Three decrepit four-storey Victorians on James Street North are getting a makeover.

A group of eight partners bought five addresses on the westerly stretch just north of the intersection with York Boulevard in November. They cleared out the interiors and have erected scaffolding to get to work on the facades.

The ground-floor spaces of 95, 105 and 105½ James St. N. have hosted a number of businesses including, recently, an electronics repair shop, soccer retailer, cash-for-gold exchange and hair salon. A current clothing shop intends to return to the location once the renovation is complete.

"We think that corner is really important," said Mark Milne, one of the project partners. "It's one of the few stretches left needing attention."

He says it was evident the upper residential floors of the three painted brick buildings have been vacant for at least 50 years.

"You could have filmed a horror show in there without altering a thing. There was peeling wallpaper everywhere, thick dust. The windows were boarded up so it was dark. The toilets and cabinets were probably 80 years old or older …. It was like a post-apocalyptic scene in there."

The new owners will replace the windows, restore the brick and add a new roof with three large dormers. The buildings qualify for facade grants from the city.

"We want to restore the fronts to their former glory," Milne says.

A large leaded-glass window found in one unit will be restored, divided and used in the storefronts of all three buildings. The hope is to have the three new retail spaces finished about a year from now. Then work will begin on the upper floors.

Preliminary plans call for two apartments in each building, though configurations aren't finalized.

"We need more residential downtown. People are crying out for affordable, practical places to live downtown."

Milne says he and Tim Potocic, who co-own record company Sonic Unyon and a number of James Street North properties, have been interested in the three Victorians for decades. In fact, photos from 1994 show a band featuring Milne, Potocic and Sandy McIntosh playing on the roof of Dr. Disc on Wilson Street with the buildings in the background.

"The buildings were in bad shape then … We would always wonder what is going on there because they looked like they were going to fall down."

McIntosh, now an architect, is working on the restoration of the buildings.

Milne and his partners also own the Mex-I-Can building and a small grocer, both next door. Milne says those businesses are staying and eventually the partnership will renovate the upper floors of the grocery.

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A little farther north on James, a 35,000-square-foot, three-storey office and retail project being constructed on a former vacant lot at the corner of Vine Street is on schedule for occupancy in September. About 75 per cent of the 22,000 square feet of available office space has been leased, said Nicole Beume, treasurer of property owner J. Beume Real Estate.

The exterior of the former Leon's Furs building next door is also under renovation.