Andre Bermon –
Bigger isn’t always better, the saying goes. Someone should tell the developer behind a new building proposal in Corktown that it missed the memo.
Block Developments, the company making one of the largest residential applications in the Downtown East, is swinging its big block-energy in the face of local residents. That was my impression at a city planning consultation in November.
Two very large towers, 55 and 59 storeys, are proposed on a postage-stamp space at the foot of Sumach Street, on the other side of the Richmond/Adelaide ramps, currently occupied by the Cube house and a half dozen old properties.
Surprise doesn’t quite cut it. More accurately, I’m dumbfounded at the sheer audacity.
Another developer tried and failed at this site before. What’s different this time?
Unlike the previous developer, Block actually owns the land – well, most of it, except for a holdout at 2 Sumach. The cheque, unlike the proposed buildings, wasn’t big enough.
According to the CBC, Block paid $19 million just for the land surrounding the Cube House. Millions more were spent on residential properties and the Alfa Romeo dealership on the corner of Eastern Avenue and Cherry Street.
That’s a big investment to motivate the young leadership at Block to build something.
(When I say young, I mean young. The three directors pictured on their website look like they’re heading for a job interview. One of them still gets carded at the LCBO.)
Block’s portfolio is filled with townhouses or mid-rise projects in trendy areas of the city. I guess the Sumach site was too much of a dump to add something unique and reasonable to the community.
The planning rationale the developer submitted to the city contains the mumbo-jumbo nonsense you would expect high-paid lawyers to say about why the building needs to be so tall. Something along the lines of “[the application] represents an appropriate level of intensification that addresses the City’s need to substantially increase housing opportunities…”
Heard that one before? Well, brace yourself, it gets more cringeworthy.
Block is shameless enough to invoke the words “Addressing the Housing Crisis” in its report. Of course, it says nothing about contributing units affordable to the masses – Torontonians stopped expecting this a long time ago. Instead. Block perpetuates the argument that some arbitrary number of units supplied to the market will somehow drop prices.
The public knows it’s hogwash, yet developers keep peddling it like gospel.
That’s not to say there is zero merit for this type of mixed-use development. The site itself has long been underutilized and pretty much orphaned since the Don Valley Parkway was constructed some seven decades ago. The Eastern/Cherry Street intersection is overdue for further activation, and a residential building with retail space would help.
Ward 13 Councillor Chris Moise supports reserving commercial space in residential projects to install grocery stores – an amenity lacking in most Downtown East neighbourhoods.
However, the commercial space being proposed isn’t big enough to accommodate a big-box chain like Loblaws or Metro. Something smaller would have to do. A Rabba Fine Foods outlet might be an option — in the 2022 election, members of the Rabba family donated $2,400 to the councillor’s campaign.
Speaking of donations, the Cube House, a funky 1990s iteration of the post-war Dutch architectural style, should be given away, ideally to a third party or the city. The building remains on the chopping block, deemed not to possess sufficient cultural heritage value to be protected under the Ontario Heritage Act.
In 2021 a previous developer proposing a zoning bylaw amendment like the one Block wants was unable to find any city department or private institution willing to receive it. Perhaps enough time has lapsed for Block to succeed where the other one failed. Finding a new home for the Cube House would certainly improve Block’s image in Corktown.
To go further in winning over the community, Block should consider designing a proposal for the neighbouring King-Sumach plaza – a relative dead area behind the Bay Cat and Dog Hospital. (The plaza is currently boarded up for remediation of the Richmond/Adelaide ramps.) A plan to pedestrianize the space and connect it to Percy Park and possibly the vacant land adjacent to the Riverdale Church would create quite a buzz.
If Block is to consider this kind gesture, it would mean the community must swallow 59 storeys of concrete and steel. Not an easy ask for Corktown, a successful low- to mid-rise neighbourhood.
It appears that distinction may come to an end.
