Toronto Swansea Mews Revitalization | ?m | ?s | TCHC

Northern Light said:
The Star with an article on the proposal above, just a day late, and with a bit less detail than my post. LOL

www.thestar.com

Plans to rebuild a condemned west-end public housing complex would see it quadruple in size

Tenants of Swansea Mews were forced out of the roughly 150 townhomes when a piece of concrete ceiling fell in 2022.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
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The “next-steps” that the TCHC report has LISTED are in the wrong order.

A ballpark “Financial Feasibility” needs to be FIRST — because otherwise you are just wasting money and time / energy / community goodwill (or badwill) on creating designs and density models that will actually need to be 30 - 300% larger, like we have seen on HOUSING NOW sites like 140 MERTON and 1250 EGLINTON AVE W. — and Phases 4 and 5 at Regent Park.

This all seems far too small, to realistically replace all those Rent Geared to Income (RGI) units, unless TCHC has BILLIONS of available capital and subsidy dollars that we don’t know about..?

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HousingNowTO said:
The “next-steps” that the TCHC report has LISTED are in the wrong order.

A ballpark “Financial Feasibility” needs to be FIRST — because otherwise you are just wasting money and time / energy / community goodwill (or badwill) on crew designs and density models that will actually need to be 30 - 300% larger, like we have seen on HOUSING NOW sites like 140 MERTON and 1250 EGLINTON AVE W. — and Phases 4 and 5 at Regent Park.

This all seems far too small, to realistically replace all those Rent Geared to Income (RGI) units, unless TCHC has BILLIONS of available capital and subsidy dollars that we don’t know about..?

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From the TORONTO STAR story -

The proposal still has many hurdles to clear, including a consultation process, with Perks saying that funding and financing remain key questions. His hope is to see the property stay entirely in public hands, rather than having parcels sold to developers.

"I’ve been very clear in talking to staff from TCHC that I’ll support something that keeps the land in public or social ownership."
 
HousingNowTO said:
The “next-steps” that the TCHC report has LISTED are in the wrong order.

A ballpark “Financial Feasibility” needs to be FIRST — because otherwise you are just wasting money and time / energy / community goodwill (or badwill) on creating designs and density models that will actually need to be 30 - 300% larger, like we have seen on HOUSING NOW sites like 140 MERTON and 1250 EGLINTON AVE W. — and Phases 4 and 5 at Regent Park.

This all seems far too small, to realistically replace all those Rent Geared to Income (RGI) units, unless TCHC has BILLIONS of available capital and subsidy dollars that we don’t know about..?

View attachment 597857
Click to expand...

I agree, though I think its critical to reinforce that unwillingness of the City (CreateTO, or TCHC) to look at strategically adding to their owned parcels, be that willing buyer/seller or expropriation undermines what can be achieved.

My suggested version, in which all land eastward along The Queensway within the block, back up to the new E-W road is included, allows far higher potential unit count, and market return if that's used as part of the finance model. In the latter case, Gord have TCHC retain as much land as they now, but sell off any net land not used for roads/parks to a partner developer.
 
...how long has this place been sitting empty here while they navel gaze their way into finding a tentative solution for it?
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
...how long has this place been sitting empty here while they navel gaze their way into finding a tentative solution for it?
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Its been about 2 years.

In fairness, given that the issues here arose suddenly, I don't think a rebuild plan would have arrived much faster, unless the decision was to replace the site as-is/as-was.

The certainly should have carried out demolition in a more timely manner, as not doing so has been quite costly.

My bigger concern here is that in two years while they were thinking, they were thinking without sufficient ambition, and that has wasted at least some portion of that time.
 
HousingNowTO said:
From the TORONTO STAR story -

The proposal still has many hurdles to clear, including a consultation process, with Perks saying that funding and financing remain key questions. His hope is to see the property stay entirely in public hands, rather than having parcels sold to developers.

"I’ve been very clear in talking to staff from TCHC that I’ll support something that keeps the land in public or social ownership."
Click to expand...
In related news -

Coun. Gord Perks, chair of the city's planning and housing committee, says the city is "pulling out all the stops" but can only go so far.

"If they don't come to the table," Perks said of the federal and provincial governments, "we will never get out of the housing affordability crisis for people with low incomes, but also for people with middle incomes."

He points to public lands the city is turning into affordable housing. Currently, he says, the city has five such projects underway and another dozen expected to start in the next 18 months.

"There are another 70 sites we've identified that we could do if we had a funding partner," Perks said.

NOTE : Our City Hall is not, in fact --- "pulling out all the stops" on this site or any of the others.

 
HousingNowTO said:
In related news -

Coun. Gord Perks, chair of the city's planning and housing committee, says the city is "pulling out all the stops" but can only go so far.

"If they don't come to the table," Perks said of the federal and provincial governments, "we will never get out of the housing affordability crisis for people with low incomes, but also for people with middle incomes."

He points to public lands the city is turning into affordable housing. Currently, he says, the city has five such projects underway and another dozen expected to start in the next 18 months.

"There are another 70 sites we've identified that we could do if we had a funding partner," Perks said.

NOTE : Our City Hall is not, in fact --- "pulling out all the stops" on this site or any of the others.

Click to expand...

Reality-Check...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837514447520174330
 
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