One King West Hotel & Residence (or 1 King West) is a

condo hotel A condo hotel, also known as a condotel, hotel condo, or a contel, is a building that is legally a condominium but operated as a hotel, offering short-term rentals, and which maintains a front desk. Condo hotels are typically high-rise buildin ...

located at 1 King Street West in the

financial district A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario. It was completed in 2006 after a new tower was attached to the side of the heritage Dominion Bank Building (1914), itself an early 13-storey

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

. Four additional floors were also added on top of the heritage building. The site for One King West also included the neighbouring Michie & Co. Grocers & Wine Merchant at 7 King Street West which was demolished in 2001 to accommodate the residential tower.

Overview

The building has 575 suites, including two 3-storey penthouses with around 600 employees. The suites are either in the new tower, or in the historic building forming the base of the complex. The Dominion Bank Building from 1914 was designed by Darling and Pearson in the Beaux-Arts style, with

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

detailing. The new tower stands at 51 storeys or 176 metres tall. Stanford Downey Architect Inc. were the architects involved in the renovation. The building was originally a bank. The Grand Banking Hall is a magnificent example of early 20th-century classicism with ornate detailing including stately Corinthian columns and towering windows. It has been converted into a large meeting room with a bar. The historic bank vault in the basement (designed by Frederick S. Holmes) can be used for private meetings or meals. The lobby bar is appropriately named Teller's Bar. Each suite in the hotel is individually owned, but the profits are shared amongst suite owners who have placed their suites in the hotel pool. Similar projects are usually seen in resort towns. The individual owners of the units in the building financed the purchase of the common assets of the hotel and now control the company that manages the hotel operations. Recent upgrades include converting several suites to have two beds instead of just king beds so that the hotel can be more appealing to group bookings. The investors in 1 King West were involved in a dispute over property tax assessments for their units, as rather than being taxed at residential rates (approximately 1% of market value), they are being taxed at commercial hotel rates (approximately 4%). This dispute has been resolved and now units are taxed at commercial rates, but are valued also as commercial properties. On March 9, 2007 Harry Stinson, the developer and operator of this project, filed for bankruptcy protection using the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as a result of an $11.8 million dispute with

David Mirvish David Mirvish, (born August 29, 1944) is a Canadian theatre producer, impresario, and art collector. He owns and operates Toronto-based theatrical production company Mirvish Productions, which he founded with his father in 1986. He has also pr ...

, the financier of 1 King West. The condo corporation bought all the assets and now owns the entire building plus the hotel and related businesses.

References

External links

One King West Hotel & Residence
– official website
History of One King West

"Toronto's Edwardian Skyscraper Row"
in JSSAC 40 - 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:One King West Hotel and Residence Residential buildings completed in 2006 Condo hotels in Canada Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada Darling and Pearson buildings Postmodern architecture in Canada Renaissance Revival architecture in Canada Residential skyscrapers in Toronto Historic bank buildings in Canada

Overview

See also

References

External links