Purpose-built rental buildings are back as part of Toronto's residential development scene. In recent years, it had been all luxury condominiums that were being added to Yorkville's landscape, in amongst the luxury retail shops that line the streets. At the corner of St. Thomas and Charles streets south of Bloor, construction on another luxury tower is progressing steadily, but this time it's a rental. Developed by Kingsett Capital and Bentall Kennedy, 2 St. Thomas will soon make moving into a Yorkville new-build possible without a hefty down payment. 

Cladding on the first residential level, image by Forum contributor Benito

In our previous update last October, a distinctive stone cladding had caught our eye on the building's podium levels. At the time, construction had only progressed to the 4th storey, but just over four months later, significant progress has been made on the Hariri Pontarini-designed apartment building. 

2 St. Thomas forming a streetwall, looking south, image by Greg Lipinski

As seen in the image above, the building has essentially created a streetwall along the west side of St. Thomas Street at its south end, defining a more urban character for the street. The building's north half, an 11-storey mid-rise structure, is now structurally topped-off, while the tower portion on the southern end has now reached the 20th of its eventual 26 storeys. 

2 St. Thomas from Sultan Lane, image by Greg Lipinski

Approaching the building from the north, glazing installation can be seen on the lower residential levels. First seen in December, the glazing is comprised of a combination of a reflective and tinted window wall system accompanied by dark grey spandrel panels, while varying white vertical precast strips now frame the windows in two-storey sections.

Close-up of the cladding along the eastern facade, image by Greg Lipinski

Once complete, the rental building will offer 251 apartment suites. Four levels of parking will be found below ground. With only six more floors to go, workers will continue to clad the exterior of the building, while others will have commenced interior work on the sealed-off lower floors. At the current pace, 2 St. Thomas could structurally top off in late April or early May, with occupancy presumed for Fall. 

Aerial shot of 2 St. Thomas, image by Forum contributor Jasonzed

We will provide another update once substantial progress has been made on this project. Additional information regarding 2 St. Thomas can be found in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to share your thoughts on this development? Feel free to drop a comment in the space provided on this page, or join in the ongoing conversation in our associated Forum thread.