The seven properties between 214 and 230 Sherbourne St. have been a flashpoint in the conversation about affordable housing in Toronto for years.
Toronto is entering the bidding for a long-idle site in the city’s downtown east that has hit the market after years of fruitless negotiations as the risk of expropriation loomed.
While the city has tried to negotiate a purchase with the owners since 2020 — despite staff advising council against a buy as recently as 2018 — those talks had been proving fruitless. Last spring, council directed staff to keep negotiating but also to pursue potential funding sources to expropriate the site — a process, pushed for by advocates, in which the city snaps up a property for a specific purpose like widening a road.
“CreateTO and the City will continue to conduct due diligence on the properties to ensure the site aligns with strategic City purposes and that City resources are allocated in the most cost effective way to provide the most affordable housing possible,” the city wrote in a statement.