Kelly McParland: How Toronto built a condo glut amid a housing shortage
While agonizing over six-plexes, the city is eagerly filling its crowded core with a bevy of new towers so high they've been accorded their own descriptive. At least eight 'supertall' skyscrapers are in the works, the largest (for now) being the SkyTower at the very foot of Yonge Street on the Lake Ontario shoreline, in a neighbourhood once envisioned as a sort of waterfront oasis away from the downtown crowds, but long-since abandoned to forests of obstructive condo towers and office buildings.
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SkyTower is just the first of six high-rises planned for an address that was previously home to the Toronto Star newspaper, traditionally a campaigner for a 'liveable,' low-rise city, but which decamped last year for a posh location a short distance away.
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At 105 storeys, SkyTower is six storeys taller than 19 Bloor West, another 'supertall' planned farther north at the confluence of Yonge and Bloor, ground zero for high-end shoppers and fashionistas. That structure, in turn, is just down the street and nine metres taller than The One, a much-troubled 85-storey real estate catastrophe that's been through partnership battles, financial crises, creditor protection and high-wire legal warfare in the decade since it was announced as what would then have been the city's tallest condominium building. It's now being revamped and completed by a court-approved builder after failing to attract a buyer a year ago.
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Glitzy as the supertalls may appear, they find themselves thrusting skyward in a market fast plunging in the opposite direction. A survey by research firm Urbanation Inc. reported that a total of just 502 condo units were sold in the second quarter across the entire Greater Toronto and Hamilton region, an area stretching well beyond Toronto itself to include some seven million people.
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That's down 69 per cent from last year, and 91 per cent below the average of the past decade, the lowest levels in 30 years. Only 170 of those sales were in Toronto itself. Meanwhile, 19 Bloor West alone is expected to add almost 1,300 new units when it's completed.
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Don't reach for your hankie just yet, mind. For years now, Toronto condo sales have been largely a game of buy-and-flip. Some 70 per cent of new units went to investors hoping to make a quick profit by flipping the end product once construction ended, or renting it out at eye-watering rates. But rents are falling along with the market glut, leaving investors holding units worth less than they agreed to pay and having trouble borrowing enough to cover the difference. Dozens of developments have been cancelled or delayed as a result, many stuffed with tiny units 400- to 600 square feet in size, built by developers persuaded people would happily attempt to raise families in shoeboxes.
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Anyone old enough to remember when Canadian teams still won Stanley Cups should know that busts are as integral to the real estate business as tyrants are to Russia. There hasn't been a serious one in Ontario since a crash in the 1990s that lasted about seven years, so a substantial shock now could hardly be deemed unreasonable.
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Maybe it will force some useful changes. Something has to happen to that mass backlog of tiny, unwanted boxes in the sky. You can't solve a housing shortage with base prices starting at $1 million. Nor can you pretend you're building 'homes' when seven in 10 go to quick-buck investors planning to flip them at the first opportunity.
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If Toronto politicians want to get serious about a problem they love to moan about but never really address, they'll organize a future with fewer hundred-storey playpens that will 'Transform Toronto's Skyline' — as if that should be a priority for an overcrowded city with some of North America's worst traffic — and recognize that a few hundred six-plexes would do a lot more to serve home-hungry people than another vanity project in the sky.
