Tricon Capital with partners OP Trust and MOD Developments celebrated the ground breaking on October 5 for a new 50-storey luxury rental tower at Sherbourne and Selby Streets in the heart of Toronto. Just south of Bloor Street and the Sherbourne subway station, the location of The Selby is a short walk from the shops and restaurants of the city's famous Bloor-Yorkville area.

The Selby, designed by bKL Architects for Tricon Luxury Residences

The Selby will be a 50-storey red and black brick-clad tower designed by bKL Architecture of Chicago, positioned behind the Gooderham Mansion, an existing heritage home and recent hotel, which is now being prepared for a move to the edge of Sherbourne Street as the tower goes up behind it. 

The Selby's Sherbourne Street presence will be dominated by the restored Gooderham Mansion, image courtesy of Tricon Capital

When the tower is sufficiently complete, the Gooderham Mansion will moved back a little from the sidewalk and then connected to the new tower, subsequently to serve as some of the amenity space for residents of The Selby. Toronto architect and interior design specialist Johnson Chou and his team will be outfitting the amenity spaces of The Selby with high end furnishings, while Claude Cormier + Associés are designing a signature landscape for the development (not yet represented in the renderings.

City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam joins executives from Tricon, MOD Developments, and OP Trust in breaking ground for The Selby, image by Craig White

On hand for the ground breaking were (from left to right, above) Adrian Rocca – Tricon, Director (Head of Tricon Luxury Residences Canada and Tricon Lifestyle Communities); Kerry Steer – Tricon, Director of Construction; Gary Switzer – MOD Developments, Chief Executive Officer; Gary Berman – Tricon, President & CEO; Kristyn Wong-Tam - City Councillor Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale; Marcel Shoraka - OP Trust, Director Real Estate Investment; Noorez Lalani - MOD Developments, President; Robert Douglas - OPTrust, Managing Director, Real Estate Investments; and John English - Tricon, Vice President, Development.

Adrian Rocca (L) and Gary Berman (R) speak about Tricon's plans, image by Craig White

The Selby will be the first of a planned group of luxury rental residences in major nodes across Toronto by Tricon Capital's new division, Tricon Luxury Residences Canada and Tricon Lifestyle Communities. Tricon and MOD Executives Gary Berman, Adrian Rocca, and Gary Switzer spoke afterwards in a lounge at the adjacent James Cooper Mansion to a crowd that included many involved in the development of the new tower and those who will be affected during the construction by their proximity to the tower. Construction always brings inconveniences, but Tricon and MOD are working to minimize issues for neighbours over the next few years.

Along with the ceremony and the speeches celebrating ground breaking, construction actually is under way on The Selby. Scheduling events to coordinate with construction start is notoriously difficult to do, so it's rare for us to have construction to report that's related to the ceremony. Today though, you get a short video, showing that shoring and other work is now moving ahead.

We will be back with more as work on The Selby continues. In the meantime, is you want to learn more about the project, you can check out our dataBase file for The Selby, or the earlier stories, linked below. Want to talk about it? You can choose the associated Forum thread link to get in on the conversation, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.