A new kind of condo is going up on St. Thomas Street.
Though not unprecedented, commercial condos are still a rarity in Toronto—entire buildings devoted to them even more so.
But when
St. Thomas Developments, the company behind the residential condo tower at
1 St. Thomas, was trying to decide what to do with its extra bit of land on Sultan Street, compiled between 2002 and 2008, the format made the most sense.
"We looked at all sorts of various schemes," says president Patrick Quigley, "including high-end retirement home, boutique hotel. The site is not that deep, so to do any sort of residential, in the market today, whether it's high-end or entry-level, you need balconies, and we don't have the depth for balconies."
So what’s going up is a nine-storey glass structure, built on top of seven heritage facades from the former single-family homes on Sultan Street. The strip more recently housed businesses like
Theatrebooks (which was the last business out of the area, moving mid-July to Spadina and Adelaide).
Though the absence of kitchens and residential bathroom finishes means the construction itself will only take about 18 months, the bracing and shoring up of the heritage facades is adding about six months to the process, which Quigley hopes will begin in March or April. It is expected to be completed by the spring of 2015.
The move's a new one for St. Thomas, but one Quigley thinks is the natural next step in the wake of the city's intense decade of residential development in the core.
"I've been around for a while," Quigley says, "and I can remember the exodus of commercial offices moving out to the suburbs in the '80s and '90s. They weren't able to get staff, who were living out in the suburbs. And now with intensification of residential in the downtown core you're starting to see more and more commercial offices from the 905 and suburbs back downtown."
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Patrick Quigley
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