‘Why is nothing happening?’
DESPITE BIG DEMAND FOR HOUSING AND NEW LEGISLATION DESIGNED TO EXPEDITE HOMEBUILDING, EMPTY LOTS AND STALLED SITES ARE STILL A PROBLEM
Growing up in York Mills in the 1990s, Matti Siemiatycki often passed the three-acre parking lot at Yonge Street and Wilson Avenue en route to the Toronto neighbourhood’s namesake subway station.
“I always thought that corner deserved more, so I was pleased to hear that it was up for redevelopment,” says the professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto.
After a new Toronto Transit Commission headquarters was shelved, the lot was acquired in 2015 by the Markham-based Gupta Group, which announced intentions to transform it into a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development with a luxury hotel, office space, condominium units and retail stores.
Seven years and various permit resubmissions later, the parking lot is still there. More than two decades after the rezoning process began, the only real change is that public parking is now prohibited. “I feel like everyone in Toronto is asking ‘Why is nothing happening?’ about at least one stalled condo project,” Siemiatycki says.
WHAT APPEAR TO BE DELAYS ARE ACTUALLY PRETTY STANDARD.. THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IS THAT WE’RE NOT BUILDING ENOUGH HOUSING IN THE RAPIDLY GROWING GTA, AND WE JUST NEED TO MAKE IT QUICKER, SIMPLER AND EASIER TO ADD HOUSING SUPPLY. —JUSTIN SHERWOOD
“In this moment of housing crisis we need to find ways to accelerate these new properties.”
The search for accelerators is undeniably on. The Ontario provincial government’s More Homes for Everyone plan of 2019 aims to shorten residential development timelines. Recently tabled legislation that goes by the same name includes changes to the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act of 2006 that are designed to streamline approval processes and site plan requirements. At the federal level, a new $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund was introduced in the latest budget, with a stated goal of doubling new housing from an annual average of around 200,000 units to nearly 400,000 by providing financial rewards to municipalities that can expedite homebuilding.
Despite these policy-based stimuli, a number of nascent GTA building sites continue to idle. At the corner of Bloor and Dundas, a 29-storey condo building dubbed Giraffe was proposed by former owners TAS Designbuild in 2007, only to have overdeveloped plans for the still-derelict site at 1540 Bloor St. W. rebuffed by both the City and the Ontario Municipal Board in 2010. Just south, a multi-tower project was proposed by Choice Properties at 2280 Dundas St. W. A “community idea centre” replaced a Zellers store at the site with much fanfare in 2017, but it’s been dormant for several years now. More than nine years after the historic Empress Hotel at 335 Yonge St. was gutted by arson, owners the Lalani Group submitted applications to build a 30-storey mixed-use tower. Three years later, vendors in the World Food Market are still serving samosas where homes have long been slated to rise.
Strata.ca real estate broker Cliff Liu points to the empty lot at 170 Spadina Ave. as a prime example of a condo project where construction is long overdue. “The developer (Plaza Corp.) definitely wants to get something going, and they know they need to compromise with the City a bit, but there’s a lot of nimbyism happening in that neighbourhood,” he says, referring to what Siemiatycki identifies as the main cause of stalled residential projects: constituent opposition that prevents elected municipal councillors from approving building permit applications.
“A brew of factors” causes this public opposition, Siemiatycki says. “Anything that affects parking, creates large shadows or increases density gets vigorous community input. In some instances, developers ask to overbuild what would be reasonable for a particular site.”
Another cause of delays is the rising cost of construction, which, as Siemiatycki says, “can turn a developer’s proposal into something that isn’t viable anymore.”
Such is the case with 170 Spadina Ave., a missing tooth on Chinatown’s main drag that by all accounts is primed for construction to start. However, there’s much more to launching a condo project than having municipal approval to do so, says Scott Mclellan, senior vice-president of Plaza Corp., the developer that owns the site. “Sometimes we want to wait and see what happens to the market. We’ve strategically planned our launches over the next couple of years, and until we’re 100 per cent ready to launch it, sell it, build it and make sure that we have enough of a bottom line, we will wait.”
On the one hand, Mclellan explains, the ever-increasing price of land in the GTA enables Plaza to justify paying property taxes and other costs associated with the site. On the other, pandemic-induced increases in construction costs, which are being exacerbated by labour disputes in the construction industry, are wreaking havoc with developers’ margins. “If you don’t have control over your construction timelines or costs, you can’t bring your projects into the marketplace.”
According to city spokesperson Bruce Hawkins, the public’s perception of stalled projects isn’t always in line with what is happening behind the scenes. “I appreciate that from an outside perspective it can sometimes appear as if condo projects just can’t seem to get off the ground. However there can be a variety of reasons why projects may appear to have stalled.”
At the Zellers site, at 2280 Dundas St. W., Hawkins says, “the project is complex and involves multiple partner organizations. It has not stalled. The City is currently working through negotiations with those partner organizations.” At 1540 Bloor West, he continues, City staff are working with new applicants Trinity Development Group and Hazelview Investments to fulfil various requirements at the former Giraffe site, with the application expected to be complete “in the coming months.”
Given that it takes an average of 10 years to complete a highrise condo project in the GTA — that is, to go from planning proposals to occupancy — expediting residential construction has never been Toronto’s strong suit. “What appear to be delays are actually pretty standard,” says Justin Sherwood, a spokesperson for the home builders advocacy group BILD. “The fundamental problem is that we’re not building enough housing in the rapidly growing GTA, and we just need to make it quicker, simpler and easier to add housing supply.”
With the continuing shortage of affordable housing prompting many Ontarians’ to see new residential development in a more positive light, the issue will be a difference-maker in the impending provincial election, Siemiatycki says. “Policy-makers are saying we need these projects, and their voices are finally being heard. There is a realization among homeowners that the housing crisis may not affect them, but it might affect their children and grandchildren.”