People want Toronto to force Rogers off its land and build homes instead
The postmodern palatial headquarters of telecom giant Rogers towers over Mt. Pleasant Road in Toronto, though its property also encompasses a group of mostly vacant single-family homes.
A new proposal is asking the City of Toronto to expropriate this portion of land owned by the over $28 billion media empire in order to make way for urgently needed housing.
Local historian and researcher Adam Wynne has put forward a motion on the City’s Ward 13 engagement website, Toronto Centre Projects, urging the City to “expropriate the multiple blocks of vacant houses owned by Rogers Telecommunications at Huntley Street and Isabella Street.”
The proposal explains that “Rogers Communications — a multibillion-dollar Canadian telecommunications company — owns multiple blocks of houses on Huntley Street and Isabella Street.”
“With the exception of a live-in caretaker in one of the houses, these houses have been entirely vacant for multiple years. With an ongoing housing crisis in Toronto, these are important and existing resources that could be housing people. The City of Toronto should pursue expropriation of these vacant homes for use as affordable housing.”
The properties in question include a group of heritage houses fronting Huntley Street, which Wynne proposes “could be restored and adaptively reused for affordable housing.”
Wynne adds that “112-122 Isabella Street is a complex of late 20th-century townhouses which could be demolished and intensified,” noting how “The rear of the properties contains a large surface parking lot which could also be used for affordable housing intensification.”
Wynne’s proposal comes fresh off news that Rogers raked in massive profits during the final months of 2023. The company’s fourth quarter 2023 fiscal results showed a staggering 30% leap in service revenue, totalling $16.8 billion over the three-month period.
The motion requires just 60 votes in the span of 120 days to be brought forward by Councillor Moise’s office. As of publication, it is already nearly halfway there with 28 votes.
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