This would be destructive to the society and will be the end of all activities at Estonian House for years to come and maybe forever.
The Board has decided that demolishing the existing Estonian House and constructing a new Estonian House-2018, is the only right way to proceed and they have put all their effort into this proposal. No serious consideration or professional research was carried out, to our knowledge, for the continuing use of the existing Estonian House. In a perfect world, where we have an active and growing society, unlimited funds and a strong common goal, it might the right approach. But we do not have a perfect world, times have changed, community activities have decreased, we do not have unlimited funds and the common goals that held us together are not so defined any more. The time to construct a new Estonian House was many years ago, when the community was strong and active. If the new proposed Estonian House was to become part of a condominium development, then we should notice that the condo market has fundamentally changed. There is a backlog of 18,000 condo units unsold in Toronto and the price growth has flattened. Many experienced developers can't sell enough units to get the bank financing to actually build and have given up. It is too complicated, where one can make so many mistakes with tragic results. The rezoning process alone may take 1.5 to 2.0 years, with big expenses and without any guarantee of success. In the meantime armies of consultants need to work on the project, who have to be paid for their work and financing may not be available for an un-experienced, non-profit, society owned, mixed use project. (Read more from Estonian Life No. 11 2014)
Guido Laikve
