London Construction - Development News Thread #1

[ldoto]

UPdate!
Homewood Suites by Hilton London ONT.
106 Room property opening February 2007.

Here's the link for the Hotel
http://www.mangahotels.com/Hotel.aspx?Page=Hotels&ID=8

[ldoto]

More action urged to preserve heritage

Sun, July 23, 2006

By JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER



New incentives to protect London heritage sites don't offer enough to save them from demolition, says a major landlord and developer.

But, says Shmuel Farhi, the property tax and development fee break that the city is offering is "a start," and now the province should get involved.

"I think these proposals head in the right direction," said Farhi, who owns about 50 buildings in the downtown.

"But it's still too little and I think it's time for the province to step up to the plate."

In the past, Farhi has complained developers who take on heritage sites are "penalized" with high development charges and higher taxes.

Those levies, plus the unpredictability of renovation costs, scare most developers away from heritage buildings, leading to demolition, he said.

The city's planning staff is proposing to give developers a break on taxes and development fees if they incorporate heritage properties into their downtown redevelopments instead of demolishing them.

The tax break would be spread over 10 years, reducing any tax hike related to increased property value due to restoration.

The developer would be given a reduction in development charges equal to redeveloping the heritage building.

The new incentives were sparked by concerns a city developer will demolish the 147-year-old landmark, Locust Mount, at 661 Talbot St., once owned by Elijah Leonard, London's mayor in 1857, and a senator from 1867 to 1891.

The home, damaged by fire five years ago, is owned by Drewlo Holdings, which is expected to develop the site into a highrise development. Drewlo has applied for a demolition permit, but agreed to put those plans on hold to negotiate with the city and heritage groups.

The initiatives are headed to city council for approval in principle tomorrow and will be circulated for public input at a planning committee meeting Aug. 21.

"I think it's a good start for us," said Ward 5 Coun. Cheryl Miller, whose ward includes the downtown and Old East Village, where many London heritage properties are located.

But Miller said she's frustrated the province isn't offering similar incentives since it has passed legislation allowing municipalities to protect heritage properties.

"They just pay lip service and talk about heritage policies that aren't worth the paper they're written on unless they're accompanied by incentives," Miller said.

Ward 1 Coun. Judy Bryant, a heritage enthusiast, applauded the incentives, but agreed with Miller more needs to be offered.

"It's a very positive start and I agree the province should be doing more. Although I still think there are people who underestimate the value of heritage to our city."

[FazDeH]

I've been really excited to see all these buildings for Downtown, but I've heard that Fahri has pulled out on the old libray project. Is there anytruth to that? If so its a shame because it would have been beautiful I loved that proposal.
Oh and also is anyone with artistic skill *not having artistic talent excludes me* going to draw the diagrams for any of the newly proposed building for London? Hope to see them soon!

[Snark]

Agreed! Why not let constructive ME comments speak for all instead:

heh, heh. I guess I am reluctant to do just that. It is no big deal anyway...I get my name in the papers relatively often given my career.

Speaking for myself, I feel eminently qualified to comment on such phenomena

I am quoted in the LFP today
I have appeared on A-Morning a couple of times (interviewed...I am in academia). Oh well, there is still the LFP

I have no idea what the cost would be.

<deleted>

Sorry, I was barely awake, and I just tune out of all the bad news of late, for the sake of my sanity.

Landmark? Looks like a pile of shit.

A mountain of locusts? Change the name. Likewise, would you want to live on Cheapside (major street in London).

Middlesex (what the hell is this, a hermaphrodite?)

Yeah, aren't they vile?

I am glad, then. So that I will not have to waste my time instructing such retarded deadbeats.

Take London (ON), multiply it by 10, and maybe then, you would have something that could, very possibly, be a candidate for world-class.

Not the Shriners thing again. Fer fvcksakes, when will it ever end?

It's the new building for West Park Baptist Church (currently near Wonderland & Hyde Park Rd.). Damn. Not another one.

London has long ceased being a head-office city, to being a back-office city.

Whats the news of the new Walfart that is supposed to go up at Sprawldale and unWonderland?

Man, the Galleria has gotta be one of the biggest urban disasters in Canada. I was there yesterday...unfuckingbelievable how empty the place is.

A veritable ghostown of a mall, with more than 40 vacant stores to better serve you!

overmalled....but Westmount will still be a mall? Sounds like the managers are lacking a solid strategy. If I were a tenant in the mall, I would be worried.

