towers on this street with even more planned just across Church, if they include parking. Yikes.
 
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