The Madness That Is Toronto’s Busiest Corner
Yonge and Bloor.
Say goodbye to Harveys.
Say goodbye to City Optical.
(image: fachxx00)
This past Tuesday, the sales office for the 80-story Residence-Retail-Hotel tower at Yonge & Bloor opened its doors. The real-estate agents had their cell-phones fully charged as throngs of inquisitive onlookers wanted a piece of the action, every single one of them blocking my morning path to the subway.
Seven days earlier, a group of a dozen or so eager future homeowners camped out in front of the sales office. I have it from a source that they were actors, paid to stand in line to kick-start the hype machine. (Apparently, this is standard practice). Of course, you would have figured as much walking past them everyday: the line never got bigger; they had a police escort; they were pitching the merits of the building to passersby…
But that’s a rant for another time.
What kills me is the price people are willing to pay for these condos. Previous reports (such as Derek Raymaker’s article in the Globe and Mail) had the starting units selling at $300,000 for a 540 square foot closet; the highest suites were being advertised at $2 million for 2,100 square feet – a range of $550 – $950 a square foot. That’s expensive enough were it not for Mix 99.9 reporting that – due to demand the morning of Tuesday – the sales office was raising the prices of the units. The starting units were now $500,000, and the luxury suites were up to $8 million.
I’m not saying you’re an idiot if you buy an $8 million suite at Yonge and Bloor. I’m saying you’re a wannabe*. Because you’ve obviously never seen a map of Toronto:
(click for a larger view of an unofficial, roman empire version, of a map of Toronto)
Most of the people buying units are probably speculators, and at the least, the building looks really cool. The project is being overseen by Roy Varacalli (from Toronto) who works for a Khazakstani architecture company called Bazis International. It will be 80-stories tall at a cost of $450 million. They bought the lot all the way down to Hayden street. From this article in the globe and mail, quoting the architect:
“I want it to be truly memorable,” he said. “I was particularly interested in how it relates to the skyline, but also how it relates at the street level and the human scale.”
So, to make it memorable, there will be a 120-room, 6 floor hotel above a retail platform, on top of which will be the residential suites. Included in every suite is a lanais, an extra balcony with movable glass walls that can enclose space in cooler weather.
(image: Rendering, Bazis International)
After the tower is built, there will be only one corner at the intersection that’s not like the others. That, to which I refer, is the Stollery’s on the south-west side of Yonge and Bloor. (The north-west corner has a new Swarovski, and the north-east corner has the Bay). It’s prime for being torn apart and I have a great idea for what they should rebuild the remaining corner with:
A gigantic super-fun water slide.
*there is one exception to this rule.
haha, I’ve been here too long because my first reaction to the pic of the envisioned building was “damn, I don’t wanna be near that during an earthquake…” :-S
I’m looking forward to that day when earthquakes are once again non-existent in my life.
Anywho, I miss my old house in the centre of “great pizza”, only an arm’s reach from both cheap korean food/karaoke, and chinese bootleg DVDs…
Here, a medium pizza is $20-25.. and the dipping sauce?.. many have mayo slathered on already, but Pizza Hut often tapes a pack of “sweet maple sauce” to the box.. umm why?
but you forgot to add “ghetto-in-training” around the “funny smelling” area
)
Hahahaha…I LOVE that map! I laughed my ass off, because IT’S TRUE!
Please don’t tell me they’re gonna demolish the Harvey’s; anytime I’m looking to swing by Yorkville, I hop off the Yonge/Bloor subway stop, eat Harveys’ with my friends (’cause we’re too cheap to eat the expensive food at yorkville restaurants), and then walk over to cumberland/avenue rd to eat fancy desserts with cappuccino..I do NOT want my Yorkville routine to get fucked up…
PS: that building is fugly….
Shizzle, get back to Toronto already. We all know you miss it. I’m down anytime you want to indulge in some dipping sauce madness. Remember the days of Pizza-hut calzones?
Romi, that Harveys had symbolic meaning for me also. A couple of friends and I, when we started working at Bay/Bloor, would venture to that Harveys for the ultimate combo. The ultimate combo is when you replace fries with poutine. Oh the madness.
I think I’ll have to take that map and do a re-hash. There’s so many funny places in the city, it might be worth it to chronicle them all.
That building reminds me of the one from I, Robot.
I’m looking forward to the more-detailed map of Toronto through the eyes of the Roman Emperor.
damn…. calzones (weren’t they something cheesy like pizz’ones?)… actually, I forgot about them. But the spicy cheddar sauce from Pizza Pizza will always have a special place in my heart…
)
anyway, I’ll be back when I’m fluent.. which hopefully won’t be long since I should be starting classes full-time next year
I’m a creamy garlic man myself.
(That map was genius).
Ummm…..”Still Live With Parents”…is that a dig at me? Don’t make me bring up how much booze money I save on rent a year.
Bang on, btw. Sigh.
As someone who has lived on Bloor street for… 5 years now?…. I would never have expected your map of Toronto to extend anywhere north of say… Eglinton. Actually, I also hear if you try and take the subway to the mystic stop called Scarborough Centre, you actually fall off the end of the earth, and into space.
Jon, that’s not a dig at you! It’s actually from statistics Canada: the most recent census results for the city show the majority of individuals aged 25+ who still live at home are in that general area of the city. Blessing in disguise, though – I’ve never considered the booze money I could save. Knowing me, I’d spend it all on pizza. And like Anon E. Mouse, it’s all about the creamy garlic, baby.
Carl, I did spend my youth growing up in North York, so I could never forget those roots. Beyond Scarborough Center, I could never figure out the true purpose of Castle Frank subway station. A shiny new wooden nickel to anyone who knows why that station exists.
The interiors are designed by Andrea Kantelberg of Kantelberg Design.
The interiors are unbelievable!!
The buildings interiors are sustainable, and the interior designer Andrea Kantelberg is Canada’s biggest talent for interiors, the lobby is gorgeous.