The "rebirth" of the Galleria is rather like a woman experiencing 72 months of gestation followed by 24 months of labour.

could this be the first signs of Masonville mall going the way of Westmount mall??

Nice, but I hear that they do not serve BEER at Labatt Park...extremely ironic and moronic.

allow Labatt park to serve beer...and I will go to see London Majors games.

Wharnecliffe is going down the toilet. At least half of it (from Oxford to Commissioners) sits at the bottom of the bowl, with the other turds. A charming slice of East London in western London.

YEAH! more commie-blocks!

I am getting pissed off at the so-called leaders of London.

Nostalgia for the status quo = today's london leadership = mediocrity

yup: london planners/council-->think small.

I have to agree that the current administration really comes up short in their 'vision' for what London ought to aspire to.

London busses are horrible. They smell, have no seats, and constantly lurch. Not to mention, the schedules, and the asinine amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B

very overdue. I can't understand why they rezone/develop areas prior to improving the infrastructure.

too bad that it will probably be years before it goes back up again for phase II

More bad news for London. The daily dose

For Gawd's sake, London has only 2 complete East-West and North-South roads:
East-West: Fanshawe Park Road and Oxford
North-South: Wonderland and Highbury.
That's it. Everything else does not go through all the way.

Council should wake up...given the lousy local economy, taxpayers are not feeling generous, and frankly, a little tired of property (et al.) tax increases that have long outstripped inflation

London has the third-busiest airport in Canada, after Toronto and Vancouver. Really? Ahead of Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg, etc.? Must be freight. Would like to see the supporting statistics.

thats a tall proposal for a shitsville corner. Love to see it happen....but in this market?

Visonary. 30 years, I will be approaching 70. I can then look forward to a quick way to Fanshawe Park Road. Yay.

Any info on the proposed Walfart at Exeter and Wonderland Rd. South?

Does the Ash Borer also eat jobs? I ask because the London area has lost so many in the past 6 months.

Weird. Hope that it is better than the aborted pseudo-freeway blip that is Highbury Ave.

I think that London's city planners look towards the 905 area as an urban model, rather than say, more concise urban fabrics like those found in Europe.

Looks like a run-down 70's era Las Vegas motor inn.

Quite frankly, who gives two-shits what Jack Layton says?

And the commie-blocks keep-a-comin' in London, esp. in the Oxford-Wonderland area.
I'd rather have no construction, than more of those ugly commie-blocks. Parts of London could easily pass for Irkutsk or Dniepreprovetsk.

I am not too impressed, having bought a home in the neighborhood.

Not again.

Good, but if it happens, I will eat my shoes.
I refer to them as Dumbcentres.

Ultra 80s, Ultra Smell (Bell) Canada. Smell has a building like this in every single major city in Canada.

This actually looks pretty good. I was in the area this weekend past, and it currently is about as gritty and shitty as anywhere in the country.

Yeah, just what I expected, city council is totally in cahoots with the big box sprawl developers. Who gives a shit if inner London looks like shit,

Yeah, I live about 1 km from that shitty bridge. and cross it from time to time. It is the Marie-Anne de Cicco way: rezone, build, but do not expand the infrastructure.

More of Anne-Marie's "Best and Brightest" (aka, highest salaries and sick-days, and moreover, mediocre results

yep. exactly. anyone else, it would be front-page news. And you'd think, "wow, the mayor's husband...for sure the LFP will have something"...but it is buried like a skeleton in the closet.

And while we are at it, how on earth did Best get the exemption for that lousy deck/patio along Richmond? Fishy, fishy.

What do you all think about the Mayor's husband's little adventure last saturday? Must be pretty damned embarassing for Anne-Marie, to say the least.

Same shit they smoked when they decided to bury the drunk-driving adventure of Mr. A-M deC-Best.

No news on Mr. AMdeC-Best? Still got his drivers' license, I presume?

If he got drunk (and then drove) in his own bar...could he be at risk of losing his liquor license? Did you sit out on the cheapo patio at Friday Fright Nites?

Not because of, but despite the current administration on dufferin st.

[FazDeH]

^^ I couldn't agree more in regards to the paper tower trail. London has gotten REALLY good at axing really great ideas. I still can't wrap my head around the idea that developements like these get dropped.

As memory serves me, wasnt the Library project on the front page, just like the Ridout towers?

Its always big news when something new is planned to be built in London and yet our city council manages to F@#K it up everytime. Why is that? It doesnt seem like they're playing it safe, it seems like they are committed to the concept that London should not change. It's still beautiful, but who can argue with progress, oh wait, CITY COUNCIL !!!

