On the Map
Developer sees opportunity in student-housing overhaul on Huron St.
University can be a taxing time, not only because of exam pressure and big questions about post- graduation career paths, but also because of the cost of housing, especially in Toronto. The city’s largest school, U of T, offers relatively affordable on- campus residence rooms that start at $ 840 per month without a meal plan. Unfortunately, there are only 6,616 dorm beds, forcing most of the school’s 90,000 enrollees to live elsewhere.
Lucky ones can live at home. But those who have to rent face a bill bigger than their tuition. U of T’s downtown campus is in the middle of the city’s most expensive real estate, right between Yorkville and the Entertainment District, neighbourhoods where even small studios rent for more than $ 1,600 a month, twice the cost of on-campus housing.
Rooming houses, like 409 Huron St., at the northern edge of campus, provide an alternative. Studios there cost $ 1,250 per month, and include a private washroom and kitchenette with a mini fridge, mini stove and counter space. 409 Huron is coming to the end of its useful life, though. The old Victorian home with a mid-century addition out back contains 40 units that were built before current zoning bylaws, and at 120 square feet each, they’re too small to meet codes.
Enter the Impressions Group, a Markham- based development firm, with a redevelopment plan to revitalize the building, doubling the size of the units to about 250 square feet, and adding 50 more apartments in the process for a total of 90. The old Victorian facade will stay in place. But the tumble-down brick addition will be replaced with a contemporary, five-storey design from Toronto’s SVN Architects + Planners. Its northernmost face will jut out in pleated, accordion-like folds, punched out with big windows for views to the leafy neighbourhood.
Typically, putting a midrise rental building on a street like Huron would be next to impossible. The area is zoned for low-rise residential, with other historic Victorians facing the quaint Huron Washington parkette ( currently under construction). But because the building is already grandfathered as a rooming house, says Newry Shao, director of development at the Impressions Group, “we aren’t expecting a big fight. We had originally thought about a 15- storey apartment tower. That would have been a big fight, requiring a change to the city’s official plan. Hopefully, this goes much smoother.”
Impressions is waiting for zoning approval from the city, and it’s already made concessions to ease the process. Their original blueprints included underground parking for residents with cars. “The city asked us to take that out,” says Shao. “They said the building was close to two subway lines, so the parking wasn’t necessary. They were also worried about adding more congestion to the area.”
There will, however, be plenty of bicycle parking, as well as other student-focused amenities. Small lounges will dot the floors for group study sessions, while a larger common area will be added to the original Victorian building for more casual hangs.
The project is a departure for Impressions, whose portfolio otherwise consists of custom homes and executive town houses in neighbourhoods like Leaside and Lytton Park, where crown molding and granite countertops prevail. None of them has the slightest air of student living.
According to Shao, rental properties aren’t necessarily easier to build or more profitable.
“They can be harder to finance,” she says. “With a condo or townhouse project, you can secure financing based on a certain percentage of pre- sales. A rental is different because you don’t have that security. You also don’t necessarily make more money. With condos you get much faster returns that you can more quickly reinvest and get what’s called a multiplier effect.”
The benefit is consistency.
“Rentals tend to be lower-risk over time,” says Shao. “They tend to be more stable in their returns.” Which is why Impressions isn’t just diversifying with 409 Huron; they’re working on another, similar rental building in Kensington Market.
The five- storey structure, also designed by SVN, will replace a former parking lot on St. Andrew Street. Although there will be some two- and three- bedrooms available, ostensibly for either people with roommate or profes
sionals who don’t mind a dorm- like atmosphere, 80 per cent of the 77 units will be studios and one bedrooms.
“There are a lot of students in that neighbourhood,” says Shao. And they all need somewhere to live, even after Toronto’s condo boom stops.
For more information about 409 Huron St ., visit The impressions group. ca. Rents to be set based on market conditions closer to opening.