Food editor worked with developer to design her condo
Suite in The Glebe church conversion 'deal of a lifetime'
"What do get when you combine a visionary developer who only converts obsolete Toronto buildings, an unused portion of a spectacular Riverdale church, and a single mom who happens to be the food editor for this newspaper?"
...
"Flash back to the late 1990s. I'm freelancing dozens of condo stories to this paper and interview Bob Mitchell of Mitchell & Associates for a piece on loft-style condos. Six months later, I profile him for a larger story. I'm renting but dreaming about a landlord-free condo. Condos aren't my thing, but as a self-employed single mom, a house is beyond my reach."
"I ask Mitchell to alert me if he creates anything in my price range. Considering I can't fathom paying more than $150,000 for a home, and his multi-level places usually start at $250,000, it's an idle request. But since his spaces sell (and resell) almost exclusively by word-of-mouth, it's worth a shot."...
"There's no moral struggle with The Glebe since we're not displacing artists or tenants. The church, designed by architect J.Wilson Gray and built in 1912, expanded in 1920 with its congregation. But when the numbers shrunk, the church began renting out the addition to film and television shoots (among them, apparently, La Femm Nikita and The Nutty Professor)."
"Then Mitchell came along and promised to retrofit the 1920 addition into homes, while the church lives on in its original 1912 space."
...
"I've chosen to trust Mitchell. He created Toronto's first legal residential loft/condo conversion - 10 units in an obsolete felt factory at 41 Shanly St. in Dovercourt Village - in 1982. He has since converted buildings on Sumach St., Markham St., Hepbourne St., Poplar Plains Rd., Claremont St., Richmond St.W. and Logan Ave."
"With a bachelor's degree in applied science and engineering and a masters of science in urban and regional planning, Mitchell & Associates handles design, marketing, sales and construction of all his conversions - subcontracting out to structural engineers and architects only what he can't personally do, but retaining the final say on everything."
"Suddenly it's 2003 and reality strikes. Mitchell schedules a Jan. 17 meeting to discuss layout. 'Welcome home,' he enthuses ...."
"The walls, mezzanine floor and stairs are roughed in, but you can see into neighbouring units. There are deliberately exposed steel beams and three skylights."
"The building gods have smiled upon this small space. What was supposed to be just 784 square feet has spilled into 'lost space' above an emergency stairwell separating the condo and church."...
"'I follow a combination of what the space wants to be and what the owner wants,' allows Mitchell, who has soothed my parental worries by hiking the height of the mezzanine wall from 42 to 54 inches. He's a parent but rarely builds for people with kids."...
" ... when I bought unit 304 it seemed like I was paying a small fortune. Now I realize it's the deal of a lifetime. The Glebe is generating tonnes of buzz and several people have already flipped their spaces for an extra $100,000 instead of waiting to move in Sept.1."
"I could, too. But why would I? I'm not driven by money. Neither, I suspect, is Mitchell."
