It has stood in decay on Yonge Street for the better part of a decade, but new life could soon be brought into the former site of Howard Johnson\u2019s Hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A proposal has been made to transform the existing building into 104 housing units for seniors, retaining much of the present building with new facades and street-level amenities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe HoJos on Yonge Street, which has been vacant \u2013 and an eyesore \u2013 for so many years, has been purchased,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas in a statement. \u201cPlans have been submitted to completely overhaul the existing building, both inside and out, with a proposed 104 unit seniors housing facility delivering an attractive addition to our Yonge Street promenade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many years, the Howard Johnson\u2019s hotel was a gathering place for the community, complete with auditorium, gym and banqueting facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the owner shuttered the building nearly a decade ago, the Town was left without a hotel to serve visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, last month, this situation changed significantly with the opening of the Holiday Inn Express on Eric T. Smith Way to fill the gap \u2013 and another hotel, a Microtel, just down the street, is currently under construction and expected to open sometime in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Brock Weir<\/strong> It has stood in decay on Yonge Street for the better part of a decade, but new life could soon be brought into the former site of Howard Johnson\u2019s Hotel. A proposal has been made to transform the existing building into 104 housing units for seniors, retaining much of the present building with new facades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"