[SqueakyPete]

I agree as well with the two posts above. City council has been the ball-and-chain around London's development and progression as a city for too many years now.

[GreatTallNorth2]

You guys are crazy. London has had a lot of development in the downtown in the last few years and some of the better projects are either under way or about to be soon. Which other cities under 500K in Ontario or Canada for that matter are getting as many towers as we have lately? None! Just because that Library project might not go ahead doesn't mean anything! The caption in the Freeps when it was announced was "Developer will build it if they come", but since then the shove has been put in the ground for a 23 storey tower by Auburn and twin 28 storey towers by Tricar. For a city our size, that is a lot. I don't see activity like this in Windsor, KW, Hamilton, or many other cities. Don't blame the politicans for lack of building. They are pushing for downtown. Now you can blame them for what happened in the eighties when Cambridge Group wanted to build twin towers 45 stories high along with a mall, but city council chose Galleria...ouch!

[ldoto]

I couldn't agree more You guys are crazy.

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2
Which other cities under 500K in Ontario or Canada for that matter are getting as many towers as we have lately.I don't see activity like this in Windsor, KW, Hamilton, or many other cities.

[ldoto]

This is good news for the one London place and the downtown core also the new leaners offices down the street things are happening downtown.


One of Canada’s largest business and civil law firms has jumped into the London market.

Miller Thomson LLP will open an office in One London Place on August 1.

Four lawyers from the London office of McCarthy Tetrault, based in the same building, have been recruited as partners for the new Miller Thomson office.

Glenn Jones, Duncan Grace, Anthony Van Klink and John Downing will be joined by four other lawyers on staff.

Based in Toronto, Miller Thomson is Canada’s 10th largest law firm.

It has been expanding into Southwestern Ontario since 2002, when it merged with Sims Clement Eastman in Kitchener-Waterloo. A year later it took over the Guelph firm of Kearns McKinnon.

The firm also has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Whitehorse, Edmonton, Markham and Montreal.

Miller Thomson CEO Jud Whiteside, said London is a logical expansion for the firm.

"The range of industries represented in the London market – financial services, real estate, retail, consumer and business products, technology, health care and education ... are a good fit with our firm’s strengths."

[ldoto]

Update!

A 10,300-square-foot outlet will be located at 1073 Wellington Rd., just north of White Oaks Mall.

[Snark]

Agreed! Why not let constructive ME comments speak for all instead:

heh, heh. I guess I am reluctant to do just that. It is no big deal anyway...I get my name in the papers relatively often given my career.

Speaking for myself, I feel eminently qualified to comment on such phenomena

I am quoted in the LFP today
I have appeared on A-Morning a couple of times (interviewed...I am in academia). Oh well, there is still the LFP

I have no idea what the cost would be.

<deleted>

Sorry, I was barely awake, and I just tune out of all the bad news of late, for the sake of my sanity.

Landmark? Looks like a pile of shit.

A mountain of locusts? Change the name. Likewise, would you want to live on Cheapside (major street in London).

Middlesex (what the hell is this, a hermaphrodite?)

Yeah, aren't they vile?

I am glad, then. So that I will not have to waste my time instructing such retarded deadbeats.

Take London (ON), multiply it by 10, and maybe then, you would have something that could, very possibly, be a candidate for world-class.

Not the Shriners thing again. Fer fvcksakes, when will it ever end?

It's the new building for West Park Baptist Church (currently near Wonderland & Hyde Park Rd.). Damn. Not another one.

London has long ceased being a head-office city, to being a back-office city.

Whats the news of the new Walfart that is supposed to go up at Sprawldale and unWonderland?

Man, the Galleria has gotta be one of the biggest urban disasters in Canada. I was there yesterday...unfuckingbelievable how empty the place is.

A veritable ghostown of a mall, with more than 40 vacant stores to better serve you!

overmalled....but Westmount will still be a mall? Sounds like the managers are lacking a solid strategy. If I were a tenant in the mall, I would be worried.

The "rebirth" of the Galleria is rather like a woman experiencing 72 months of gestation followed by 24 months of labour.

could this be the first signs of Masonville mall going the way of Westmount mall??

Nice, but I hear that they do not serve BEER at Labatt Park...extremely ironic and moronic.

allow Labatt park to serve beer...and I will go to see London Majors games.

Wharnecliffe is going down the toilet. At least half of it (from Oxford to Commissioners) sits at the bottom of the bowl, with the other turds. A charming slice of East London in western London.

