A North York church wants to establish a new cultural hub for Toronto’s Finnish community but lacks the necessary financial resources — so it’s planning its own condo development to cover the costs.
“If they’re condo units and we sell them, we get all the money we need to pay for the project,” said Pirjo Roininen, congregational chair of the Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church, which is proposing a 12-storey mixed-use tower at 25 Old York Mills Rd., where the church has stood since the mid-’60s.
The city received rezoning and site-plan approval applications for the proposal from the Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church in July, though the congregation has been working on plans since 2019.
Agricola’s proposal calls for demolishing the old church to make way for its tower, which would encompass 98 residential units as well as a new place of worship, ground-floor retail, and community amenities, including a daycare. “We were hoping to be able to provide classroom space, meeting-room space — whatever the community needs,” Roininen told Post City. “This would be for the Finnish community but also for the community at large.”
To make the numbers work, the majority of the tower’s units likely need to be condos, but — depending on how the development application process goes with the city — Roininen said the church may set aside a portion as rentals for seniors or supportive housing. “It is worthy to note that this application is initiated by the Finnish community, which seeks to consolidate its place of worship, and community-based facilities into this single facility,” reads a report submitted with the development application.
The hope is that the new hub provides an improved venue for everything from Finnish language lessons and concerts to weddings and funerals. Agricola already hosts many activities and events for the Finnish, Estonian, and Swedish communities as well as other groups, including the Yes I Can Nursery School and the Toronto Welsh Male Choir. But it’s struggling to make room for everyone, especially with the return of in-person gatherings following pandemic lockdowns.
“Right now we do not have enough space to really comfortably do everything that we want to do,” says Roininen, whose congregation numbers about 100 active members. “The expectation is that the improved facilities would appeal to even more groups outside of the Finnish Community,” Roininen adds in a follow-up email to Post City.
As the church’s existing surface parking lot would be lost, the proposal includes two levels of underground parking for a combined 82 spots, 50 of which are for residents with the rest going to the building’s other uses.
Agricola was partly inspired to look into real estate development opportunities after seeing other parishes come up with similar schemes. “There are various churches in the Toronto area — several Lutheran churches as well as others — who have done just this in order to finance their own operations, they have built condos,” notes Roininen. “A lot of places are sitting on pretty plots of land that were out in the boonies when they were built originally and now are at the centre of town.”
The proposed building’s design, the work of architecture firm IBI Group, is a nod to the current church and Finnish community as well. Roininen notes the proposal’s Scandinavian-style design, including a “steeply sloped roof” and use of wood: “Anything that gets us looking like we’re closer to nature is part of the Finnish design.”
A stone’s throw from York Mills subway station, the church’s location makes its property an ideal candidate for housing redevelopment and continued worship, suggests Roininen. “We’re off the highway, we’re off the subway, we’re beside a park,” she explains. “It’s been a beautiful place to go to church, I must say.”
