50 King Street - 43s, 53s - York Developments (Approved)

[MolsonExport]

Getting this one off the ground is taking forever.

Morganization.

[jammer139]

Not surprised as York is tapped out in terms of capacity to get anything more built at the moment.

They are on the 15th floor of their 17s building up at Wonderland and Fanshawe.

Still working on finishing the 4th floor of 12s building on Southdale.

Excavation work is done but no further progress on the foundation for the two towers at Southdale and Bostwick.

All appear to have Blackwall Concrete as the general contractor.

[Snark]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Getting this one off the ground is taking forever.

With the large municipal trunk sewer project immediately adjacent to the York site starting now and running to next year, it makes sense not to have both large jobs going at the same time. The sewer is the priority in terms of timing

[MolsonExport]

Good point, I hadn't thought about that.

[jammer139]

The small hill of gravel and crushed stone in the hole has been removed. Wonder if York sold it off or moved it to another site for reuse.

[GreatTallNorth2]

From today's Free Press article on York's project on Ann Street, it mentions the project at the Forks.

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/fire-guts-historic-building-tower-plans-unchanged

York also has a site-plan application before the city for a twin-tower development at the forks of the Thames – a $400-million project with 53- and 43-storey towers and 800 units at 50 King St.

The developer is working with the city to create park space around the towers at the forks and is finalizing details on commercial and community space on the site, Soufan said.

“We want to create a plan that works for us and for the city,” he said. “We want it to integrate as a seamless transition from concrete building to the river, with pockets of commercial and entertainment uses, and the new park will incorporate that.”

He said he hopes to continue the “fabric” of the nearby Riverwalk development along the south edge of the river and is working with the city on the downtown master plan now being developed.

“We want the waterfront to be a great place for the downtown,” he said.

[email protected]

[jammer139]

Reads like they know the downtown residential building "boom" has peaked and they will be focusing on their suburban projects given the oversupply of downtown "luxury" apartments. Could be a few years before we see a shovel in the ground on this one.

[jammer139]

Article about the heritage of the old Court House building.

Worth noting that Middlesex County is building their future administration office at the southern end of Adelaide St S. beside the London Middlesex EMS headquarters building overlooking the 401. Should be moving into the new building around the end of this year likely to coincide with the new County Council first meeting after the Election.

What comes next for the old County Court House building?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-on...-county-courthouse-development-9.7107268

[MolsonExport]

Is this thing going to go through? CBC article had it down as 54 stories. It has been nothing but a ditch for the past 5 years.

[GreatTallNorth2]

I think that is a mistake on CBC's part. The diagram they posted shows 53 floors.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Concept of what the Old Courthouse could be if we had a bit of vision:

[jammer139]

The demand for downtown hotel rooms is not good and is not likely to change much in the future. York is not in the Hotel business so would likely turn to the experts in that business to gauge interest in that kind of venture. My guess is there will be little interest. Might that change down the road? Maybe.


The high end restaurant-bar business is also struggling so not likely much appetite for that either.

[Snark]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

Concept of what the Old Courthouse could be if we had a bit of vision:

An interesting idea, and a great rendering. Nice work.

As mentioned by jammer139, the hotel industry in general is going through a significant evolution - so I'm unsure if the business climate would support a project like this other than in Montreal or Toronto (I'm still not convinced the Hard Rock initiative can be made to work, and it has tourism attractions in the same building). Also, the Hilton has already converted a portion of its downtown hotel into rental units.

The other question is from a technical perspective if a 200 year old building can be economically converted into a modern luxury hotel. At least the building already has half a dozen or more "heritage" rooms, that could be converted into hotel rooms with minimal conversion - and due to their sizes (4' X 9') could have modest nightly rates.

[GreatTallNorth2]

My thinking is that the city of London could contribute via the Tourism tax. They gave over $20 million to the arena upgrade. I think the proximity to the arena and also whatever becomes of the Forks would make it somewhat attractive. I also think there could be a retail/restaurant component that draws Londoners to this. This is more of a destination hotel, not just another Motel 6 on Wellington lol.

[ssiguy]

The Courthouse turning into a Hotel?............NO, just NO!

[goldandnavy]

Originally Posted by Snark

An interesting idea, and a great rendering. Nice work.

As mentioned by jammer139, the hotel industry in general is going through a significant evolution - so I'm unsure if the business climate would support a project like this other than in Montreal or Toronto (I'm still not convinced the Hard Rock initiative can be made to work, and it has tourism attractions in the same building). Also, the Hilton has already converted a portion of its downtown hotel into rental units.

The other question is from a technical perspective if a 200 year old building can be economically converted into a modern luxury hotel. At least the building already has half a dozen or more "heritage" rooms, that could be converted into hotel rooms with minimal conversion - and due to their sizes (4' X 9') could have modest nightly rates.

Not a rendering, AI slop

[Snark]

Originally Posted by goldandnavy

Not a rendering, AI slop

How it was produced doesn't change it from being a rendering. At one time, such things were produced manually by hand and drafting tools. They were still renderings.

And why the hate? Not all AI is evil. Focus on the intent of the exercise and the message, not the medium. Someone wanted to get across an idea/concept quickly and inexpensively without expensive software or training. The end product here is considerably better that the old way of doing such things: being manually sketched out on the back of a napkin.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by Snark

How it was produced doesn't change it from being a rendering. At one time, such things were produced manually by hand and drafting tools. They were still renderings.

And why the hate? Not all AI is evil. Focus on the intent of the exercise and the message, not the medium. Someone wanted to get across an idea/concept quickly and inexpensively without expensive software or training. The end product here is considerably better that the old way of doing such things: being manually sketched out on the back of a napkin.

+ 1

Yeah I was not pretending that this was my original work. It's just an idea of what the courthouse could look like.

[MolsonExport]

I dunno, that rendering looks pretty good.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Looks like something is happening...