New twists in saga over historic post office

Good planning is always finding the island that the residents can swim to, that the planners at the city can swim to, and that the developer can swim to. We have always envisioned that this property would be, you know, community hub. The saga over what will happen to this historic former post office in West Queen West has been years in the making and today the story is far from over. The former postal station C at 1117 Queen St. West was built in 1902. In 2021, Canada Post placed the building on the market. Then it was sold to a private buyer. W Queen W Community Post, a neighborhood group, has long said it believes the property should have remained a public asset. Crown corporations encounter Post, you know, declared their land surplus and right now they don't apply much of A lens for community or public benefit. Today, the building remains vacant. Toronto City Council rejecting the owner's most recent proposal to build a 272 unit residential tower while preserving the building below, along with a pledge the space will be for community use and the arts. The issue now before the Ontario Land Tribunal. Before a full hearing and mediation process will get underway in July, Glowinski telling us his groups primary concern is actually with how Canada Post sold the building. Adding his group has filed 2 requests through the Freedom of Information Act Documentation he provided to City News, which provides a look at at least one other option Canada Post apparently declined to pursue in 2019. The Department of Heritage, you know, engaged with Canada Post to see if this property could actually be home to Ontario's first. And only French language university, you know, I guess that request to build a French language university here kind of fell on deaf ears at Canada Post. He, however, does believe the new owner is acting in good faith and he's hopeful and amicable solution is on the horizon. I think there's a possibility for us to engage with the property owner and partnership with the city, city of Toronto to see what's the path forward. It will be arts and culture focused. Meanwhile, Joe Mihevc represents the new owner, Robert Bilak, a Toronto business owner. You may also remember Mehevic from his time on City Council serving Ward 10. He says aside from space needed for elevators to the tower, the rest of the old post office will be dedicated to community and the arts, including a public outdoor stage facing the park next door. Who owns it, who, who runs it, what programs, what organizations come in? That's all to be determined, but the step number one is to allocate the space. Ward 9 Counselor Alejandra Bravo saying in writing any final decision should be made with consideration of community desires. We did also reach out to Canada Post and did not receive a response. For City News, I'm David Zura.