Following pre-consultation meetings with the City of Toronto last January, applications for an Official Plan amendment and a Zoning Bylaw amendment was submitted by Goldberg Group on behalf of Compten Management Inc, for a proposed 39 storey infill development designed by Quadrangle at 2600 Don Mills Road in Toronto's North York district. 

The subject site is located within a strategic growth area, walking distance from a subway station, situated within the Don Mills Node in the Sheppard East Subway Corridor. The development poses to ‘broaden the range and choice of housing options’ in the region, lending to a more 'complete community' that facilitates pedestrian activity. 

Looking northwest to the main entrance to the proposed infill building at 2600 Don Mills, image by Quadrangle

On the subject site at 2600 Don Mills Road—situated in the southwest corner of Don Mills Road and Leith Hill Road—is a 19-storey residential building of 266 rental units. Currently, the building ranges between one and three bedroom apartments, occupying an area of roughly 13,700 m², and with a frontage of 107m along Don Mills, and 77m along Leith Hill Road. The building entrance is set back from Don Mills Road, allowing for a driveway, a vehicle turn-around area, an underground parking ramp, as well as landscaped green space and an outdoor pool behind the building. It's a classic example of "tower-in-the-park" suburban design of the 1970s.

East View Current Hunters Lodge Apartment Building, image via submission to City of Toronto

The proposed building is an infill development, proposed n the ‘underutilized’ space in the southwest quadrant of the subject site. Although the buildings will be separate, the proposed development will add another 364 rental units to those of the current building, for a total of 590 units. Of the additional 364 units, 140 are one bedrooms (43 to 53 m²), 187 are two bedrooms (62 to 69 m²), and 37 are three bedrooms (78 to 95 m²). These will add 27,400 m² to the site's gross floor area, for a total of 48,300 m². It is the developer’s belief that the proposed building will ‘assist in delivering a compact development in standards relating to height, density and parking’ to an area that constitutes an intensification node location, that already ‘contains many mid to tall buildings’.

The proposed development’s design is such that the ‘height, scale and setbacks being proposed’ were considered in relation to the existing context of the surrounding area. The 39-storey development has a slender profile, making its shadow reach unobtrusive on neighbouring areas, including St. Timothy Church, and St. Timothy Catholic School to the west of the subject site. 

Looking northeast to the proposed infill building at 2600 Don Mills, image by Quadrangle

A new municipal east-west access road has been proposed for the development, accessed from Don Mills Road, and looping to connect with Sheppard Avenue East. The proposed building’s front entrance will be set back by roughly 15 metres, allowing for tiered front yard space, a residential pick up/drop off area, and ‘extensive pedestrian and landscaped elements around the site’. The existing green space that surrounds the site would be improved with the addition of ‘pedestrian walkways, a play area, a tree grove’ and further outdoor amenity areas. 

In addition to the existing, two-level underground parking garage that services the current building, a separate four-level parking garage with its own access ramp, will add another 329 parking spaces, 274 short and long term bike parking spaces, and two long-term bike storage rooms. Amenities are proposed for the second floor of the development, including two party rooms, a gym, and an indoor swimming pool. 

The proposal’s situation finds itself cornered by six lanes of traffic on Don Mills Road, and four lanes of traffic on Leith Hill Road. Both, but especially Don Mills Road, are busy commuter routes at peak hours. The proposed building is situated within short walking-distance from the Don Mills subway station on the Sheppard line. Additionally, the station serves as a regional transit hub for numerous bus routes throughout northeast Toronto and into York Region, including the 25 Don Mills TTC bus that runs south to the Bloor-Danforth line. 

Birds Eye View of Hunters Lodge Subject Site, image via submission to City of Toronto

Much of the subject site’s surrounding area is demarcated as ‘Apartment Neighbourhoods Area’, made up of apartment buildings, parks, local institutions, cultural and recreational facilities, and small scale retail, service and office uses’. As such, the development poses to service the area’s residential atmosphere, ‘accomodating existing and future employment and development opportunities’, and fitting in with neighbouring high-rises and apartment buildings that range as high as 36 storeys at the Emerald City site, kitty corner across the Don Mills and Sheppard intersection. (Another 35-storey rental apartment building is proposed just adjacent to the southwest of 2600 Don Mills at 1650 Sheppard Avenue East).

Number of storeys around the 2600 Don Mills site, image from submission to the City of Toronto

We'll return with updates when further information on this proposal is released. For larger renderings and more details, you can visit the project's database file, linked below. Join the conversation in our associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the field provided on this page.

Related Companies:  BDP Quadrangle, Goldberg Group