An imposing brick-and-concrete apartment building on the corner of Dupont and Lansdowne has been, for many years, all but condemned by city officials, building managers, apartment agencies and its own residents. A 23-storey slab tower, 1011 Lansdowne is a prime example of how eyesore architecture, a downtrodden neighbourhood and poor management can lead to shocking and dangerous conditions.
The apartments at 1011 are notorious. Previously home to crack labs, grow-ops, prostitution and squatters, a janitor working in the building today says in the past tenants have lived in "squalor." In 2005, Fernanda Brazil fell from a seventh-floor window during a police raid. The building, owned by LPM Management, has 350 apartments.
But while it’s a long road towards gleaming rental opportunity, the conditions at 1011 are slowly changing. New private funding is financing a partial renovation to the building’s exterior that is valued at around $1 million. Cladding is being repaired, windows re-caulked, stucco replaced and a new entranceway built. Construction is estimated to be complete by the end of 2011.
“The address of the building is the same, but in fact this is a new building, a totally different place,” says Roslyn Brown, Vice President of LPM Management. “There’s a major overhaul to the entire building. That has made a great improvement to the quality of life being offered in this building.”
While interior work on many of the units began a few years ago, much of the complex is still in disrepair. A whiteboard in the office has a list of apartments to be “trashed” and “painted.” On an early morning this week, the elevators were working, though councilor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport) says they have received complaints that it’s often broken. A few weeks ago she was notified that the heating had yet to be turned on.
1011 Lansdowne’s landlord was once Vincenzo Barrasso of Lansdowne Property Management. He split his time between Italy and Montreal, and has been listed among Toronto’s worst landlords. While the building is still owned by the same numbered company, Brown says new management was instated five years ago.
“When you have absentee landlords that don’t care, that have money coming in, and they don’t see [the building], that’s the problem,” says Bailão. “For a long time the city was going over and over, and they weren’t being very cooperative… There was one time they had almost 100 violations. We continue to send inspectors all the time, and the police are always on-site.”
Bailão hopes slow gentrification of the surrounding community will help change the building’s reputation. A 24-hour Metro is being built across the street. She has contacted Bell in hopes of removing pay phones outside the building. Earlier this year she held a safety walk including Toronto Hydro, asking for more lights to be installed along the street.
Last winter the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health moved some of their patients into 1011’s vacant rooms, after being approached by building management. The deal spurred swift changes—management renovated a number of units using funds from the Affordable Housing Office, according to Bailão. She says CAMH inspects each apartment before patients move in.
Flipping a property and its reputation takes a long time, but Bailão says pressure from other property owners has led to change thus far. For the tenants, this means a chance for proper, and still affordable, living conditions—something many have long lived without.
