Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
MacDonald made a comment to the Herald along the lines that since all these buildings have been renovated over the years and are all knitted together in a mosh-mad, there’s “no history” here. What he doesn’t get is that kind of ad-hoc repurposing, that layering of eras and uses and styles, is what enlivens neighbourhoods. Whatever “iconic” monolith they have planned for this site will almost certainly be worse from an urban perspective, just as the Doyle is. If we had better developers, able to work without context while adding density, SGR would be a lot better off. But Chedrawe and MacDonald are small-time, small-town, unsophisticated developers. They wouldn’t last a second in most larger cities pulling this shit.
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The buildings as-is are largely unrentable for the reasons MacDonald stated. He could have had them under long-term lease agreements otherwise - I know, because I am aware of several big retailers that looked into them and found them functionally deficient. This is prime real estate on the #1 shopping street in the region. The kind of tenants who are willing to pay top dollar to be on that street want modern, usable space. What he has is suitable mostly for small boutiquey-type operations that may not last a year. Once again, what is published in planning textbooks often is at odds with economic reality.