This is one of those projects I am not holding my breath about and likely subjected to lots of changes before they ever get their diggers into the ground. And even if that...
 
nightstreak said:
The park has been incrementally decimated updated after update, until it was completely gone in the latest one. This is why I'd rather see this complex become office towers, which could come with zoning conditions stipulated by the city to build community green space over the corridor, as CIBC Square did. A condo project doesn't have that kind of budget nor motivation.
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I meant more the towerless park-only design from back in the beginning.
 
DavidJamesTO said:
I meant more the towerless park-only design from back in the beginning.
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Raildeck Park was always as much of a real thing as SmartTrack. John Tory was a failed Mayor and accomplished virtually nothing while making ostentatious promises that weren't ever going to become reality. Raildeck was one of them. It was never going to happen.

The only way something like Raildeck Park gets built is piecemeal in partnership with private developers. The city needs to set up an organization like Waterfront Toronto who would coordinate with all the property owners along the rail corridor and act as a liaison with City Council to help define standards and move projects through the city bureaucracy to hopefully in the end have what feels like one continuous park rather than dozens of broken up parks. It's doable, but we need a visionary Mayor who cares about public space.
 
Toronto Model 08-14-25 Union Park.png


Link to HD render
 
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nightstreak said:
This isn't getting built. There's no planned start date, the condo market is shit and it's unlikely to improve in the near term. When it does, developers are going to have to stand out and a boring condo is not going to cut it. I see this being revised a handful of times before it dies down and then comes back as a completely redesigned building, potentially office as that market has the potential to grow in the coming years and particularly at this given location.
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As far as we know, this isn't condos though, it's rental (unless something has changed that I've somehow missed). Oxford has little interest in selling condos, as they're a pension fund. Rentals create perpetual income which is more useful to them.

Not to excuse the design, which is bad, but assuming they haven't decided to pivot from rental to condo (in what would be a pretty dumb decision given the current market), the state of the condo market doesn't really impact this project. Now, a softening rental market might be a problem, but I think rentals at this location are probably likely to do okay given where it is.
 
It's amusing how this got called Union Park because of the 5.5 acre decked over park from Blue Jays Way to Union that was the flagship feature of this development and now there's no decking, no park, and far from Union but they kept the name.

This first phase isn't terribly unfitting for City Place just as long as it stops here and the rest of the lands are put on hold until the market rebounds and a proper development, including a decked over rail park, can re-emerge.
 
nightstreak said:
This first phase isn't terribly unfitting for City Place just as long as it stops here and the rest of the lands are put on hold until the market rebounds and a proper development, including a decked over rail park, can re-emerge.
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You're being very kind here. On a premiere site, i'd even go as far a saying the most premiere site as you can get in Toronto, this is absolute insipid gutter trash.

Plain and simple drabbed up garbage, that brings nothing special to the table whatsoever and is a borderline waste of prime real estate.
 
Amare said:
You're being very kind here. On a premiere site, i'd even go as far a saying the most premiere site as you can get in Toronto, this is absolute insipid gutter trash.

Plain and simple drabbed up garbage, that brings nothing special to the table whatsoever and is a borderline waste of prime real estate.
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I wouldn't call this "the most primiere site you can get in Toronto". This is still City Place or at least its periphery and this neighbourhood is one of the most soul sucking neighbourhoods you can pay good money to live in. Location is everything and the CN Tower and the SkyDome doesn't make it a nice place to live.

I'm not making excuses for this boring building but that doesn't change what's across the street or anywhere for a couple of blocks. Those boring condos surrounding this one aren't going to change and suddenly make this a nicer place to live. It'll still be CityPlace for decades. Condos with condo lobbies for the most part, boring fast food chains and tourists for the remaining part. You couldn't pay me to live there.

Now, on the flip side, the one where Oxford has a chance to start reversing that tide, yes it's an opportunity to begin breaking up CityPlace from expanding outwards. The Well over on Spadina has put a stake in the ground on its western edge. This development could stop it on its eastern border. I still think these towers, if they get built, will be the last of their kind for a while. Demand for office space is going to grow while condo demand is shrinking rapidly. Oxford will go where the money is.
 
nightstreak said:
I wouldn't call this "the most primiere site you can get in Toronto". This is still City Place or at least its periphery and this neighbourhood is one of the most soul sucking neighbourhoods you can pay good money to live in. Location is everything and the CN Tower and the SkyDome doesn't make it a nice place to live.

I'm not making excuses for this boring building but that doesn't change what's across the street or anywhere for a couple of blocks. Those boring condos surrounding this one aren't going to change and suddenly make this a nicer place to live. It'll still be CityPlace for decades. Condos with condo lobbies for the most part, boring fast food chains and tourists for the remaining part. You couldn't pay me to live there.

Now, on the flip side, the one where Oxford has a chance to start reversing that tide, yes it's an opportunity to begin breaking up CityPlace from expanding outwards. The Well over on Spadina has put a stake in the ground on its western edge. This development could stop it on its eastern border. I still think these towers, if they get built, will be the last of their kind for a while. Demand for office space is going to grow while condo demand is shrinking rapidly. Oxford will go where the money is.
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The reason why it can and frankly should be seen as a premiere site are plentiful:

1) Immediate proximity to the largest transportation hub in the country (draws millions of people in and out every year)
2) Located next to the most popular tourist attraction in the city, and possibly all of Canada (CN Tower)
3) Located next to a major convention centre (drawing hundreds of thousands every year)
4) Located next to a major entertainment venue (Rogers Centre which draws hundreds of thousands every year)

There are many other reasons, but these are the immediate ones that come to mind. Considering all of the above facts; for Oxford to come out and propose absolute gutter trash which brings nothing to the table which either: a) enhances benefits to any of the above, or b) contributes and leverages any of the above, makes this a laughable joke of a proposal.

This is embarrassing crap, that brings no city benefit whatsoever asides from plopping residences in a generic building and calling it a day. There's no entertainment space contemplated, no significant or uniquely designed retail space, no interesting or special streetscape design, etc.

There's nothing of substantial or unique value in this proposal, it's soulless and soul sucking.

I haven't even got to the laughable impact this has on the most unique vistas in Toronto's skyline.'

You mentioned CityPlace and that's a major blemish that Toronto should have learned from, and should never repeat in any way, shape or form. This proposal literally takes different parts of the garbage we see there, and bestows it on the biggest prime site in the city.
 
Paclo said:
www.toronto.ca

Application Details

www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca

A resubmission on the SPA for Phase 1 with mostly technical revisions and a minor redistribution of GFA. Details can be read in cover letter & revisions list.

Updated renderings:
View attachment 679735View attachment 679736View attachment 679737View attachment 679738View attachment 679739View attachment 679740View attachment 679741View attachment 679742View attachment 679743
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Toronto is building its worst proposals in the most prominent areas of our skyline. You’d think these areas are the ones where the best most expensive top notch proposals would be built. Instead we are building mediocre Scarborough-level condos in our postcard skyline.
 
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