New purpose-built rental housing is starting to make quite the resurgence in Toronto. For years now, an investor driven condominium market has filled a void in short-term housing with owner-rented units, but as the region continues to grow, rental apartments remain in high demand. Toronto's rental vacancy rate continues to be tight at 1.7%, and that's now contributing to the comeback of purpose-built rental towers. Following up on a late-2013 rezoning application, Shiplake Management Company has put forward a proposal to construct two rental apartment buildings at 45-77 Dunfield Avenue, just southeast of Yonge and Eglinton.

45 Dunfield elevation diagram

To be 28 and 26 storeys high along with a single storey gallery building, the three new buildings designed by SMV Architects are proposed to rise to the south of an existing mid-century, 28-storey rental tower. A 17-storey seniors’ residence was recently built at the north end of the site, while the two-tower condominium and retail podium The Madison is currently under construction at the north end of the block.

The proposed 28-storey apartment building would front onto Dunfield Avenue on the west side of the site just north of the Dunfield Parkette, while the 26-storey building would front onto Lillian Street on the east side of the site. The two proposed apartment buildings would contain a total of 563 rental units.

The site plan from the application to the City has been overlaid on a Google Maps satellite image below; north is to the right. Most easily seen in the image are the existing buildings on the site; the location of the new buildings are to the left, to be built on land which is now mostly driveways, surface parking spaces, and lawn. All parking would go underground.

45 Dunfield Site Plan and Google Maps overlay

The proposed gallery building will be a single-storey, privately owned building which would be used to showcase works of art for public viewing. The gallery building would also provide a library, computer centre and other facilities for community use.

The planning department will be determining if massing, heights and densities of this proposal are in line with tall building guidelines and they taller buildings to the north, and whether they fall within the context of the pattern of transitioning down to the low-rise and low-density makeup of Soudan Avenue to the south.

45 Dunfield Site Plan

City Planning will call a community consultation in the coming months. More details and renderings are expected to surface soon. In the meantime, check out our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to get in on the discussion? Head over to the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.