The Wychwood streetcar repair barns were once a major hub of the Toronto Civic Railway, the forerunner of the TTC. The site of the five attached brick structures — between Wychwood Avenue and Christie Street in what was then the city’s north end — also became a sort of mini Union Station in the decades after the buildings were completed in 1921.

According to Joe Mihevc, city councillor and current vice-chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, local lore has it that on weekends and holidays, residents carrying picnic baskets took a tram to the Wychwood stop to catch streetcars to greener places.

Today, the barns are again a hub of activity — but of a different sort. They have been reincarnated as the Artscape Wychwood Barns, an impressive 60,000-square-foot complex incorporating rental housing and studios for artists, a covered street, a greenhouse, outdoor bake oven, theatre space and offices.

It’s also the first converted heritage building to be certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.  Vacant since the mid-1980s, the barns were inspected by a group of city officials in 1998. One of them was Mr. Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s West).

“We were struck by their beauty,” he recalls, noting the barns’ high ceilings, the soft light filtering through skylights and the massive girders.

“Now the barns have been restored and reincarnated, and they own their history. Rather than drywall and plaster over everything, the majestic features are celebrated,” he says.

The project was launched in 2001, and involved a team of architects, consultants and community activists. One of those involved, Joe Lobko of du Toit Architects Ltd., says the team had to grapple with many different expectations.

“We were challenged to retain the memory of the railway and build on the great work that was done before,” he says. “There are a lot of sharp contrasts. … The challenge of a renovation like this is to incorporate what was done and give it fresh but still sustainable use — to take the feisty old character of the buildings and make them come to life.”

No one seems to know the identity of the original designers, but their work has captivated and impressed many of today’s architects. One of the project’s historical architects, Edwin Rouse of ERA Architects Inc., says the original barns, which were started in 1913, are considered prime examples of early industrial architecture.

“As historical architects, we have a lot of knowledge of traditional building styles,” Mr. Rouse says. “These barns are old treasures that by virtue of how they have survived have demonstrated their sustainability. They are part of our industrial heritage.

“We didn’t want to treat them with kid gloves,” he adds, but “we know a lot of excellent [tradespeople] who could repair brickwork, for example, and give an acceptable result.”

The historical preservation work is evident in features such as the brick walls, which have been carefully repaired in a way that respects the past.

“It isn’t that the repair work should be invisible,” Mr. Rouse explains. “But in 20 years, when everything has weathered, you won’t be able to see it.”

ERA colleague Jeff Hayes adds: “Where we cleaned the brick and blocks, the work was done so that a patina of paint still remained. In Canada, restoration doesn’t mean getting everything squeaky clean and Disneyfying it. The bricks we used are from England, made with subtle variations, not some type of fake ‘ye olde bricks.’”

Mr. Rouse notes: “Our architectural specifications read like old recipes. They focus a lot on colour and texture and placement. There are some terra cotta blocks that are part of the original barns and they look wonderful.”

With the complex completed, artist-residents can now do their own creating. Nadia Tasci, for instance, designs and makes glass beads and jewellery in one of the live-work studios, which she shares with partner Uros Jelic, a painter.

They left behind more costly and far less desirable premises to move into the one-bedroom unit.

“It is very exciting to be a part of this community,” Ms. Tasci says. “There will be a lot of opportunities for us, in meeting other artists and helping one another. The fact that the rent is geared to income means we can pursue our crafts full time.”  I love seeing older parts of the city revitalized to this kind of awesome use!

Just imagine that you are going to undertake the house flipping venture and you have no idea what this is about. In simple words property flipping means fast closing deals in buying and selling real estate. Below there are some tips for doing this professionally:

If you are on your way to making a fortune through house flipping, you need to have strategy and tactics for making good deals:

1. Save means earning. Investing in real estate is always beneficial and you’ll never experience a fault as real estate rarely loses its value unlike luxurious cars or jewelery. The higher the real estate price is, the more you can earn while flipping. Take this for granted.

2. Maintenance and renovation. Make the newly bought house an ideal place to live and spend time. of course, you may neglect this step and sell the house without doing necessary maintenance but this reduces the market value of real estate and considerable lowers your income while flipping.

3. Get a professional advice. If you save money on property inspectors you may lose important issues that you could then put forward while advertising your property. Professional assessors are read to value your house and give you legal acknowledgment of your house condition.

4. Set average price. Do not overestimate the house you are going to sell as this may turn out to be a pricy offer no one will lay his/her eye upon.

5. Impove the interior. Anyway, the most attractive will be a house that is equipped with modern furniture and a few items that make a house a real home. Spend some thousands on this and you will earn three times more after the house will be sold.

6. Mind the location. The surroundings mean a lot and if you are going to make a fortune out of flipping you are to think over the possible high revenue location and infrastructure.

7. Prepare quality advertisements. This is the most essential part of real estate flipping as how you prepare your ads and what facilities you are going to stumble upon mean that you either sell it for several thousands more or ten and higher thousands. You should know what your potential buyers are seeking for and compose such ads that will definitely satisfy even a sophisticated buyer.

8. Monitor the real estate market. Every day you are to look through hundreds of offers and be ready to dig into the details as well as pretend as a potential purchaser and call the sellers to find out more. Flipping doesn’t mean just buying and selling but also analyzing and rectifying.

Following these simple practical tips will definitely be of use to anyone interested in real estate flipping. Do not forget that the greater part of success is in your hands and your unique and innovative approach to any activity you are involved in.

In one of the largest ever local real estate scams, five Toronto-area residents face more than 100 fraud-related charges in an alleged real estate scam that sold parking spaces as condos to innocent investors, police say.

Bankers, developers, a lawyer and real estate agents allegedly worked together to defraud TD Bank of $3.8 million in bogus mortgage loans. The alleged scheme ran from 1998 to 2000. Police claim two brothers, Kam Cheung Chan and Patrick Chan, enticed their victims to invest in two condominiums.

Police said the Chan brothers had victims fill out a mortgage application but didn’t ask for any money up front, waiving the down payment.  Bank employees who were allegedly in on the scam made sure the mortgage loans sailed through. Then the suspects kept the cash. The thieves were apparently selling parking and storage spaces, not condos, for about $300,000 each.

Unsuspecting investors were promised a cut of profits when the properties sold. But they never got a penny. “Sometimes they were recruited off the street or at investment seminars,” Ellis said. “You have to realize these people were … unsophisticated (about) real estate transactions.”

Five suspects face 135 charges. Canada-wide warrants have been issued for two more suspects.

The TD Bank at Weston Rd. and Finch Ave. provided the funds for the mortgages. Bank officials blew the whistle on the case when problems arose with the accounts.

Kelly Heckler, spokesperson for Toronto Dominion, said the bank has re-evaluated its security measures. “We have long since tightened our procedures. We reviewed what happened and how it happened. But for security reasons I am not going to get into details.”  Heckler wouldn’t say whether the stolen funds were recovered.

Patrick Chan, 61, of Richmond Hill; Lascelles Williams, 36, of Pickering; Saquib Majeed Baig, 38, of Markham; Steven Mucha, 53, of Toronto; and Roland Williams, 70, of Mississauga face fraud and other charges. They are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 25.

Canadawide warrants have been issued for Ling Ling Cho, 45, of Markham, and Kam Cheung Chan, 54, of Mississauga, who are also wanted on charges of fraud.  It is amazing the scam ran for such a long-time, great to see this one taken down.

Thanks for dropping in on our new real estate themed blog.  This is where you will find news and commentary about what is happening in the world of real estate and also on our real estate portal.  Hope your stay is enjoyable.