Mr. Christie's Bakery Redevelopment

[Marcanadian]

TORONTO, Nov. 1, 2012 /CNW/ - Mondelēz Canada today announced that it intends to close its Lakeshore Bakery in the West End of Toronto in the third quarter of 2013.

The 625,000 square-foot biscuit manufacturing facility, located on Lakeshore Boulevard, has produced a variety of cookies and crackers since 1948.

"This is a difficult decision, given the role this facility has played within our organization and in the community for 64 years. However, the plant faces some unique challenges resulting from the changing neighborhood surrounding the facility," said Alvaro Cuba, VP Operations for Mondelēz Canada.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1063...ery-in-toronto

According to the CBC, 27 condominiums are proposed for this site. This is a massive, Cityplace style redevelopment. I just put this in the general Toronto section for now, since we don't know if these are going to be highrises or lowrises.

[Innsertnamehere]

7,000 units which is proposed, assuming a rate of 1.5 people a unit, would mean that this development would have the density of 95,000 people per square km. that is INSANE.

[Marcanadian]

I really can't imagine 27 condominiums being appropriate for this site. This site needs heavy retail development to offset the lost jobs in the neighbourhood. Also, transit is inadequate in the area to support that many new residents. I'd like to see a mixed use development - mid-rises, office and retail with a public square - so long as transit is improved.

[monkeyronin]

Good news. This site needs to be developed for the Humber Bay to become a "Complete" neighbourhood and not just a string of condos along the water. It could also potentially double the size of its skyline.

[crooked soul]

Mr. Christie's... you make good cookies !!!!!!!!!


sad that it is closing.. .more jobs lost... and for what???? condo's that people can't afford.. in it's place.. instead of space where there is productivity and people can have jobs..

[Innsertnamehere]

500 jobs for 28 acres this close to downtown is rather inefficient. a 100,000 square foot office building could replace every single one of those jobs.

[Toronto2008]

Humber Bay Shores...wow! This development has to happen, but the implementation will be key. I will try to get involved with the public consultations to make sure this doesn't turn into a City Place type missed opportunity.

[Innsertnamehere]

As long as the towers are deduced to under 20, and there is lots of retail and preferably a office building or two, I will be happy. This could very well turn out to be etobicokes downtown.

[crooked soul]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

500 jobs for 28 acres this close to downtown is rather inefficient. a 100,000 square foot office building could replace every single one of those jobs.

so 550 jobs is inefficient?... tell that to those losing their jobs..
there is no mention of a 100, 000 square foot office building replacing those jobs..in that area-- and btw.. majority of those jobs are not white collar - where are they to go now?.. they are being outsourced..

as quoted by the article:
As a result of this closure, a portion of the Lakeshore Bakery's production will be moved to Mondelēz Canada´s bakeries in Montreal and East York. The remainder will be split between other current North American biscuit manufacturing facilities and co-manufacturers.

[monkeyronin]

Originally Posted by crooked soul

sad that it is closing.. .more jobs lost... and for what???? condo's that people can't afford.. in it's place.. instead of space where there is productivity and people can have jobs..

500 crappy jobs. These sorts of businesses (industrial-scale food production and the like) are the type that thrive on easily-exploitable (typically) immigrant labour. Minimum wage, no benefits, no job security, generally poor working conditions, frequent disregard of labour laws. Wage slavery, pretty much. All this on 28 acres of inner-city waterfront real estate.

On the other hand, a 7,000-unit development creates at least a few hundred (temporary) construction jobs, and presumably at least a few hundred more in the retail & services that will inevitable come along with the 10-20,000 or so new residents.

And from an urban perspective, a high-density mixed-use neighbourhood is certainly a better use of land like this than a massive factory.

[crooked soul]

Originally Posted by monkeyronin

500 crappy jobs. These sorts of businesses (industrial-scale food production and the like) are the type that thrive on easily-exploitable (typically) immigrant labour. Minimum wage, no benefits, no job security, generally poor working conditions, frequent disregard of labour laws. Wage slavery, pretty much. All this on 28 acres of inner-city waterfront real estate.

On the other hand, a 7,000-unit development creates at least a few hundred (temporary) construction jobs, and presumably at least a few hundred more in the retail & services that will inevitable come along with the 10-20,000 or so new residents.