YEAH! more commie-blocks!

I am getting pissed off at the so-called leaders of London.

Nostalgia for the status quo = today's london leadership = mediocrity

yup: london planners/council-->think small.

I have to agree that the current administration really comes up short in their 'vision' for what London ought to aspire to.

London busses are horrible. They smell, have no seats, and constantly lurch. Not to mention, the schedules, and the asinine amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B

very overdue. I can't understand why they rezone/develop areas prior to improving the infrastructure.

too bad that it will probably be years before it goes back up again for phase II

More bad news for London. The daily dose

For Gawd's sake, London has only 2 complete East-West and North-South roads:
East-West: Fanshawe Park Road and Oxford
North-South: Wonderland and Highbury.
That's it. Everything else does not go through all the way.

Council should wake up...given the lousy local economy, taxpayers are not feeling generous, and frankly, a little tired of property (et al.) tax increases that have long outstripped inflation

London has the third-busiest airport in Canada, after Toronto and Vancouver. Really? Ahead of Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg, etc.? Must be freight. Would like to see the supporting statistics.

thats a tall proposal for a shitsville corner. Love to see it happen....but in this market?

Visonary. 30 years, I will be approaching 70. I can then look forward to a quick way to Fanshawe Park Road. Yay.

Any info on the proposed Walfart at Exeter and Wonderland Rd. South?

Does the Ash Borer also eat jobs? I ask because the London area has lost so many in the past 6 months.

Weird. Hope that it is better than the aborted pseudo-freeway blip that is Highbury Ave.

I think that London's city planners look towards the 905 area as an urban model, rather than say, more concise urban fabrics like those found in Europe.

Looks like a run-down 70's era Las Vegas motor inn.

Quite frankly, who gives two-shits what Jack Layton says?

And the commie-blocks keep-a-comin' in London, esp. in the Oxford-Wonderland area.
I'd rather have no construction, than more of those ugly commie-blocks. Parts of London could easily pass for Irkutsk or Dniepreprovetsk.

I am not too impressed, having bought a home in the neighborhood.

Not again.

Good, but if it happens, I will eat my shoes.
I refer to them as Dumbcentres.

Ultra 80s, Ultra Smell (Bell) Canada. Smell has a building like this in every single major city in Canada.

This actually looks pretty good. I was in the area this weekend past, and it currently is about as gritty and shitty as anywhere in the country.

Yeah, just what I expected, city council is totally in cahoots with the big box sprawl developers. Who gives a shit if inner London looks like shit,

Yeah, I live about 1 km from that shitty bridge. and cross it from time to time. It is the Marie-Anne de Cicco way: rezone, build, but do not expand the infrastructure.

More of Anne-Marie's "Best and Brightest" (aka, highest salaries and sick-days, and moreover, mediocre results

yep. exactly. anyone else, it would be front-page news. And you'd think, "wow, the mayor's husband...for sure the LFP will have something"...but it is buried like a skeleton in the closet.

And while we are at it, how on earth did Best get the exemption for that lousy deck/patio along Richmond? Fishy, fishy.

What do you all think about the Mayor's husband's little adventure last saturday? Must be pretty damned embarassing for Anne-Marie, to say the least.

Same shit they smoked when they decided to bury the drunk-driving adventure of Mr. A-M deC-Best.

No news on Mr. AMdeC-Best? Still got his drivers' license, I presume?

If he got drunk (and then drove) in his own bar...could he be at risk of losing his liquor license? Did you sit out on the cheapo patio at Friday Fright Nites?

Not because of, but despite the current administration on dufferin st.

[GreatTallNorth2]

I still think you are nuts! If Farhi is not going to build that tower beside the library, that does not take away from what has been built and what is planned. As I stated before, Farhi's proposal was an idea he had, not a committment to build anything. He didn't cancel because he wasn't actually committed. Whether we like the style of CityPlace or not, how can anyone take away from the fact that two 25 storey buildings are now sitting at the corner of Dundas and Waterloo? There is a crane in the sky currently building a 23 storey building. They are currently rezoning the land across from the JLC for twin 28 storey buildings. Old Oak and Tricar have completed buildings each in the last two years.

Thinking that someone is going to build another One London Place in London is pie in the sky thinking. We were very lucky to get it. I don't know any city under 500,000 that has an office tower that nice. London's office vacancy rate downtown is huge and nothing needs to be built for a long, long time. The best we could hope for is continued residential growth and maybe a hotel in the future.

