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The Inclusive on Courtland | 38, 34, 30 & 29 fl | Proposed
#91
(06-10-2017, 09:02 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(06-09-2017, 10:48 PM)MacBerry Wrote: IMO, the most likely answer is in the savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years which the developer will save in taxes. As a fully enclosed indoor mall the property taxes would be much higher on a fully enclosed large building.

Secondly, the TPO site is not meant to be an everyday, local, and enclosed, "lets go to the mall" site.

If that’s true then it’s yet another screw-up in the design of property taxes. I’m a bit unclear — is it simply because the property would be worth more fully enclosed, and therefore the mill rate would apply to a higher assessment, or is it because of special provisions related to some legalistic definition of the use of the property?

As to your second point, I’m not clear on what you’re saying. Nobody would ever want to visit one store, then walk to another? Or they would, but they would be more comfortable being rained on while they do so?

As a specialty mall, in terms of property tax valuation, the best analogy is the one you put forward  ... the rate set would be less for PTO because they have not enclosed it into the traditional regional mall which we see as a fully enclosed building. I don't think it is a special consideration but a means to pay less for a  tax assessment for one large building.

With your query about my thoughts on the visitor attraction factor, it is IMO about who and why people go to say a Community Centre Mall like Stanley Park Mall or Regional Mall (Fairview Park) or a Super-Regional Mall (Square One or Sherway Gardens). All of these malls all have daily consumer attractants such as bank(s), grocery stores, pharmacy all at a size supported by a distance decay factor based on service needs. How far people are willing to travel for certain services and meet, greet and eat functions is a consideration in mall development. 

Toronto Premier Outlets and most "outlet malls" are not trying to attract the kids after high school or the lunch crowd who might also buy from shops or food courts. Outlet malls aren't trying to get parents into a drug store for prescriptions or specialty retailers for daily needs. Regionals (Fairview Park) attract people from across the city/region and beyond and have a variety of small lease holders and usually two anchor stores. Super-regional malls will have major anchor stores such as Neiman Marcus, Holt Renfrew or Nordstrom's  and have a much longer distance attraction radius.

Lastly,  each of these mall types have different transportation infrastructure needs such as highway(s), expressway(s), buses, LRTs or subways and the confluence of these.
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#92
Can't we get away from irrelevant mall conversation and get back to basics, like how "visually unappealing" this project will be if the renders are accurate?
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#93
(06-13-2017, 08:04 AM)panamaniac Wrote: Can't we get away from irrelevant mall conversation and get back to basics, like how "visually unappealing" this project will be if the renders are accurate?

I agree about getting back on track, but  I like the look of the project.
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#94
(06-13-2017, 08:04 AM)panamaniac Wrote: Can't we get away from irrelevant mall conversation and get back to basics, like how "visually unappealing" this project will be if the renders are accurate?

I think once they submit a render with something better than 8-bit colour it will look a lot better.

I think this will be an awesome addition to the city, assuming it gets built. (right now, you can always count on Drewlo and Momentum and to some extent, Adrian and Auburn (still waiting for both companies to finish their DT Kitchener properties))
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#95
I like the look of the project as well, hoping that we hear some news about building time lines soon.
I also hope as always that the project isn't scaled back.
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#96
It goes here:

   
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#97
(06-18-2017, 07:41 PM)Canard Wrote: It goes here:

With that photo, you can tell that there is plenty of room for that project. Much wider than I thought. Will be good use of that land.

BTW: Who owns that land? The railway? Region or city? Or some private company?
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#98
Yeah, I kind of went "...oh" when I snapped it, seeing as how wrongly I remembered what this area looked like!
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#99
(06-19-2017, 06:03 AM)Canard Wrote: Yeah, I kind of went "...oh" when I snapped it, seeing as how wrongly I remembered what this area looked like!

It’s an interesting bit of land. At first glance there isn’t space for much of anything, but when you take into account how much earth is moved to build a tall tower, it’s actually perfectly useable. Do you happen to know what the actual drop-off in elevation is? I mean, how many floors below grade could you have at Courtland that would be above grade at the tracks? I’m guessing about 2 because the tracks go under the bridge but it’s hard to estimate this sort of thing from a picture. I also remember reading a home remodeling book years ago in which the author suggested that if a homeowner said their property dropped off a few feet towards the back it was probably more like a few stories.
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The grading also seems to be shallower than I remembered too.
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(06-19-2017, 06:41 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: Do you happen to know what the actual drop-off in elevation is? I mean, how many floors below grade could you have at Courtland that would be above grade at the tracks?

The renders of the project give a pretty good idea. There are 3 below-grade parking levels shown. One looks like an over-height service level.
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(06-19-2017, 11:51 AM)Markster Wrote:
(06-19-2017, 06:41 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: Do you happen to know what the actual drop-off in elevation is? I mean, how many floors below grade could yo u have at Courtland that would be above grade at the tracks?

The renders of the project give a pretty good idea.  There are 3 below-grade parking levels shown. One looks like an over-height service level.

When you look at the two storey townhouse across the road in the pic, it sort of confirms a slope of about 3 storeys.
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Looks to be about only 11 meters from road to the tracks (highest 322, lowest 311):

[Image: KXcLEyK.png]
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Photo 
(06-19-2017, 12:11 PM)panamaniac Wrote:
(06-19-2017, 11:51 AM)Markster Wrote: The renders of the project give a pretty good idea.  There are 3 below-grade parking levels shown. One looks like an over-height service level.

When you look at the two storey townhouse across the road in the pic, it sort of confirms a slope of about 3 storeys.
We live right beside this location and are looking forward to these being built and hoping they are rentals with reasonable prices.


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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Block Line/Courtland/Hayward area, from the sky - including the future site of the Virerra Village development. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> Cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://t.co/ro7ZNv43CE">pic.twitter.com/ro7ZNv43CE</a></p>&mdash; Iain Hendry (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/902205990703169536">August 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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