Toronto 629 King Residences (was Thompson Residences) | 53.34m | 15s | Freed | Saucier + Perrotte

Nice Toronto's getting another swanky boutique hotel! Mondrian Hotel along with Thompson Hotel will be popular hangouts during film festival.
 
Sadly, I could not make the meeting.

A friend of mine did attend, and it looks like the Mondrian Hotel is cancelled. The King building will now be a condo - made up mostly of units in the 500 sq. foot range.

I was told that Freed had a tough time at the meeting and actually walked out part way through, leaving an assistant and his lawyer to field questions.

If anyone here attended, please post the details.
 
gristle said:
Sadly, I could not make the meeting.

A friend of mine did attend, and it looks like the Mondrian Hotel is cancelled. The King building will now be a condo - made up mostly of units in the 500 sq. foot range.

I was told that Freed had a tough time at the meeting and actually walked out part way through, leaving an assistant and his lawyer to field questions.

If anyone here attended, please post the details.
Click to expand...

It was definitely the most intense city planning meeting I've been to. Freed was there for the presentation, as were many people from 32 Stewart, which appears to be receiving the brunt of the negative consequences of construction.

It was quite awkward as people would say "certain developers" when airing their grievances, with the Freed team only a few feet away. People that move to the King West do have to expect some drawbacks due to construction, but I think people did have some pretty genuine complaints...with few answers coming out of this meeting.

As for the condo, it's a beautiful building. Well, two buildings actually...one on King and one on Stewart. Someone previously drew a comparison with Cube Lofts, and I can see why. There is a very compartmentalized, stacked quality to it and it looks quite nice. The King height seemed a little high, but not ridiculous.

The hotel is indeed gone, and there will now be more retail on the ground and more residential units. They spoke to "10% 3 bedrooms" as part of that whole inititiative, but the overwhelming majority looked to be one bedrooms and studios. It was just a quick glance, but it looked to me as it will almost entirely fairly long thin units with the bedroom back from the window, as has been the trend in many of Freed's buildings.

Also, a public walkway between King and Stewart has been included to keep that connection to the park and Front Street.
 
Further to the meeting held on Wednesday, January 13, on the proposed development at 621 King Street, the following is a partial summary - tries to cover the main points:

Plans for a hotel as part of the complex changed in the prior week, and the proposal was in the process of being re-worked based on Condominium units only. The rendering presented at the meeting had not yet been updated, as the change was very recent.

Concerns were expressed on several issues:

1. The impact of prior development construction activities of other buildings in the area - primarily 550 Wellington West

2. Impact of the demolition activities for the Travelodge

3. Potential impact of the proposed development at 621 King

1. Impact of Prior Development Activities:

A lot of frustration was expressed regarding disruption of construction activities over the past couple of years on the community. Some of the concerns were directed at Adam Vaughn's office and at the city regarding enforcement of work practices - early morning disruptions, dust and debris, contractor staff behaviour type issues. Some of the individuals raising concerns appeared to not understand roles, scope, responsibilities and process of the various parties, which may have contributed to some of the frustrations. Not to say that the impacts were not real, or could have been handled or mitigated more effectively. The area has seen a huge amount of construction over the past few years.

The complaints regarding the prior developments were general in nature, and based on what was said at the meeting, hard to put into perspective (how much comes with the territory, given the downtown nature of the developments, versus what would be beyond what should reasonably be expected) without having more detail - except to say that some of the comments were made quite strongly - obviously deeply felt issues.

2. Impact of the Travelodge Demolition

A number of complaints about the work practices, damage, and safety risks resulting from the work being done by the demolition contractor - did not sound good. Came across as a fast and sloppy job by a low bid company. Examples cited were early starts, including a 5 AM start of work on a Saturday morning, debris falling onto adjoining properties, high levels of dust and dirt in the area, and general disregard by the contractor's staff of people in the community.

3. Proposed 621 Redevelopment

Saucier + Perrotte are the architects - two buildings planned, a larger building on King Street, and a smaller one on Stewart. The proposal includes a large proportion of smaller units, including bachelor suites, with some larger units. Proposed height for the King Street building was 39.5 metres. Major concerns raised included loss of sunlight and view for residents on the north sides of 20 and 32 Stewart Street buildings, distance between balconies on the south side of the planned King Street building and the north side of 32 Stewart Street building, furthering of a canyon effect on Stewart Street (exacerbating the impact of 550 Wellington), limitations of the laneway that would service the new buildings, etc.

The design renderings by S + P for the proposed buildings were quite impressive - definitely not the usual vertical glass box approach.

Adam Vaughn was not present at the meeting - family birthday.

AHK
 
Thanks for the updates everyone. Now I'm really sorry I could not attend.

The loss of the hotel component is quite unfortunate - as that would have spurred further development and improvements along this portion of King Street.

It will be interesting to find out about why the hotel portion was cancelled. It's now possible that the elevations will be changed due to this alteration in plans.

However, it sounds like the architecture will be a welcome change.

The number of units (240) seems like a lot for these two buildings. I'm going to guess that a majority of the units will be on the small side. Hopefully there will be town homes on the Stewart side and retail on the King Street side.
 
I don't like too much the idea of the small units, while this is good for the developer as they will sell the units quickly, it's not that good for the neighbourhood, most of those small units will be sold to investors that will rent the units when the building is finished. Exactly to what is happening at 550 Wellington with the small units, most of them are being rented. and all of you know what happens with a big portion of rental (see Cityplace buildings)

I would prefer buildings like 66 Portland, 455 Adelaide or 20 Stewart, more boutique buildings with not too many units, where most of the buildings are owner occupied, there are also small units, but a lot of them are one plus den and 2 bedrooms.

240 is certainly a lot, maybe a 50 units building on Stewart and a 90 or 100 units building on King would be great for the area.
 
Very Nice!

I guess because they will be entitled to use all the services the hotel across the street offers?

If you register your confirmation email gives you a better idea of what the building will look like facing King.
 
well the logo is the same as the one for the Thompson hotel chain, so I am guessing they will have a lot to do with each other? I just don't think that thompson has ever done any condos before? either way it looks awesome!
 
buyers will likely have access to the hotel amenities ... perhaps a bridge or tunnel will connect the two buildings
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top