Photo: Brian Burchell. Gleaner News

Owner/Developer: The Wynn Group

Status: Pending, before the OMB

We reported last year in this space that the City had rejected the Wynn Group’s proposal to build a 22-storey private student residence, fitness club, and recreate the Silver Dollar Room at the College Street and Spadina Avenue site. The developer has appealed the matter to the OMB, and final arguments were heard on Jan. 30. The City has also advanced the matter, declaring the Silver Dollar Room to be of cultural heritage value or interest. The storied hotel, home to poet Milton Acorn in the 1970s, provides low income housing to transient members of the community right now, and deserves a more creative, heritage-minded hand guiding its future. That said, given the OMB’s track record of siding with the developer, it’s unlikely that that will happen.

Annemarie Brissenden, Gleaner News