Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 301

I love seeing these kind of small and creative infill projects .

In this case, this , is a conversion of an old TV and radio repair shop into a new 4,800 square foot gallery and workspace (there also looks to be a single residential suite based on the photos). These are the kinds of projects that can really make and/or transform an area. However, they are often few and far between.

Here's something that I think about a lot:

In Toronto’s red hot market, it wasn’t easy finding a building large enough to do all of these things; that Mr. Low-Beer had been out of the city for two decades only added to the shock: “I wasn’t fully cognizant of the fact that every square inch was going to be priced out as a condo; I thought you could get an old garage or some place on a highway that was undesirable.”

Having cheap and undesirable spaces in a city can be a huge benefit, because they lower the barriers to entry and allow for new ideas. And at the end of the day, it is new ideas that usually make cities so exciting. Jane Jacobs was on to someting here.

But over the last real estate cycle, this has been a challenge because of how frenetic the market has been. It has been a challenge for people wanting to convert TV repair shops into new creative spaces, and it has even been a challenge for new/smaller developers wanting to, yes, build things like condos.

However, all of this started changing about a year and a half ago. And I would argue that right now is the best time in the last 15 years to be a new entrant. Two years ago, it was hard to buy development sites, and it was mostly impossible to negotiate favorable deal terms (such as structure).

This current reset has changed that. And it is creating opportunities for those who can be creative.

This week, a 1913 Beaux-Arts office building at 69 Yonge Street (here in Toronto) was conditionally approved for conversion to residential. The proposal entails preserving the existing 15-storey building, adding 6 storeys on top, and creating a total of 127 new condominium suites (14 studios, 65 one-beds, 27 two-beds, 21 three-beds, and exactly zero parking spaces).

This is noteworthy for at least 3 reasons.

One, it's a beautiful old building and PARTISANS does great work .

Two, there's no parking. This isn't novel for Toronto, but it's a good reminder that you don't need parking in urban centers (so stop mandating it). It's also something that you often have to accept with office conversions. If the parking doesn't already exist, you're probably not going to build it.

Finally, this approval demonstrates a reversal in the city's view on office replacement. Years ago, this sort of project wouldn't have been feasible, because the developer would have been forced to replace any demolished office space. But obviously that's no longer the case today. And in my opinion, that's a good thing.

Tonight was a "housewarming" party for the residents of Junction House. It was hosted in the co-working space that I wrote about, here , which was a lot of fun to see in action.

As part of the event, we opened up the doors to our model suite and to the penthouse suite that sits under the Junction placemaking sign .

And in the penthouse, we set up a little gallery displaying historic photos of the Junction -- from the 80s -- taken by photographer Avard Woolaver .

They're awesome photos, and eventually they'll make their way down to the lobby. But for now, it's a penthouse gallery.

However, the most important component of the evening was that it was an opportunity for residents to meet each other. And that's why the question of the night quickly became, "so what floor do you live on?"

I sometimes hear people say that there can be a lack of community in multi-family buildings. But I can honestly tell you that I felt the exact opposite of that this evening.

It was nice to meet so many lovely people from the building.