Toronto’s cube homes have been sold and the new owners just want the land

Thestar.com
August 10, 2018
Michael Lewis

One of Toronto’s more curious experiments in modern architecture, the modular green “cube” homes nestled beside the Don Valley Parkway at 1 Sumach St., have been sold for redevelopment.

“We haven’t made any formal submissions,” commercial real estate professional Taso Boussoulas said, noting he acquired the structure on 8,700 square feet of land with real estate developer Jeff Craig for $2,750,000. The deal closed in May and Boussoulas foresees significant demand for condo units.

The tenants of the cube homes will be given notice to leave and the cube cluster will be dismantled, according to one of the developers who acquired the property. The structures may be auctioned off.

He said in an interview Sunday that the property is designated mixed use, “so it’s sort of approved. The plan is to rezone it to build condos.” The number of units is to be determined and the full approval process could take as long as two years, Boussoulas added.

In the meantime, the two tenants of the three-unit property on the wedge-shaped lot off Eastern Ave., just north of the Distillery District, will be given notice to leave, and the cube cluster will be taken down and could possibly be relocated.

“Two people reached out to me saying we are interested in buying,” Boussoulas said, adding that his preference is to auction off the buildings or donate the structure to the city for relocation on city land.

Rather than have the units demolished, he said, “my preference is to auction and give the money to charity. Maybe it should go to the homeless.”

Boussoulas said it is a question of what the city will ultimately approve, adding that he and his partner have met with municipal staff.

They appeared amendable to redeveloping the property with three cubes that are actually three multi-storey apartments -- each contained in its own cube and each suspended above the ground by a large metal pole, he said, adding it takes 84 steps to reach the top, and there is no elevator.

Built in 1996 based on Dutch architect Piet Blom’s cube homes in Rotterdam, Toronto’s tri-cube structure has had a colourful past. The modular house was built by architect Ben Kutner and his partner Jeff Brown with the hopes of one day incorporating it into a larger community called UniTri, but that didn’t happen.

In 2002, the property was purchased for $265,000 by the founder of the Coffee Time franchise, Tom Michalopoulos, who briefly used the cubes as billboards for Coffee Time.