London Development Rumour Thread

[jammer139]

Interesting real estate transaction with Crossings Restaurant and the property just being sold.



1269 Hyde Park Road
type Restaurant and surplus commercial land
price $2,900,000
seller Devi Financial Inc.
buyer 1269 Hyde Park Road Inc.

[MrSlippery519]

Prime land for another residential tower I would imagine.

[MolsonExport]

The Crossings (formerly, Volker's restaurant) House is something like 150 years old. It is probably the oldest surviving building in Hyde Park.

I hope it isn't Oxford Dodge doing yet another expansion.

[ssiguy]

Djeffery.........the proof is in the pudding, you never see grocery stores at the base of apt/condo buildings. Usually the only exceptions are tall towers where the first few floors are office/hotel where, due to no having opening windows, the noise and smell are not an issue.

Developers don't develop buildings for the good of their health, they do it to make money and if they thought that selling apts would be easier with a grocery store at the base then they would be doing it all the time but they don't because they know it's not considered a selling point. Downtown cores with grocery stores are also a magnet for street people asking for spare change which isn't exactly something someone wants to see first thing in the morning.

Anyway, it's not going to happen and even more so in this development as the developer who is building them owns a large mall right across the street which, if space available, would be an ideal place for a grocery store.

[Djeffery]

Sorry, I don't subscribe to the "if it made sense, someone would have done it already" theory. There hasn't really been a need to do something like that since suburban land for plazas has been plentiful. Downtown needs some new idea for a grocery store which is why I made the suggestion in another thread about redeveloping the parking garage at Citiplaza with a grocery store on the main level with a new building above. It could be connected into the mall if they felt that was necessary and even cover over the receiving area to quiet any annoying noise from there.

[MolsonExport]

Somebody better tell North York City Centre that they shouldn't have grocery at the base of condo towers:

Whole Foods:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7608...5409&entry=ttu

Loblaws:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7685...5409&entry=ttu

[jammer139]

Yeah there are lots of examples of grocery stores in the base of high rise developments.



North York subway station
Eglington/Young subway station
College Park
There's one on Lakeshore near Spadina
And I believe another out near the west end of the Bloor subway line.



The ingredients for success is high population density and high pedestrian traffic. Some type of public transit also helps.

[MrSlippery519]

Feels like you are all agreeing with each other but have missed some context.

Grocery can and does work on the main floor of residential developments, you do not generally see residential units starting directly above. Loblaws on Yonge Street is a good example of this

[ssiguy]

^^ Exactly. As I said, such setups are exceptional rare but I didn't say they didn't exists and where they do, you usually have the situation where a grocery store is at the base and then commercial/retail are on the next few floors and the residential starts lowering the smell and noise of the store itself.

[jammer139]

A couple of transactions by the TVDSB for new school sites


Boardwalk Way & Upperpoint Avenue
type Neighbourhood facility land
price $8,550,000
seller Sifton Properties Ltd.
buyer Thames Valley District School Board


Gatestone Road, Honeywood Drive & Darnley Boulevard
type Neighbourhood facility land
price $8,498,130
seller Drewlo Holdings Inc.
buyer Thames Valley District School Board


This is the Massey Indian restaurant


174 King Street
type Commercial/residential building
price $4,548,000
seller Foundation Capital Holdings Ltd.
buyer 174 King Street Holdings Inc.


NW corner of Princess and Colborne

400 Princess Avenue
type Multi-family residential building
price $1,400,000
seller Named individuals
buyer Drygas Properties Inc.

[GreatTallNorth2]

There is a company based in Kitchener called "King Street Holdings". I am not sure that is the same company that bought the Massey building or not. It sounds similar to what Tricar used to do when buying buildings. I actually hope that it is Tricar. It is a fairly prime location on the BRT route.

[MolsonExport]

Last time I chatted with the folks at Massey's, they told me that they were moving to Riverbend area (Kains Road).

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Last time I chatted with the folks at Massey's, they told me that they were moving to Riverbend area (Kains Road).

There are, there is a notice in the window of the one building for a liquor license under their name.

[jammer139]

The 2 story building at 684 Hale Street has now been demolished. Final clean-up and digging out of the basement left to do. The building just north at 690 Hale Street appears in very good condition and has an active business operating in it. This corner area had a architect proposal a number of months ago for a 14s apartment building. Wonder if this is part of that although I don't recall seeing a zoning application as of yet?

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

There is a company based in Kitchener called "King Street Holdings". I am not sure that is the same company that bought the Massey building or not. It sounds similar to what Tricar used to do when buying buildings. I actually hope that it is Tricar. It is a fairly prime location on the BRT route.

No, I do some service work in that building. The owners are from Toronto unfortunatley. The building itself is pretty renovated, the units are just large balchelor suites, mainly for students. Not sure what the new owners are doing with it.

[jammer139]

A number of interesting commercial lands transactions

This is the plaza with the Sunripe and McDonalds currently owned by York Dev. Looks like York is selling off a number of properties lately.

1195 Fanshawe Park Road West
type Retail plaza
price $9,752,135
seller 2415121 Ontario Ltd.
buyer 1838037 Ontario Ltd.

City closes deal to buy the former Fairmount Public School

1040 Hamilton Road
type Former public school
price $5,953,758
seller Thames Valley District School Board
buyer The Corporate of The City of London


Sifton grows its land base with purchase on the SW corner of Gideon and Oxford which is now a farm field.

2166 Oxford Street
type Speculative residential land
price $7,995,000
seller Gideon Communities (London) Inc.
buyer Sifton Properties Ltd.

Another Sifton purchase with this land on the city outskirts in Arva between Richmond and Adelaide and south of Medway Rd.

21538 Burton Avenue
type Speculative development land
price $4,000,000
seller Named individuals
buyer Sifton Properties Ltd.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by jammer139

A number of interesting commercial lands transactions

This is the plaza with the Sunripe and McDonalds currently owned by York Dev. Looks like York is selling off a number of properties lately.

Probably not a bad thing that York is selling properties. They might need the cash to build all the other projects they are building, fingers crossed the large project at the forks of the Thames is something they will spend their money on.

[jammer139]

The retirement home at 518 Queens Avenue has changed hands again.

type Retirement home
price $7,400,000
seller Manorcare Holdings Inc., Village Care Holdings Inc., Village Partners
buyer 1000870615


This is the Wimpys diner

4349 Wellington Road South
type Retail plaza development with surplus land
price $7,800,000
seller London Keem Holdings Inc.
buyer Multiland Pacific (Wash) Ltd.