Red Door Family Shelter To Stay Put In Leslieville. Thanks To Leslieville Community, Councillor Paula Fletcher, and Harhay Developments for setting a great an important precedent for creating true mixed use environments.

Red Door Shelter to stay in Leslieville

(L-R)Bernnitta Hawkins (Red Door Executive Director), Councillor Paula Fletcher, & Chris Harhay

We were invited to the official press conference this morning which confirmed mostly what was already reported in the Toronto Star this morning with some more details that we’re so happy to share with you all.

The 20,000 square foot facility will be built by the City of Toronto as part of the new development likely using section 37 money from Harhay Developments and leased back to the Red Door for a whopping $1/yr. It will remain on Queen Street East. According to Councillor Fletcher:

The City of Toronto is actively looking to find the Red Door Family Shelter a temporary location to be able to continue to serve woman and children in need with minimal disruption

Chris Harhay from Harhay Developments had this to say:

We’re very excited as a company to be part of this and to have worked with the City and the Red Door Family Shelter for the last year. It’s a great example of public and private sector working together in partnership to come up with urban intensification of a site that incorporates not only retail and residential but also community services. This is a great potential model for development in the City

Harhay was saying all the right things during the press conference and attendees (mostly media) seemed appreciative of his engagement and enthusiasm.

So what are they planning to build there?

The site will include a 7 story condo with retail at ground level and of course the red door shelter component. The site will take the entire block from Booth Ave to Logan. All the buildings currently on the site will be demolished. The site is currently home to the Woodgreen United Church and Neighbourhood House and the Woodgreen Pharmacy. Unfortunately the owners of the century old Pharmacy building have not taken such great care and it will have to come down (surprised it’s still standing based on how poorly it’s been maintained).

 

We don’t know exactly how many units or exactly how much retail they’re planning but we’ll get you that info as soon as it becomes available.

Some words from the Red Door

The executive directive of the Red Door Family Shelter, Bernnitta Hawkins was so appreciative of the support of Councillor Fletcher and said:

It’s so amazing and unusual to come across a developer with a heart

A TON of work and community effort is behind us now but we now have another BIG uphill battle. Once the shelter is built, the Red Door Shelter is launching a new, $3 million dollar fundraising initiative to help furnish their new location and of course we’re very happy to help them achieve this goal. We’ll keep you posted with our next fundraising event (April 16th 10K Yonge Street Run) so click here to support our team!!!

Hawkins urges the community to come out to the Ralph Thornton Centre TONIGHT March 9th 6:30pm to get an up close and personal view of the plans for the site and the future of the Red Door Family Shelter.

 

 

Latest Blogs