Toronto's Entertainment District has grown to become one of the city's most densely inhabited areas over the past several years, and that growth continues with a string of new high-rise projects in various states of approvals, marketing and many more already under construction.

Bisha's hertiage façade seen across Blue Jays Way in August 2014, image by UT Forum contributor kram74

One of the new projects currently under construction in the area is the Bisha Hotel and Residences, a 41-storey, Wallman Architects hotel and condo tower developed by Lifetime Developments and Ink Entertainment which will utilize the 1834 façade of a private residence which over the years became a girls' school and which ended up as a popular comedy club.

Construction at grade for Bisha Hotel and Residences, image by Forum contributor scamander24

After a lengthy excavation followed by the upward construction of the building's below-grade floors, the development recently met a major milestone, with concrete and steel officially reaching grade. With work on the development now at street level, we are told that the heritage façade will be moved from Blue Jays Way back onto the building's footprint within the next few weeks, before construction proceeds around it.

Construction at grade for Bisha Hotel and Residences, image by Forum contributor scamander24

The complexity of the project's site meant that earlier stages required a good deal of time to complete. To clear up some of the confusion experienced by our readers, we spoke to Brian Brown, Vice President of Lifetime Developments for some clarification about the project's timetable.

The dig and completion of the underground was a very complex and difficult exercise due to the depth of the excavation and the limited room to work within. Now that we have reached grade we expect to see our progress move expeditiously over the coming months.

Our next big milestone will be in a few weeks when we move the heritage facade off of Blue Jays Way and onto our site into its final resting position.

Rendering of the Bisha Hotel and Residences, image courtesy of Lifetime Developments

Additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment using the space provided at the bottom of this page.