The developers are dangling the possibility that as much as half the property could become park land, but city officials are hinting the price tag could be too high.
“We’re looking for more answers,” said Ausma Malik, the city councillor for the downtown ward of Spadina-Fort York. “I’m fighting to get as much of this development as possible to be publicly accessible green space.”
The consortium of companies behind the plan is CKF Rail Development Ltd. Partnership. The lead company in CKF is Craft Development Corp., which purchased the air rights to build over the rail lines from CN Rail in 2013.
CKF’s plans are for nine condo towers ranging from 20 to 65 storeys, with a total of 6,126 residential units. The project’s two tallest towers would be higher than the tallest office tower in The Well, the new development just north of the rail lines, on the former site of the Globe and Mail.
“An unelected, unaccountable provincial tribunal made a ruling that allowed for development to happen here,” said Malik during an interview on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the rail lines.
Last year, CKF presented what it called the Rail Deck Reset: 11 towers, with the tallest exceeding 70 storeys.
Rail Deck could get a park after all
City officials said they had “fundamental concerns” about that plan, and the developers unveiled a revision this spring, with two fewer towers and more space between them.
The developers are now proposing to give the city 1.2 hectares in roughly the centre of the seven-hectare site to be a park.
Cost to taxpayers unclear
What’s unclear is how much it would cost taxpayers to obtain all that parkland.
Andrea Bake, a senior project manager for the City of Toronto, told a recent virtual town hall meeting that the two expansion parcels “aren’t free,” but gave no indication of what the price could be.
“We are trying to figure out how much the city can put into this to make the park as large as possible,” Bake said.
The developers aren’t revealing the price tag publicly either.
“The ability for the city to develop park in the future, what we’re calling the opportunity lands, is really subject to negotiations ongoing now,” said Sinclair in an interview.
There’s evidence suggesting the price would almost certainly run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
In 2020, before the tribunal ruling, Craft Developments president Robert Sabato made public an offer to sell the city the airspace rights for the park portion of the site for $340 million. Sabato described that price as “substantially less than fair market value” in a letter to the city.
The city’s estimated budget for turning the entire site into Rail Deck Park exceeded $1.6 billion.
“I’m committed to fighting for the most affordable and livable and green district that we can get,” Malik said
CBC News requested an interview with a representative from CKF Rail Development Ltd. Partnership, which includes Craft Developments, Kingsmen Group Inc, Fengate Asset Management, LiUNA Pension Fund and Innovia Corp.
A spokesperson said the developers are not doing interviews at this time.
Craft’s co-founder, president and CEO is Carmine Nigro. Over the past four years, Ford has appointed Nigro to be chairman of the LCBO, chair of the Ontario Place board of directors and a board member of Invest Ontario — a new agency promoting investment in the province.
Proposal could change before going to city council
Residents of some condominiums on Front Street just east of Spadina are not pleased with the part of the project that would put a hotel and three residential towers of 20, 40 and 65 storeys over the rail lines immediately south of them.
“It would be nice all dedicated to park, since that was the original proposal [by the city], or lower buildings,” said Palma Ottaviani, a member of the board for the Matrix condominiums.
The developers’ proposal currently calls for 30 per cent of the residential units to be two-bedroom condos and another 10 per cent as three-bedroom.
The project includes a commitment to meet whatever affordable housing requirements the city sets as part of its new inclusionary zoning framework, which could mean anywhere from five to 10 per cent of units being priced below market.
Sinclair said the developers’ vision is “to try to create something that responds to the greatest needs in the city today, which are housing, obviously, community infrastructure and parkland.”
Meanwhile, the proposal that’s currently before the city planning department could be revised before it gets submitted to city council.
“What you see today is plastic,” Sinclair told the town hall meeting in April. “It can still be molded.”
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