Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

Glad this appears to be gearing up for marketing.
I have a feeling there will be a lot of international interest in this project, and I'd hate to see it get killed by a potential future non-resident tax like Vancouver.
 
Lyphe said:
Glad this appears to be gearing up for marketing.
I have a feeling there will be a lot of international interest in this project, and I'd hate to see it get killed by a potential future non-resident tax like Vancouver.
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Totally disagree.

As a Vancouverite I have seen first hand the damage the "investors" {aka money-launderers} have done to the city. where condos are put up for sale on Chinese sites before they are on the local MLS listings. Where buildings of 200 units only have 65 different buyers. Where a mayor says one of the primary needs of the city are more heliports for Chinese buyers. A place with no affordable housing and thousands on the street but literally thousands of empty houses. Whole blocks with only a couple occupied dwellings and the loss of over 25,000 homes many of them heritage so money can be laundered in building new ones that have no similarities to the ones already existing in the community. Local retailers going under by the hundreds because their high income "residents" actually don't live there. A place with the fastest aging population and lowest birth rate in the country because children are now too expensive. As they say in Vancouver, what do you call an ultrasound in Vancouver?.........an eviction notice.

Tall buildings may look great but don't ever hope for the situation Vancouver finds itself in where housing is not for people to live in but simple a substitute for a stock market. Forget the penis envy, architecture is important, but first, second, and third, housing should be for people and not just another commodity. Housing is a necessity of life and when it is just considered a commodity then so are the people who live in it.

I know I'm off on a tangent but Toronto should not emulate Vancouver's 15% tax but rather introduce a 50% and if that means fewer vanity projects it's well worth the trade off of having a city where people come first and not developers.
 
This project should get intentional attention should it proceed but, I'm not convinced the architecture will create that many sales. It's not a top priority for investors. The stupidtall will need 800 to 900 units presold. A monumental challenge for any brokerage. Projectcore's inexperience won't help either against other competing Entertainment District developments. I wonder if they should have going higher end with 1/3rd the units. Maybe get a hotel on board.
 
I'm sorry I went on a tangent but if stopping real estate flippers means cancelling every unique project in the city then it is well worth the price. Took a look at MLS and compared Toronto {scar, et, ny, old city} to a similar area of Vancouver {nv ,wv, bur, rich and van city}/ In Tor there are about roughly 580 homes under $900k while in Vancouver there is a grand total of 5, two of which are in the ever exclusive Downtown Eastside.

Great buildings are great to have as long as they for the people who live in the city and not just for passport buying, speculation, and money laundering. It can totally destroy a city and its character as Vancouver clearly exemplifies. Housing of all types should be to the benefit of the city, its citizens, and community and not help lead to its demise and if that means no Mirvish & Gehry project then so be it.
 
Exactly it's ridiculous. My parents are out in SURREY EFFIN BC sitting in a now worth 1 million dollar house. A house that they bought 10 years ago for 450k. I lived in Ice 2 so many units on floors empty but owned. This buying and not occupying Canadian homes has decreased the supply while demand is still rising. New developments can't keep up. All the new developments that are going up don't give a crap about quality they just want a unit out there cause they know the foreign investors just want a place for their money to sit. As a young Canadian in school I'm slowly accepting the fact that 10 years down the road the city that I grew up in will push/price me out. Heck not even Toronto, all of Canada will become unaffordable as income isnt increasing as fast as real estate. Owning a home will be rare occurrences for my generation.

 
am29 said:
Exactly it's ridiculous. My parents are out in SURREY EFFIN BC sitting in a now worth 1 million dollar house. A house that they bought 10 years ago for 450k. I lived in Ice 2 so many units on floors empty but owned. This buying and not occupying Canadian homes has decreased the supply while demand is still rising. New developments can't keep up. All the new developments that are going up don't give a crap about quality they just want a unit out there cause they know the foreign investors just want a place for their money to sit. As a young Canadian in school I'm slowly accepting the fact that 10 years down the road the city that I grew up in will push/price me out. Heck not even Toronto, all of Canada will become unaffordable as income isnt increasing as fast as real estate. Owning a home will be rare occurrences for my generation.

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^Rest assured, not "all of Canada" will become unaffordable. There are plenty of still very affordable cities in Canada. Each market is unique, let's not panic here too much.
 
biospherian said:
Latest tweet...
https://mobile.twitter.com/MirvishGehryTO/status/764914814980354048/photo/1
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There is nothing new in that tweet - the rendering is available in the public docs, and ditto asking people to sign up for their list.

As to affordability - better get used to it, Toronto isn't getting smaller and expectations must change accordingly, along the lines of what every other large growing city in the world experiences. If one have a beef about affordability, one should perhaps ask why do we still have such a large detached housing inventory in the core that is for all intents and purposes un-densify/redevelopable?

AoD
 
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Pretty sure Winnipeg is affordable :) Actually it has great bones, urban core with perhaps teh best concentration of old stock buildings west of Montreal.

I'd love to see a Gehry project of this scale in Toronto- the towers certainly are compelling. However having recently seen 8 Spruce street up close I have to say it didn't do much for me- the form is fine but the finish is rather dull and grubby. I hope this project in TO is a little more dazzling and polished.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
If one have a beef about affordability, one should perhaps ask why do we still have such a large detached housing inventory in the core that is for all intents and purposes un-densify/redevelopable?

AoD
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A mix of high, mid and low density neighbourhoods is key to Toronto's character. There is an abundance of development sites in this city - rather than bulldozing neighbourhoods, we should be facilitating mid and high rise development along our Avenues. Right now, city planning staff/Councillors will fight townhouses on arterials near a subway stops, will side with NIMBYs against mid-rise developments and keep adopting "guidelines" intended to make midrises unfeasible, and will arbitrarily seek to constrain height in areas where height should not be an issue (while ignoring design and streetscape issues that will have far greater impact). The problem is not stable lower-rise neighbourhoods.
 
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What other cities in Canada have adequate adequate job supply, cultural diversity, public access to transportation and affordable real estate in Canada?
 
am29 said:
What other cities in Canada have adequate adequate job supply, cultural diversity, public access to transportation and affordable real estate in Canada?
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I fully agree with all the points you've made, but are we digressing a little?
 
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