And from an urban perspective, a high-density mixed-use neighbourhood is certainly a better use of land like this than a massive factory.

these 550 jobs " crappy jobs " as you call it.. have the identical description to a majority of office jobs that are here in Toronto...and don't just " discriminate to immigrant labour " Minimum wage, no benefits, no job security, generally poor working conditions, frequent disregard of labour laws. Wage slavery, " pretty much" describes the current job scenario - you really think this kind of attitude goes just for labour / factory jobs??
office jobs - other than the executive - level CEO Senior positions
treat employees like trash.. there is a huge wage drop to the point where it is just barely over the minimum wage coupled with doing 2- 3 peoples job ( that were layed off ) - working for peanuts and not having any benefits
these 550 jobs are probably loyal folks- who have worked hard to get their job security only to lose it- and being discredited and thrown away..like they are easily dispensable these are 550 families that will be affected..

I can see your point for the far distant future of having a huge population move in and retail being built to generate jobs.. that would be great if it were all true and 100% given... but don't forget- these condos are not all full to capacity- they are mostly empty and are used up by foreign investors.. so it is not all what it seems..

[Innsertnamehere]

Not stating that those jobs are bad ones, but rather that large factories like these ones no longer belong so close to downtown. This would be fine in brampton, like where all the other warehouses are, but not here. It is certianly not a good thing to lose 550 jobs, but whatever replaces this will be a much more productive use of this land, and likely employ many more people.

[Toronto2008]

Originally Posted by crooked soul

sad that it is closing.. .more jobs lost... and for what???? condo's that people can't afford.. in it's place.. instead of space where there is productivity and people can have jobs..

I thought it was pretty clear from the article that this was a business decision? They can't use the plant to its capacity so they are turning up production in MTL and East York. It's the same reason why the Portlands have no more industry. Condos are just part of the redevelopment of the area.

"With the facility's aging infrastructure, and underutilized manufacturing capacity, further investment is not a viable option."

[Mollywood]

Originally Posted by Toronto2008

I thought it was pretty clear from the article that this was a business decision? They can't use the plant to its capacity so they are turning up production in MTL and East York. It's the same reason why the Portlands have no more industry. Condos are just part of the redevelopment of the area.

"With the facility's aging infrastructure, and underutilized manufacturing capacity, further investment is not a viable option."

And you believe that? lol (I don't)

[Filip]

They're insane with what they're proposing. Over my dead body.

Shops at Don Mills type development or nothing.

[Innsertnamehere]

I was thinking more along the lines a slightly scaled up Humbertown... (I.e add 20 floors on all the towers, throw 4-5 more in there, and you are good)

[cruzin4u]

There is no way you are going to fit 27 towers on that plot of land.

Concord's Park Place is 45-acres and will have about 20 towers.

Some of your comments are insensitive to those people who lost their jobs. These are people with bills to pay, with homes, children. It's especially difficult with Christmas approaching. How can you sit there and say, "500 crappy jobs" - monkey? You go tell that to the people who worked there. I am sure many of them gave their all to this company over the years and what do they get in return? Nothing. They didn't even know the plant was closing until a few hours before it hit the news wire.

Oh, it's so easy to just build an office building on site to replace those workers. How does that help those 550 hard working employees? It's one thing to build a condo tower(s) on empty lands, parking lots and what not, but to just throw these people under the bus sickens me.

The whole notion (rather excuse by Mondelēz Canada) is that the facility was old and could not keep up is a crock of shit. They were sitting on a gold mine and knew it. It's all about money, lining their pockets with the big green while they can. It's just so easy to fire all the workers and sell the land to developers.

We can argue that this factory has overstayed their welcome in that area since all the recent development, but it would be nice if these workers were transferred to other plants (but that is not happening).

I have no problem with developing the site, but I just wish the employees were treated with a little more respect and courtesy.

[isaidso]

I have no issue with the density, but take big issue with massive multi-tower developments all at once. Neighbourhoods should be allowed to develop organically. Multi-tower projects by one developer always seem to end up looking monotonous, sterile, and insipid.

Plan for density, but allow this area to grow with different heights, styles, materials, usages, etc. The last thing Toronto needs is another City Place.

[Filip]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

I was thinking more along the lines a slightly scaled up Humbertown... (I.e add 20 floors on all the towers, throw 4-5 more in there, and you are good)

I don't think that's nearly good enough for a high density neighbourhood so close to downtown like HBS.

[Innsertnamehere]

Humbertown has 2 levels of retail that is plenty.