Howard Street runs east-west just south of Bloor Street between Parliament and Sherbourne streets. While the area to the south of it was redeveloped as Toronto's high-rise St James Town community in the 60s and 70s, the north side was not, despite some land clearance at that time. About a decade ago, Lanterra Developments purchase several parcels along the north side and then pursued rezoning. With new zoning in place, Lanterra upgraded and restored some of the buildings onsite and then sold portions off to other developers. Tridel purchased the easternmost block of land and are now building the two Via Bloor towers on it, while Concert Properties purchased the western block. Now, Concert has submitted a Site Plan Application for their property at Howard and Sherbourne streets.

603 Sherbourne, image courtesy of Concert Properties

Kitty corner from The Selby, currently completing, and across Howard from 591 Sherbourne, a recently approved rental tower, the IBI Group-designed tower at 603 Sherbourne will rise 164 metres, just shy of the 166-metres of The Selby. The 53-storey building is clad in vision glass and grey spandrel panels, accentuated by rows of light coloured precast panels. Inset balconies traverse the tower, giving the facade an uninterrupted, clean look. At the 26th through 28th floors, a notch is taken out of the north-west corner of the facade for amenity spaces and a mechanical transfer above. 

Aerial view of the parkette, restored heritage buildings and podium, image courtesy of Concert Properties

At street level, the heritage buildings will be restored in their entirety and repurposed for commercial use. A courtyard will be created between these structures and the new building, allowing for a potential restaurant patio space. A terracotta-clad two-storey podium will provide retail spaces to the Howard street frontage.

603 Sherbourne standing tall next to 591 Sherbourne, image courtesy of Concert Properties

The building is comprised if 42 bachelor apartments as well as 279 one-bedroom, 129-two bedroom, and 52-three bedroom units. 204 parking spaces will be housed in a 4 level underground garage for a ratio of 0.4 stalls per unit.

603 Sherbourne will be the fourth high rise tower to be built at the Bloor and Howard intersection following the completion of James Cooper Mansion in 2011, the Selby in 2018 and last month’s approval of the 51-storey 591 Sherbourne. The buildings are all one block south of Sherbourne subway station.

We will keep you updated as this project progresses through the planning process, in the meantime, learn more about this project by visiting its database file and forum thread, linked below. 

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