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CBC
31 minutes ago
- CBC
Ford government studied, shelved Hwy. 401 tunnel research in 2021
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That study isn't expected to be completed until 2027. But the documents obtained by CBC News show that the government appears to have already conducted its own analysis and quietly shelved that detailed work five years ago. The planning study has not been released and it's not clear why the work was stopped. The civil servants say in the documents that the study examined options to compare "assumptions, findings, costing, and technical design considerations." WATCH | Experts say proposed tunnel could cost $100B: Pair of ministries, consultant prepared the 'high-level analysis' The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Ontario worked on the study with the help of an outside engineering consultant. They "conducted a high-level analysis on three tunnel concepts and two elevated roadway concepts," the note says. That work appears to have been prompted by a number of unsolicited proposals to government between 2019 and 2021 from companies pitching plans to build a 401 tunnel. The submission of such proposals is not unusual, and Ontario created a policy framework and submissions portal to streamline the process in 2019, the documents say. "(The proposals) received by the government in 2019 led to an initial assessment of the feasibility and benefits of a tunnel or similar large-scale capital infrastructure project on the central Highway 401 corridor, which would add capacity in support of decreasing congestion," the note says. The documents say firms Aecon, Cintra and Acciona all submitted unsolicited proposals. The note does not provide specifics about each individual plan but says one proposed two tunnels under the existing 401 from Highway 427 in the west to Bayview Avenue or Leslie Street in the east. One of the tunnel concepts consisted of two "large-diameter, five lane, double-deck" tunnels, the documents note. Crombie calls for 'full transparency' Neither Premier Doug Ford nor Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria's offices responded to a request for comment. Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is calling on the government to release all of the reports on the tunnel. Ontarians need to be able to evaluate the merits of what could be the single most expensive infrastructure project in the province's history should it move ahead, she said. "I'd like to know what the economic benefits are," she said. "I'd like to know what the environmental impacts would be. Will it meet the goal of reducing traffic and gridlock?" Crombie said she's skeptical the tunnel would cut congestion on the highway. It's possible the government shelved the work in 2021 because the civil servants found the mega-project wasn't feasible, she said. "That's why we ask for full transparency and an opportunity to see the feasibility study," she said. WATCH | How Toronto is tackling congestion: Chow explains how Toronto is tackling congestion, gridlock 3 months ago Critic calls for release of Hwy. 401 tunnel reports NDP transportation and infrastructure critic Jennifer French said the Ford government needs to be transparent about what it already knows about the cost and feasibility of the tunnel. "This just speaks to the fact that everything the government does, whether it's infrastructure projects, transportation projects, we are always the last ones to know," she said. "If the premier is drawing from the report, or if he's ignoring the report, I would like to know." Vetting unsolicited proposals is very challenging for governments, said Matti Siemiatycki, director of University of Toronto's Infrastructure Institute. He's not surprised that after receiving the three plans from the private sector, that the government wanted to work on its own 401 tunnel analysis. "Some of them are complete hair brain schemes, and some of them have a kernel of truth to them," he said generally of unsolicited proposals. "It's very complicated and challenging for governments to sift through them and try to figure out the signal from the noise." Siemiatycki said the 401 tunnel could take decades to build and cost tens of billions of dollars. For that reason, the government should release as much of its feasibility work as possible, including information in the unsolicited proposals that isn't proprietary to the firms, he said. That also includes release of the current feasibility study planned by the province when it's completed, he added.
CBC
31 minutes ago
- CBC
'That's a lot of bottles!': Uncorking the value of American booze pulled from NSLC shelves
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And while Southern Comfort might conjure up visions of the Big Easy as it's "The spirit of New Orleans" — according to its label — details like that had it initially categorized as American and thus removed from the shelves. However, Southern Comfort is produced and bottled in Montreal, and is now back on the shelves. It was a similar story for Goldschläger, the cinnamon schnapps that includes gold flakes. It was also initially pulled off the shelves. "Bottled by Sazerac Distilleries of Canada for Sazerac company. Louisville, KY, USA," the back label of the product shows. For rum manufacturer Bacardi, it didn't want to be labelled as an American product "as our rums are a product of Puerto Rico," the company's regional director for Atlantic Canada wrote in a Feb. 26 email to some NSLC officials. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory, so Bacardi's products remain available for sale through the NSLC. 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From March 4 to July 11, sales of Nova Scotia wine increased 14.5 per cent and Nova Scotia spirit products increased 26.7 per cent, compared to the same time last year. Canadian wine sales were up 12.9 per cent, while Canadian whisky sales increased by 9.2 per cent during the same time period. "I think overall shoppers have been responding and looking for more local products and Canadian products," said NSLC spokesperson Terah McKinnon. "Overall, we do receive some questions [about American alcohol], but I think the numbers are showing in our sales to say they are exploring products closer to home." Compass Distillers makes a range of spirits including gin and rum, many sold through the NSLC. President Graham Collins said that while Compass products like gin haven't seen an uptick in NSLC sales because most competitors are European-based, they've seen a bump in rum sales. 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The same order applies to bars and restaurants as well.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
As Beer Stores shut their doors, who will take your empties?
