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We have been bringing you stories over the last several days of areas of town where you can expect significant growth over the course of 2014; it's not hard to find areas with plenty going on, and we still have plenty more of these stories to come.
This time we are looking to Toronto's West Coast, so to speak, an area that was known as 'the Motel Strip' up until just a few years ago, but which is now in the midst of one of the most complete transformations that any area of Toronto has ever seen: this is Etobicoke's Humber Bay Shores.
Strictly speaking, the area sits between the former village of Mimico on the west and the Humber River on the east, but a few projects just outside those boundaries are close enough to merit mentions too. Most of the earlier development here was closest to the east edge by Humber River; the Palace Pier went up back in 1978, and wasn't twinned by Palace Place until 1993. The 46-storey siblings were the tallest residential towers outside of Downtown Toronto for many years, and stood alone here until 2000, when Canderel's Newport Beach started a boom at the east end of the area which included various phases of the Waterford, Nevis, Grenadier Landing, and Hearthstone complexes.
Since then, development has been moving west, the largest part of which has come from the Monarch Group so far. Monarch built Voyager, Breeze, and Nautilus over the last few years, which brings us up to their latest, the Graziani + Corazza Architects-designed Waterscapes, pictured below, a 30-storey tower rising from a 5-storey podium, all set to be completed in 2014. That's Nautilus in the left background, finished in 2012.
Just to the southwest of Waterscapes and Nautilus will be two phases of the Conservatory Group's Waterways. The first phase, a 56-storey tower designed by Richmond Architects, is pictured below.
While construction has not started on it yet, it's likely to be underway mid-this year. The Cove, a 16-storey second phase, is now just getting into marketing. An image of it, included below, was found in a Toronto Planning Department document from several years ago. It is not yet known how close to this plan the final version of The Cove is.
Even more vague in the image below is the next Monarch building, Riva del Lago, now going into marketing. It's the 14-storey second phase of Lago at the Waterfront, and can be seen in the lower left corner. No marketing renderings have been released yet for Riva.
Meanwhile, excavation for the 49-storey first-phase Lago tower is well underway. Images of theplan for the Graziani + Corazza Architects-designed building can be found in our dataBase file, linked here or below.
Lago is right beside Beaverhall Homes and Graywood Developments' Ocean Club Condominiums. Designed by Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects, Ocean Club is made up of three buildings, with a 39-storey tower closest to the water. It has 13 more storeys to go in the image below, plus mechanical penthouse, while the 10-storey boutique component, seen best at right above, is very close to topping out. A low-rise commercial building to be built on Lake Shore Boulevard, will round out the construction here.
To the west of Ocean Club are two condo sales centres which are located on the property for a project that has yet to be announced. To the west of that, wavy Jade Waterfront condos are now under construction as the pit for the Phantom Developments project is being excavated. If it looks like the rendering below when complete, the Quadrangle Architects-designed tower could be a local standout.
It would have to be to compete with the tallest tower in the area, the 63-storey Eau du Soleil, along with its 49-storey WaterTower Phase 2, all designed by Zeidler Partnership Architects and Richmond Architects. This Empire Communities project will be the tallest condo in Canada outside of a downtown area, and may go under construction later this year.
While those projects will bring landmarks to the area, a significant development is already well under way at the corner of Park Lawn Road and Lake Shore Boulevard now. Westlake is a four tower development by the Onni Group, with the first three towers under construction now along with a retail podium bringing a full-sized grocery store to the area.
To be 39, 46, and 48 storeys, Westlake's first three towers will be joined eventually by Westlake Encore, a 45-storey tower, which along with another low-rise commercial building will complete the Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed redevelopment of the site. Encore is in sales now.
Immediately to the north of the Westlake Encore site is the Times Group's Key West condominiums. Work is well underway on Key West's garage floors now. Along with the 36-storey Burka Architects-designed tower at the west side of the side, Key West will also feature a low-rise commercial building front Park Lawn Road.
The tower and low-rise form will continue up Park Lawn Road at the next property, 42 Park Lawn, seen above and currently recommended for planning approval at the February meeting of City Council, before ending at Amexon's completed South Beach condominium complex, seen below. It is not known publicly yet who the developer of 42 Park Lawn will be, but the plans call for a 41-storey tower on the site. South Beach's commercial low-rise, meanwhile, waits for more local residents before more of its commercial spaces open up. A popular cafe and bistro called Avenue is the first on site, and is meant to be followed by several more restaurants.
All of the projects listed above, complete, under construction, or in the planning, line two sides of a large triangle which sits to the north of Park Lawn and Lake Shore. Known now as the Mondelez Lands or 2150 Lake Shore West, the property was home for years to a Mr. Christie's bakery which employed 550 people until it was shuttered late last year. The City wants to retain the 27-acre site as employment lands, but the owner has submitted a request to convert the lands to a Regeneration Area designation in order to permit residential uses, through the City's Five Year Official Plan and Municipal Comprehensive Review. Owing to its huge footprint, whatever happens on these lands will impact the surrounding area profoundly in coming years.
Humber Bay Shores continues a little further to the west before blending into the established Mimico neighbourhood. Beyond the Sea, Grand Harbour, and Marina del Ray are three large high-rise communities built there over the last while. Beyond them, Mimico becomes mostly low-rise homes to the north, with some aging mid-rise rental apartment buildings closer to the water. The local BIA has been improving the shopping street through this stretch, and the 9-storey Eleven Superior, a condominium and retail project by Davies Smith Development with an Art Moderne-inspired design by RAW, will strengthen the revitalization now taking place.
Mimico's other shopping street is Royal York Road. It's also where you will find the area's only GO station until such time as Metrolinx opens a station at Park Lawn/Humber Loop. Mimico GO Station is also getting a makeover currently, and it will soon be joined by a 27-storey condominium called On The GO Mimico, designed by McCallum Sather Architects and being developed by Stanton Renaissance. That building will benefit from its quick access to Downtown Toronto, as should the thousands moving into Humber Bay Shores with a GO station of their own some day.
Want to know more about the projects going up in the area? Choose one of the dataBase files linked below for lots of renderings and all the details. Want to talk about the projects? Choose an associated Forum thread link, or leave you comment in the space provided on this page.
