Toronto hotel is being totally transformed after years as a homeless shelter

Over 90 years since it first opened, the former Strathcona Hotel in downtown Toronto is getting a new lease on life.

The 1933-opened hotel at 60 York Street, just across the street from the Royal York Hotel, was a popular lodging spot for travellers for almost nine decades before it closed its doors during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic amid a rapid decline in the hospitality industry.

The 14-storey property was leased out by the City of Toronto in April 2020 and converted into a temporary homeless shelter, with successive extensions of the City’s lease (which paid the hotel owners $100 per room per night for the entire property) for over three years until the shelter finally…