Business took me downtown on last week so I thought I would wander over to the site of the new Madison Ave project and see how the construction was going. To my great surprise, it appears as though nothing has been done to the 9 Madison Ave site. This can be seen from the two photographs I have taken. The parking lot is still there, fully covered with asphalt. All that seems to have occurred is that a construction fence has been erected around the parking lot.

This surprises me because at the last Keskus interactive session held as recently as July 28, the project’s Development manager David Kalm reported that “the project is construction-ready. Critical trades have been awarded and, after some delays exacerbated by COVID, the building permit process is nearly complete. Construction is slated to begin August 2021 and preconstruction is underway, with perimeter fencing now up, and site preparation over the coming weeks.”

Further information to this effect was delivered on August 13 in a Postimees article, in which the Northern Birch Credit Union Chairwoman Ellen Valter gave an interview on this subject. She stated, "Saame [uue hoone] ehitusega peagi pihta hakata, sest kõik vajalikud load saame kohe kätte. Uue Eesti Keskuse hoone tuleb Toronto südalinna kahe metrootunneli kohale. See tähendab, et ohutusele on väga kõrged nõuded. Linnavolinikud on juba oma jah-sõna öelnud, aga ma ei saa veel öelda, millal täpselt läheb kopp maasse. Kindlalt on aga teada, et täna (eile – toim) võetakse ehitusplatsilt puud maha ning hakatakse parkimisplatsilt asfalti koorima."

Going back, the following was stated in the Keskus update #78 on Sept 2, 2020: “Despite the pandemic, construction planning for this exciting next phase has continued. Project Manager David Kalm has already submitted the application for a building permit to the City of Toronto, is finalizing the Site Plan Agreement and continuing with submissions to the TTC. Design drawings by architect Alar Kongats are almost complete. The team is ready to hire a Construction Manager within weeks in order to get the job done expertly and on time. A Request For Proposals (RFP) for a Construction Management firm has been completed and will be issued shortly. David Kalm anticipates that construction will start before the end of 2020.”

While everybody understands that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc with planning and deadlines, optimistic promises pre-date even the start of pandemic. Going further back to the 2019 Estonian House AGM, when Rivera was still in the game, we have this item: "On Madison Ave, the project is in the planning and design stage, with the critical TTC technical review expected to be finished by the end of the year. The closing of 11 Madison and the beginning of the construction is expected to follow shortly thereafter."


EWR contacted the KESKUS team for the latest update on construction start date and move in date and received a reply referring to the latest update in KESKUS blog.

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