Concourse Building
SAVE THIS BUILDING!
SOUTH ELEVATION: Concourse Buidling, 100 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, 1929
Baldwin & Greene architects J.E.H. MacDonald & Thoreau MacDonald artists
SAVE THE CONCOURSE
email Mayor David Miller
Tell the mayor no to the development of the Concourse Building.
+ call
your Councillor.
Links:
http://www.oxfordproperties.com/100Adelaide/builddetails.html
http://www.robertfulford.com/Concourse.html
WHY are we having this debate once again?
Whether the Concourse Building on Adelaide West will be demolished or allowed to stand depends on the answer to this difficult question: can a developer learn? The developer is the gigantic Oxford Properties, which manages or owns more than 100 million square feet of commercial real estate in Canada and the United States.
Oxford has applied to the city to construct a 41-storey office tower adjacent to the Richmond Adelaide Centre. In the process Oxford wants to use the first three floors of the Concourse Building as an entranceway, then glue the skin and decorations from the other 14 floors on the new tower.
As Toronto Community Council heard last week, the city heritage community is dismissive of treating an art-deco skyscraper from the 1920s -- one embellished with Group of Seven artwork -- in this manner. The result, according to one speaker, would be like a "death mask." They insist the building should be retained and renovated.
"Your ability to rethink this development in the next month," said Councillor John Adams to the Oxford brass sitting in the council chamber, "is a test of your character.I hope you think long and hard about what to do." Adams' words sound a bit theatrical, but as it turned out, council's decision to defer was unanimous.
Everyone thought Oxford should try again. Even those councillors anxious to see a new downtown office tower built -- a building that Oxford lawyer Steve Diamond says will produce at least $6 million a year in new property taxes -- after a 10-year hiatus in new construction, decided to back away in the hope Oxford will agree to amend its project and save the Concourse.
Diamond did not seem happy with the way things were going for Oxford. "We can meet until we're blue in the face," he said, "but it won't solve the problem. There's no other way to do this development. My client has spent a great deal of time looking at it." So can this developer learn? Or is it a Blue Meanie?
NEW BUILDINGS FOR A NEW ECONOMY
Some say the reason new office buildings are not being constructed downtown is that there isn't a market for that kind of space. The new economy -- media, culture, computer and information firms --doesn't seem to like big, sterile office towers. New economy companies want space that's funkier, the kind one finds in old warehouses. In fact,warehouse space is being gobbled up by such companies, as a visit to King and Spadina reveals.
It was the strength of this market that led Margie Zeidler, owner/manager of 401 Richmond W., and Michael Tippen, owner of the Flat Iron Building at Church and Front, to jointly make Oxford an offer last week to buy the Concourse for $5.2 million cash, exactly what Oxford paid two years ago. The offer, accompanied by a certified cheque for $200,000, is just for the building -- which would enable Oxford to hang on to density rights and build its big tower immediately behind without having to go through a new permit process. It was as clear a sign council could get that the ground is shifting downtown.
A stone's throw from the Concourse is living proof of what works -- Sterling Towers at 372 Bay. Sterling Towers is the same vintage and virtually the same size as the Concourse Building. It bills itself as "creative space for creative companies," touting as attractions small floor plates, natural light, fresh air and windows that open.
"Bay Street had traditionally been the focus of corporate endeavours," reads the building's website,<www. 372bay.com>. "Its heavy concentration of steel and glass monoliths have typically conveyed a visual barrenness, making it a less than appealing address for creative enterprises. The Sterling Tower presents a striking alternative -- a creative space in corporate terrain."Owen Lawson, owner of 372 Bay, says the building is 97 per cent leased. "Companies in the new economy," Lawson says, "are looking for space that's unique, with identity, with warmth. They should keep the Concourse. It's a positive attribute for the site, not negative. It's a travesty to have it torn down."
For tenants in these old structures, total costs are lower because property taxes and operating costs are lower in older buildings than new. For developers and owners -- people like Zeidler, Tippen and Lawson -- returns on investment are high. So saving the Concourse makes sense for economic reasons, let alone the fact it is of cultural importance.
Part of the fight over the Concourse Building comes from the belief that it's not right to treat a 75-year-old structure as though it is disposable. But it's also about how the city might accommodate and encourage the new economy, and how values are shifting under our very feet.
Happily, many members of city council seem open to these important changes. But can a developer learn? John Sewell, Now
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