Quote:
Originally Posted by ssiguy
What they have done in several cities with larger office developments is to have them converted into housing with a mix of both affordable and market rates. The Bell building would be an may not be an ideal candidate due to having a very large footprint but is great for slimmer buildings. Of course as the slimmer buildings are converted it decreases the overall vacancy rate hence filling up the current stock like Bell.
It's basically a new version of reworking old warehouses into condos/apts.
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There is a building downtown, 520 Talbot I think it is, that changed purpose from office to residential after the foundation was poured but before the building went up. It was supposed to be the twin to 130 Dufferin, the RCMP HQ, and the underground was done at the same time for both buildings. After 130 was built, the market for office space was a little soft, so the builder (Old Oak I think but not sure) designed a residential building. Since the foundation was there, they were kind of married to the office building footprint. I've been in a few units and they are kind of cool, with the big round concrete columns right in some units and a different shape than common in purpose built residential buildings.
I think I've heard it said that the Two London Place foundation is already built, I wonder why it was never considered to build a residential tower on that site with all this other downtown work going on. I'm sure there is a good reason.