[MolsonExport]

Quite frankly, high-density residential construction will do more for downtown city street vibrancy than will office construction. Another 10 or so downtown highrise apartments/condos, and things could really start to get interesting downtown.

[Snark]

Agreed! Why not let constructive ME comments speak for all instead:

heh, heh. I guess I am reluctant to do just that. It is no big deal anyway...I get my name in the papers relatively often given my career.

Speaking for myself, I feel eminently qualified to comment on such phenomena

I am quoted in the LFP today
I have appeared on A-Morning a couple of times (interviewed...I am in academia). Oh well, there is still the LFP

I have no idea what the cost would be.

<deleted>

Sorry, I was barely awake, and I just tune out of all the bad news of late, for the sake of my sanity.

Landmark? Looks like a pile of shit.

A mountain of locusts? Change the name. Likewise, would you want to live on Cheapside (major street in London).

Middlesex (what the hell is this, a hermaphrodite?)

Yeah, aren't they vile?

I am glad, then. So that I will not have to waste my time instructing such retarded deadbeats.

Take London (ON), multiply it by 10, and maybe then, you would have something that could, very possibly, be a candidate for world-class.

Not the Shriners thing again. Fer fvcksakes, when will it ever end?

It's the new building for West Park Baptist Church (currently near Wonderland & Hyde Park Rd.). Damn. Not another one.

London has long ceased being a head-office city, to being a back-office city.

Whats the news of the new Walfart that is supposed to go up at Sprawldale and unWonderland?

Man, the Galleria has gotta be one of the biggest urban disasters in Canada. I was there yesterday...unfuckingbelievable how empty the place is.

A veritable ghostown of a mall, with more than 40 vacant stores to better serve you!

overmalled....but Westmount will still be a mall? Sounds like the managers are lacking a solid strategy. If I were a tenant in the mall, I would be worried.

The "rebirth" of the Galleria is rather like a woman experiencing 72 months of gestation followed by 24 months of labour.

could this be the first signs of Masonville mall going the way of Westmount mall??

Nice, but I hear that they do not serve BEER at Labatt Park...extremely ironic and moronic.

allow Labatt park to serve beer...and I will go to see London Majors games.

Wharnecliffe is going down the toilet. At least half of it (from Oxford to Commissioners) sits at the bottom of the bowl, with the other turds. A charming slice of East London in western London.

YEAH! more commie-blocks!

I am getting pissed off at the so-called leaders of London.

Nostalgia for the status quo = today's london leadership = mediocrity

yup: london planners/council-->think small.

I have to agree that the current administration really comes up short in their 'vision' for what London ought to aspire to.

London busses are horrible. They smell, have no seats, and constantly lurch. Not to mention, the schedules, and the asinine amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B

very overdue. I can't understand why they rezone/develop areas prior to improving the infrastructure.

too bad that it will probably be years before it goes back up again for phase II

More bad news for London. The daily dose

For Gawd's sake, London has only 2 complete East-West and North-South roads:
East-West: Fanshawe Park Road and Oxford
North-South: Wonderland and Highbury.
That's it. Everything else does not go through all the way.

Council should wake up...given the lousy local economy, taxpayers are not feeling generous, and frankly, a little tired of property (et al.) tax increases that have long outstripped inflation

London has the third-busiest airport in Canada, after Toronto and Vancouver. Really? Ahead of Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg, etc.? Must be freight. Would like to see the supporting statistics.

thats a tall proposal for a shitsville corner. Love to see it happen....but in this market?

Visonary. 30 years, I will be approaching 70. I can then look forward to a quick way to Fanshawe Park Road. Yay.

Any info on the proposed Walfart at Exeter and Wonderland Rd. South?

Does the Ash Borer also eat jobs? I ask because the London area has lost so many in the past 6 months.

Weird. Hope that it is better than the aborted pseudo-freeway blip that is Highbury Ave.

I think that London's city planners look towards the 905 area as an urban model, rather than say, more concise urban fabrics like those found in Europe.

Looks like a run-down 70's era Las Vegas motor inn.

Quite frankly, who gives two-shits what Jack Layton says?

And the commie-blocks keep-a-comin' in London, esp. in the Oxford-Wonderland area.
I'd rather have no construction, than more of those ugly commie-blocks. Parts of London could easily pass for Irkutsk or Dniepreprovetsk.

I am not too impressed, having bought a home in the neighborhood.

Not again.

Good, but if it happens, I will eat my shoes.
I refer to them as Dumbcentres.

Ultra 80s, Ultra Smell (Bell) Canada. Smell has a building like this in every single major city in Canada.

