A historic coach house in downtown Toronto can be yours for free … you just can’t have the land it’s on.
And oh yeah, you’re going to have to move it out of its present location by Labour Day.
The 3,000-square-foot brick coach house at 9 Isabella St., on the east side of downtown, belongs to Casey House, an HIV/AIDS treatment centre that is undergoing a major redevelopment.
Casey House had originally hoped to integrate the coach house, built in 1889, into its new complex, but discovered the plan would be impractical, the Toronto Star reports.
So the clinic and the city are looking for alternatives. City councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam got the ball rolling Tuesday, announcing in a tweet that the property is “yours if you can move it.”
The alternative is to raze the building, something to which the city has apparently given permission.
“This is our last ditch attempt” to save the property, Wong-Tam told news channel CP24. “I know it is not going to be cheap but ... this house has a lot of character. For someone with a real passion for property restoration this could be the project of a lifetime.”
The building will be down torn down by September if no one buys it, the CBC reports.
So could this be a good deal?
Single-family residential homes for sale in the area range from $900,000 to around $1.3 million. The Star estimates the cost of moving the house would be in the hundreds of thousands -- potentially cheaper than buying a house in the neighbourhood.
But then there’s the problem of where to put it. The further the house has to travel, the more expensive the move becomes. And finding empty space in Toronto on which to place a single-family home is becoming more difficult by the day.
In all likelihood, the costs of land and transport would ouweigh the rock-bottom price tag.
Twitterers responding to Wong-Tam have suggested moving the building to Alan Gardens, a nearby botanical park, or to Black Creek Pioneer Village, on the north side of the city.
Check out the coach house that can be yours for free, if you can figure out what to do with it:
