Toronto 777 Victoria Park Avenue | 114.2m | 35s | CreateTO | Sweeny &Co

Crap like this is why the idea of selling off public lands for development instead of the city themselves building is gaining popularity. During a worsening housing crisis the city has a blank slate to build on a subway station and one of the two towers is half the height of shit they built across the street 50 years ago?????
 
Crap like this is why the idea of selling off public lands for development instead of the city themselves building is gaining popularity.

I support the idea of the City building housing itself...........but just so we're clear the reason for delay here was the absence of CMHC financing.

Now, i think the City were unwise in the extreme to put out a bidding process for the sites where neither the City had, nor were the developers required to show they had financing in place to win.

That's just a bizarre way to do business.

That said, the feds just announced 20B in new CMHC backed mortgages for purpose-built rental, student and seniors housing today, so that should get this moving if people aren't asleep at the switch.

During a worsening housing crisis the city has a blank slate to build on a subway station and one of the two towers is half the height of shit they built across the street 50 years ago?????

Yes it is/was; however, it's not as simple as you may think. Criteria related to zoning, separation, construction etc. all change as height increases. This impacts the number of units per floor, and the cost per ft2 of building.

The 11s building is much larger per floor than it would be, were it larger than 12s. In other words, the building has about the same yield in unit count as designed, as it would at twice the height; except at twice the height it would cost more to build.

There is room to nitpick the edges, including the height of the taller building; but at the same time, site was optimized relatively well.
 
An update that doesn't give us much, is in a report on the agenda for the next CreateTO Board Mtg.


From the above:

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I wonder if the HAF funds might give this site a boost?

Nope.

What they need, principally, is the CMHC financing they should have had years ago.

That said, as @HousingNowTO will tell you, the pro-formas have deteriorated since the original request, which means either additional subsidy, additional density, fewer affordable units or less affordable units.
 
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Here's the update on this one in the latest track report to CreateTO.

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From: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/ra/bgrd/backgroundfile-244844.pdf

The good news is that there's some movement here; the bad news; the MV, the DRP, and revised business terms all should have been completed months ago, at the very latest, and there's no indication here of CMHC pre-approval.

The CofA process is not yet under way.
 
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Via NRUT - "Rendering of Housing Now’s proposal for 777 VICTORIA PARK AVE in Toronto. The Toronto Design Review Panel will undertake its second review of the proposal for the project at its meeting Wednesday, May 15."
 
View attachment 562949

Via NRUT - "Rendering of Housing Now’s proposal for 777 VICTORIA PARK AVE in Toronto. The Toronto Design Review Panel will undertake its second review of the proposal for the project at its meeting Wednesday, May 15."

Good find!
 
View attachment 562949

Via NRUT - "Rendering of Housing Now’s proposal for 777 VICTORIA PARK AVE in Toronto. The Toronto Design Review Panel will undertake its second review of the proposal for the project at its meeting Wednesday, May 15."

Slotted at 4:25pm for those who wish to follow along.
 
View attachment 562949

Via NRUT - "Rendering of Housing Now’s proposal for 777 VICTORIA PARK AVE in Toronto. The Toronto Design Review Panel will undertake its second review of the proposal for the project at its meeting Wednesday, May 15."
New INCREASED site stats from Design Review Panel presentation -

HOUSING_NOW_10-777 Victoria Park Avenue_CreateTO_DRP_13_20240515.PNG


  • HEIGHT : 12 storeys (+1) + 34 Storeys (+11)
  • TOTAL UNITS : 705 units (+197 units)
  • MARKET RENTAL : 449 units (+195 units)
  • AFFORDABLE RENTAL : 256 units (+2 units)

SOURCE : Design Review Panel Meeting, May 15, 2024
Time-Stamp (01:39:48)
 

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