This actually looks pretty good. I was in the area this weekend past, and it currently is about as gritty and shitty as anywhere in the country.

Yeah, just what I expected, city council is totally in cahoots with the big box sprawl developers. Who gives a shit if inner London looks like shit,

Yeah, I live about 1 km from that shitty bridge. and cross it from time to time. It is the Marie-Anne de Cicco way: rezone, build, but do not expand the infrastructure.

More of Anne-Marie's "Best and Brightest" (aka, highest salaries and sick-days, and moreover, mediocre results

yep. exactly. anyone else, it would be front-page news. And you'd think, "wow, the mayor's husband...for sure the LFP will have something"...but it is buried like a skeleton in the closet.

And while we are at it, how on earth did Best get the exemption for that lousy deck/patio along Richmond? Fishy, fishy.

What do you all think about the Mayor's husband's little adventure last saturday? Must be pretty damned embarassing for Anne-Marie, to say the least.

Same shit they smoked when they decided to bury the drunk-driving adventure of Mr. A-M deC-Best.

No news on Mr. AMdeC-Best? Still got his drivers' license, I presume?

If he got drunk (and then drove) in his own bar...could he be at risk of losing his liquor license? Did you sit out on the cheapo patio at Friday Fright Nites?

Not because of, but despite the current administration on dufferin st.

[ldoto]

It won’t be brand new, but northeast London is about to get a completely rebuilt community centre that should last for at least the next 20 years.

That was the decision of London city council Monday night when it approved a recommendation to spend upwards of $4.5 million to make serious structural repairs on the North London Optimist Community Centre, located near the corner of Highbury Ave. and Cheapside.

The first two phases of the renovations – to repair a roof in danger of collapsing in a heavy snowstorm at a cost of $2.9 million and to make some community space improvements worth $500,000 – will begin immediately. A third phase, to add more program space worth $1.1 million is slated for next year.

The final reconstruction cost will be well above original estimates made last year, before the roof problems were detected.

The centre is used on a regular basis for dozens of recreation programs and thousands of people, many of them seniors who have been worried the centre – itself more than 30 years old – would be closed.

Ward 3 Councillor Bernie MacDonald, who has championed the project, was elated council approved it. “This is a good building and when the structural improvements are finished we should get another 20 years or more out of it.”

Council’s decision was opposed by Ward 7 Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen. “When we have streets that need widening, sewers than need replacing and at the same time we are trying to keep our tax rate competitive, I can’t support this.”

Ward 6 Councillor David Winninger responded by noting London won’t be very competitive “if we don’t have the kind of recreation services people look for when they consider moving to London.”

A completely new community centre, it was noted, would cost upwards of $30 million.

[ldoto]

Here are some pics that I took when I went to "Rock the park" this week at Harris park some of the pics are from the Ladatt Park.Take I look that the skyline from the park.


Labatt Memorial Park -- the oldest active baseball facility in North America -- has hosted baseball games since 1876. Three of the groups designed a 5,500-seat replacement grandstand. Labatt Memorial Park is a baseball stadium near the forks of the Thames River in central London, Ontario, Canada. It is 8.7-acres in size, has 5,100 seats and a natural grass field. From home plate to centre field the distance is 405 feet; from home plate to left and right field down the lines, it is 330 feet.

[MolsonExport]

Nice, but I hear that they do not serve BEER at Labatt Park...extremely ironic and moronic.

[FazDeH]

I would like to revise my earlier statements, it IS true that London has a beautiful skyline that hopefully soon *fingers crossed* will be filled in with several more large buildings. that being said it is also true that several times over in my lifetime the city has refused wonderful and amazing projects that in my opinion should have been built.

Lets not forget that One London place was but one of 3 towers in the original proposal for that site it currently occupies. I am not certian weither or not that was simply a building cost factor or city halls decision, my point is, construction in downtown London has always been hit or miss.

I am excited to see the Ridout proposal brake ground though, I really hope that it goes through as planned.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Dude...the city isn't out there cancelling projects. Developers cancel projects based on whether they think they can make money. One London Place was proposed with two towers, not three. The second tower is 18 stories I believe and was never intended to go up until there was market demand for it. It's not like the city said to Sifton "don't build that tower". They would love for it to be built! They want the downtown to grow. In fact, it could still be built one day if the market drastically changes and office demand grows.

Sorry, but some people do not understand simple economics. We all like skyscrapers, but how many people think that developers just put up nice buildings and spend multi-millions just to build something for fun.

[Snark]

..