Social Sharing With more and more Beer Stores closing across Ontario, charities and non-profits that rely on bottle collection are hoping to cash in on your empties. The Beer Store currently processes about 1.6 billion empty alcohol containers per year. But it has closed dozens of locations across the province since the arrival of beer in convenience stores, and plans to shutter still more this September. At least five of the actual or planned closures are in Ottawa, including one in the Glebe, where Operation Come Home runs a bottle drive as part of its BottleWorks social enterprise. Executive director John Heckbert hasn't noticed any impact yet — but he's hoping more residents will call on BottleWorks to collect their empties. "We would be very happy to help people if they find that they're accumulating bottles or that they would like somebody to come pick them up," he said. "It's definitely bad news for the people that are affected by the closures," he added. "But it is a positive for our program in the sense that we can provide more employment opportunities and more activity for our youth." Operation Come Home provides housing, employment and eduction programs for homeless youth, who staff the BottleWorks program. They ride around in the truck and collect from practically anywhere in Ottawa, though suburban areas have higher minimums for collection. Residents can fill out a form on the BottleWorks website and schedule a collection date. They can get a tax receipt in return. "We are going to be adding two new trucks to the road in the coming year," Heckbert said. "We're going to expand the capacity of the program and this timing will help us make sure that the trucks are always full." Animal rescues also hopeful BottleWorks isn't the only group that will pick up empties. Fundraisers for animal rescues also collect bottles and cans to pay for food and vet bills. Darlene Charman of Empties for Paws Orleans said empties play a major role in their fundraising. She saw a major uptick in collections during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was tougher for people to get out for returns. She wonders whether the Beer Store closures might trigger a similar trend. "It could bring a little bit more of an influx of the empties to the animal rescues, because the people won't be bothered to drive further out," she said. Melody Lachance collects empties for several animal rescues through her fundraising group, Barrhaven & Area Empties. She too is hoping for a boost. "They may just contact us and say, 'Do you want my empties, because I'm not going to drive to wherever to cash them in,'" she said. Lachance is already looking to nearby Manotick, where a store is set to close later this month. But further closures could also be a hindrance, since both Lachance and Charman rely on the Beer Store for returns. Waste reduction advocate worried Duncan Bury of Waste Watch Ottawa agreed that charities can pick up some of the slack left as Beer Stores closed, but not enough to compensate for the overall decline of a collection system he already sees as severely lacking. Where other provinces like B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan collect about 80 per cent of their empties, Ontario brings in only about half. "That 50 per cent number will surely fall," Bury said. "The whole system, which is not very good to start with, is just going to get worse." Buty noted that most other provinces accept non-alcoholic containers and offer far more locations for residents to return their empties. Quebec has 1,200, while B.C. has 600. Currently, the Beer Store is required to keep at least 300 locations open as part of a contract with the provincial government. But that will end as of Jan. 1. Bury fears that could mean more closures and even fewer options for returns. "The options to recover those containers are frankly disappearing," said Bury. On that same date, the province will require grocery stores that sell alcohol to accept empties for collection. Bury said that could work. It's a major component of British Columbia's successful system. "If they can do it in British Columbia, there's absolutely no reason they shouldn't be able to do it in Ontario," he said. But he's concerned it won't happen. The province already requires about 70 grocery stores in areas without Beer Stores to accept empties. But a report in May found that few were actually complying. Bury said the province needs to be tough with the grocers, but it should also do more. He said Ontario should open stand-alone depots for bottle returns, like Quebec and British Columbia. Heckbert said BottleWorks could help businesses that sell alcohol by taking the empties off their hands. "I could imagine that for a grocery store, space and inventory will be an issue. It's the same thing that our bars and restaurants encounter," he said.
