An in-camera session was held after Council meeting on Tuesday. The item to be discussed was Hallmark Cards property on Vandorf Sideroad.
It's for sale.
It's twenty nine acres. Has warehouse facilities of 29 thousand square feet.
Asking price is $17 million dollars.
Similar properties in town have been on the market a number of years.
The town is proceeding with a plan for a joint works and parks facility on 4 or 5 acres with
an estimated $3 million needed to make it into a developable site.
Estimate cost of the project, including land. is $26. million .
Where's the logic?
Thursday, 20 March 2014
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23 comments:
There was no logic at the table during that meeting.
While it seems improbable after 3 1/2 years, council meetings seem to get dumber and dumber.
Should they not be going in the other direction?
I think that the logic (in my mind) is that the Hallmark facility is one that can be ued for another business purpose and thus create tax revenue. Of course this means that the property must be sold.
It was not a purpose built as a JOC - just like the Hydro building was not.
Makes sense to me, the Town should not be buying up every property that becomes available, we are not in the business to subsidize real estate.
Can you find out and tell us the square footage of the proposed joint-op facility, with a breakdown between office and other?
Just for comparison with the Hallmark's size.
Presumably the 29,000 square feet of warehouse would have another additional number for office.
I'm not sure if I heard the mayor say something about recreational use (soccer) for a portion of the Hallmark land. Can you confirm this?
@12:33
We haven't done a very good job of handling the real estate already owned by the town. I had really hoped something could have been done on the Old Library lands that would have given us a multi-purpose building & much needed parking in our area. It was not to be. Residents can see no reason why nothing was accomplished.
So where else should it go?
An excellent day to not have to drive anywhere.
If they are thinking abut using that land as some sort of bait for the university project being flogged around to towns, they would be wise to remember that Aurora has a serious lack of affordable housing when compared with what can be offered by several of those in the competition.
It probably makes more sense than that 3-house monte game. Of course, just about anything would.
One has to ask why the town paid the price it did for the proposed works garage? This is especially true when we are told how much engineering and grading work will be required to make it suitable.
The Hallmark property contains 29 acres. It seems this could provide substantial storage and future expansion potential.
I suspect the town is in very deep with engineering costs for the proposed public works garage. The mayor and his deputy wanted to demonstrate they could make the tough decisions. With no upper limit on engineering you can bet the town is going to find out how much tough decisions cost.
It makes me ill, knowing that the Town somehow justified the need for this joint facility let alone went ahead and bought a piece of swamp land to build one. October really can’t come soon enough.
As much as I think that this is the best Town in York Region, and would love to see a university here. We don’t stand a hope in hell getting a university for a number of different reasons. Affordable housing is one of them. But hey…let’s spend a lot of money trying!!!
Logic went out the window when Council voted to open up the former Hydro Reserve Fund so that just a simple majority was necessary to access it. Since then the answer to any problem has been to just throw money at it. the cartoonist in the Auroran usually nails such stupidities and I wish he would run for election.
Off- topic
The Supremes rule tomorrow
and there is that little matter of local interest too
Has anyone looked into who is the agent handling these sales?
The asking price is just a #. It means nothing until after a place has been listed for a period to test the markets. Fools rush in,
Justice Nadon will not be on the Supreme Court. There was only one judge who wanted him.
Off topic , but ...
What I use to think years ago when I was living in Toronto was that it took a good distance and time to get out of the Toronto congestion, the sprawling subdivisions, the concrete and pavement in order to really see and enjoy the outdoors - the farmland, forests & meadows and greenery.
I remember the dairy farm on the NE corner of Bayview & Wellington, the red barn and the serenity of looking at the cows out in the pasture. To me Aurora has ended up like so much of York Region and the GTA - out of control urban sprawl. For Aurora it may have been stated that it was a nice place to live so more people want to live here. Farms are sold off, levelled and built upon until the point that all that is left of the green space is Sheppard Bush and a couple of other smaller squares of trees & trails.
It's a real dichotomy that the very thing brought people here in the 1st place will eventually be gone by having more people come. Not that we can't share the area but growth, though seemingly planned is out of control and overrunning everything. When will it stop or will it ever. When will the last house be built in Aurora? What last 15 wide townhouse will go up? Having Aurora run and grow on development charges is unsustainable.
And yes, people will live here and work elsewhere because there are not enough local jobs. And those that work locally can't afford to live locally. So where will they live? They'll commute from further afield to work minimum wage service jobs. Don't worry about the downtown and redevelopment - just let it go - let it die off - people can go elsewhere (I'm being facetious) to the strip malls within Aurora and to Newmarket, Richmond Hill and Markham. Aurora will be just a mailing address.
We have to rejuvenate the Historical Society in the Aurora Church Street Cultural Culture Centre so people in the future who are products of urban sprawl can see what a Town was really like. They'll even have pictures of the GO Parking Complex on Wellington before they added 10 more stories onto it to accommodate 1/2 the population commuting to Toronto.
Now I feel like Aurora is like Toronto - it takes a good distance and time to get out of the congestion, the sprawling subdivisions, the strip malls, asphalt & concrete ...
I don't know what the answer is...
I rant ... it's Friday.
What do others think?
@13:03
We also have High Tor, with access only to a chosen few right in town. Originally there was to be a road thru that area to ease congestion at the foot of the hill. All could have used the land. Those who shall remain nameless stopped the road & basically sealed off that parkland for themselves. It is quite lovely.........if your property has a gate in your yard onto it. Or you can do as some, sneak in by the water tower in the middle of the day to property within your own town.....
This is too depressing.....
Where is the hotel that was promised ? No money to support that business but lots for monkey business with old buildings ?
Does the fact that the Hallmark building is for sale indicate that the company's Aurora operation is being relocated? And, if so, this could result in job losses.
Does anyone know about this matter?
17:23
& the platinum standard of roofing is all Ballard's
16:40
You can venture into High Tor from at least 3 public points.
1. at Bathurst, there is a small drive to where the sign is. Of course the snow is piled up and makes it harder.
2. At the water tower. There is no need to sneak into a yard.
3. At the top of Brookview. There is a cul-de-sac at the end and path.
I think that you are misleading people by saying "access only to a chosen few right in town". Access is there, if you want it.
Just like John Lennon said. "Peace, if you want it".
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