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A major intensification has been proposed for a large site at 3450 Dufferin Street, located opposite Dufferin Street from Yorkdale Shopping Centre, just south of Highway 401. Currently occupied by a 1970-built 12-storey Holiday Inn hotel containing 372 rooms and 460 spaces of surface parking, a new plan from developer Gupta Group aims to redevelop the site with a project containing three towers, residential, hotel, commercial, and restaurant uses.
The proposal seeks to establish zoning for a group of Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed structures, including towers with heights of 29, 33, and 37 storeys, connected by podium and mid-rise structures containing townhome units. In addition to features like a new 255-room hotel housed within the tallest tower, the project would also feature 342m2 of restaurant space at grade, and public realm enhancements like a new road network and a 1,802m2 public park. A site plan shows how the towers would be situated along the curved alignment of the 401’s eastbound Dufferin Street offramp, with heights that step down towards the proposed public park in the southwest portion of the site. A buffer area approximately 14m wide between the ramp and new buildings is maintained.
Located on the northwest portion of the site, the tallest 37-storey tower—referred to as ‘Building A’ in supporting documents—would contain both hotel rooms and residential units. To the southeast, the 33-storey ‘Building B’ residential tower would be connected to a 6-storey residential building (Building D) fronting onto the new private-but-publicly-accessible road. Next to the new access road on the southeast portion of the site, the 29-storey Building C would be connected to another 6-storey volume, as well as a group of 24 two-storey townhomes.
The proposed 1,044 residential units would be broken down into a mix of 31 bachelor units at an average size of 38m2, 743 1-bedroom units at an average size of 51m2, 209 2-bedroom units at an average size of 63m2, and 61 three-or-more bedroom units at an average size of 114m2. In total, the project would include 67,539m2 of residential space, 16,584m2 of hotel space, and 342m2 of restaurant space. The combined proposed gross floor area (GFA) of 84,465m2 would bring the overall Floor Space Index (FSI) to 4.1 times the lot area.
A new road network is proposed for the site, including a new north/south public road with a 23-metre right of way, terminating in a temporary cul-de-sac at its south end. An 18.5 metre-wide publicly accessible private road would follow the site’s curvature, connecting with Dufferin Street via a temporary one-way access route via the adjacent Honda Dealership lands.
The site would be served by a total of 1,290 parking spaces, largely contained within a 3.5-level below-grade parking garage. 869 spaces will be reserved for residential use, 156 spaces for visitors, and 255 spaces for institutional use. An additional 10 spaces for the retail units would be housed at grade.
We will return with further details as additional information about the project emerges. In the meantime, images and project facts can be found in the project's dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.
