In a press release last Wednesday, the International Estonian Centre, to be located on Madison Ave behind Tartu College, announced a new name. According to the release, “750 members of the global Estonian community and beyond” were consulted about it. The result of this survey is that the name of the future building has been selected, and it will be called “KESKUS”. The IEC Project also stated that the "groundbreaking" will take place on April 7th, 2021.
This is the second "KESKUS" project in Canada, the first "KESKUS" was built in Thunder Bay and opened to the public in 1976. It was named "KESKUS" in recognition of the contributions made by the local Finnish-Canadian community. It has since been replaced by a casino.
Background on the International Estonian Centre ProjectAn IEC press release publicly announced on Sept 2, 2020 that the sale of the current Estonian House on Broadview Ave had been finalized. Project Manager David Kalm stated at the time that he had already applied for a building permit. He anticipated that construction will begin before the end of 2020.
The Jan 6, 2021 an IEC press release stated that construction of the building “is expected to begin in early 2021.”
According to the City of Toronto Building Permit Status page, the Zoning Review and Structural Review of the 11 Madison Ave project are still open as of March 29, 2021. TTC has confirmed to the EWR that TTC technical review has not been completed and that there is no executed Construction Agreement.
