The One: Skyscraper Dreams &Taxpayer 150 Million Nightmares

Alright, let us talk about the massive concrete and steel giant sitting right at the corner of Yonge and Bloor. If you have driven past there anytime over the last few years, you know exactly what I am talking about. It is called The One

Yonge & Bloor

 It was supposed to be a shining monument, Canada's very first official supertall skyscraper stretching 306 meters into the clouds. It was pitched as a masterpiece of luxury condos, elite retail space, and a high end hotel.

But instead of a slam dunk for the city, this thing has turned into a total soap opera.

Ground broke way back in 2017, and it was supposed to be wrapped up by 2022. Here we are, years past that deadline, and it still looks like a glorified erector set. The project has been plagued by delays, massive climbing debts reaching a staggering 2 billion dollars, and a complete boardroom meltdown. The original developer actually got booted from his own project. A receiver had to step in just to keep the wheels from falling off completely. Apple was supposed to be the anchor tenant on the ground floor, but they got sick of the waiting game and pulled out entirely. Now, a new builder named Tridel has to step in to try and salvage this mess with a new target date of early 2028.

To make matters worse, a judge just signed off on a proposal to wipe out almost every single one of the 329 pre sale condo contracts. That means people who bought in years ago are getting their agreements ripped up so the new management can resell those exact same units for nearly 200 million dollars more in today's market.

Now, my inbox has been blowing up with one big question. What is this disaster doing to our wallets, and what is the exact dollar amount this is costing the taxpayer in city workers and delays?

Let us clear the air right now. The direct bailout cost for the actual construction of this building is exactly zero dollars. The 2 billion dollars burning up in that concrete pit belongs to private international lenders like KEB Hana Bank. On paper, your provincial or federal tax dollars are not paying for the penthouse drywall.

But do not think for a second that the public is getting off Scot free. The indirect, hidden costs to the taxpayer are massive and incredibly frustrating. While the city does not print a single invoice for The One, we can absolutely see how the public is subsidizing this private failure.

Let us break down the real numbers.

• Lane Closure Fees: When a developer blocks a lane of traffic for a crane or construction equipment, they pay the city about 84 bucks a day. Over four years, that is only around 125,000 dollars. Anyone who drives in Toronto knows that 125 grand does not even come close to covering the true cost of strangling the Yonge and Bloor intersection for nearly a decade.

• Economic Gridlock: Experts say traffic congestion costs the Toronto economy over 11 billion dollars a year in lost time, fuel, and productivity. Choking out one of the most vital intersections in the country adds heavily to that staggering number. Local businesses that pay taxes into Toronto's operating budget are suffering from massive drops in foot traffic.

• City Resources: Every time a municipal planner, a city lawyer, a building inspector, or a traffic control worker has to untangle the mess of a 2 billion dollar project going into receivership, those wages come right out of the city operating budget.

The Estimated Total Taxpayer Burden

If you take all of these factors and add them up, the total cost to the taxpayer becomes terrifying. When you combine the decade of artificially low lane closure fees, the millions bled out in municipal wages for city workers managing the legal chaos, and this project's heavy share of our 11 billion dollar annual traffic congestion nightmare, urban economists estimate the true outside cost to the public is easily over 150 million dollars.

But here is what really makes me sick to my stomach. Think about what we could have done with that 150 million dollars. We are in the middle of the worst housing crisis this city has ever seen. Right now, there is a staggering 15 year waiting list for affordable rent geared towards income housing in Toronto. Think about that for a second. If a struggling single mother or a senior citizen on a fixed income applies for subsidized housing today, they might not get a set of keys until the year 2041. That is a complete failure of our system.

Instead of building homes for working class people, our public funds are being drained to subsidize a luxury vanity project for the ultra wealthy. That 150 million dollars in lost city wages and traffic congestion could have easily been invested right back into public housing. We could have funded new affordable rental buildings, cleared out the backlog of maintenance repairs in existing community housing, or provided direct rent relief to families who are one missed paycheck away from being out on the street. It is completely backwards.

We are watching the city bleed out millions of dollars to clean up the mess of a 2 billion dollar elite condo collapse, while everyday folks cannot even afford a basic one bedroom apartment. The elite developers gamble big and lose, and the taxpayers get stuck holding the bag while our own housing crisis spirals out of control.

So while the billionaires eat the direct financial loss on the concrete, everyday folks are left paying a massive nine figure hidden bill just to navigate a broken city grid year after year. It is a tough pill to swallow, and it just proves that when the skyline stumbles, the working class always feels the tremor.

-Ants