The Anglican Church of Canada has finalized a deal that will see it get a brand new national office space, effectively free of charge. In fact, the church will make a half-million dollars on the deal, although some of that money will go to cover moving expenses.
General Synod will allow a developer to demolish its current building in exchange for allotting it office space in a new building.
The church is paying $3.1-million for 47,000 square feet of office space on Hayden Street, a block west of its current location at Jarvis and Bloor streets. But treasurer Jim Cullen says the value of the space developer Philmor Construction is building for the church is about $4.5-million.
Philmor is paying $3.65 million to the church to give up its current building. Most of the proceeds from the deal go to St. Paul’s Anglican Church ? $5.35 million ? which owned both property and air rights.
Philmor will build two mixed residential/ commercial developments. In the first phase, a new office and residential building will be constructed on Hayden Street. When General Synod staff move there, their current offices will be demolished to permit construction of residential and retail space.
The Anglican Book Centre will initially move to the new building then return to a Jarvis Street storefront when the second development is complete. The Hayden Street building must be completed by March 31, 2003.
The old building is costing the church an increasing amount of money to run, Mr. Cullen said. It has suffered increasingly severe problems with its electrical and mechanical systems.