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Last week we started off our preview of 2015 with articles covering two of midtown Toronto's primary growth nodes, Yonge and Eglinton and St. Clair Avenue West. Today we continue our Growth to Watch For series with a look at the many current and future developments in the works for the posh Bloor-Yorkville area and its surroundings. The area has evolved from a village to a gritty bohemian cultural enclave, then into a chic shopping destination, and now into one of the most sought after live-work-play-shop locales in all of Canada. With its success, Bloor-Yorkville's borders continue to expand as new developments on the fringes of the neighbourhood adopt the 'Yorkville' moniker. We will start our tour through the area and its surroundings by looking at a cluster of developments in the Avenue Road and Davenport area to the northwest.
At Avenue Road and Pears, just north of Davenport, construction of Menkes Developments' Pears on the Avenue is now in its late phases. The 20-storey Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed development topped off last year, and is now close to being sealed off from the elements with its exterior cladding. The project will add 175 condominium units to the area after construction wraps up later this year.
Also on Pears Avenue, Mansouri Living's The Perry recently began its shoring and excavation phase. Once construction is complete, the 11-storey, Young + Wright / IBI Group Architects-designed boutique condominium development will add 45 luxury units to the quiet tree-lined side street. Below, an image of the site as it appeared in October, just as work was about to begin.
Construction is under way at the site of Burnac Corporation's boutique-sized 277 Davenport. Once work on the project is complete, the 6-storey, Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed development will add 10 spacious luxury condominium units to the North Annex.
East on Davenport on the other side of Avenue Road, construction is continuing on Mizrahi Developments' 133 Hazelton. Designed by Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects in a classically-inspired idiom, this 9-storey building will add 35 luxury condominium units and three townhomes to Ave & Dav.
Next door, work recently began at the site of Mizrahi Developments' sister project at 181 Davenport which follows the street's curve towards Bay Street. Also designed by Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects, this 12-storey condominium development has sold all of its units, and is now rising from the excavation site.
There are a number of proposals in the works on Avenue Road.
Just south of Davenport Road, plans are in the works for a new 12-storey, Teeple Architects-designed condo development at 143 Avenue Road, the site of a former gas station. The Dash Developments' Avenue Lofts proposal which would bring 94 condominium units to its site is going to the OMB as the City did not complete its response to the application in the allotted time.
Less than a block south, Urbancorp's proposal for a 14-storey, TACT-designed condominium tower at 121 Avenue Road would stand at the former site of St. Paul’s-Avenue Road United Church, which was lost to arson in 1995. It's not yet know when this project, which first surfaced in the planning process last year, will surface again.
Another few doors to the south, Freed's proposed redevelopment of the Howard Johnson Hotel at 89 Avenue Road was recently settled with neighbours and the City, and is set to be ratified at the OMB with a reduced height of 20 storeys. The smaller building at the east end of the property, previously proposed at six storeys, has been cut down to three storeys.
Just next door on Avenue Road, construction is ongoing at the site of First Capital Realty's revitalization of the Hazleton Lanes shopping centre, which will be renamed Yorkville Village once work on the project finishes. Designed by Kasian, the upgrades include a major expansion of Whole Foods with the addition of a 50,000 square foot flagship food emporium, and the joining of TNT Woman, TNT Blu Concept and TNT Gallerie into a two-level boutique. The revitalization also includes the conversion of the shopping centre’s indoor courtyard into a new centre piazza, which is to be referred to as “Oval Square”.
Just south at 33 Avenue Road is a 40-storey condominium tower is in its early planning stages, also known as 140 Yorkville. We will know more about this development after the upcoming public consultation, to be held on January 22 at the neighbouring Park Hyatt Hotel.
Continuing to the south, residents are now moving into Camrost-Felcorp's The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza. The WZMH Architects-led project has converted the former 31-storey Four Seasons hotel at the southeast corner of Avenue Road and Yorkville into a new condominium tower.
To the immediate south, excavation continues for the second phase of the Four Seasons redevelopment, dubbed Cumberland at Yorkville Plaza. Construction of the 38-storey, Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed condominium tower is currently slated for completion in 2017.
Jumping over to Yonge Street north of Davenport, the proposed redevelopment of the Ridpath's furniture store site at 906 Yonge Street continues through a complicated gestation. A fourth iteration of the development plans for the site has resulted in the approval of a 13-storey building fronting on Yonge just behind the Ridpath's furniture store façade, but the Ontario Municipal Board refused to allow a 30-storey tower to go in on the west end of the property facing McMurrich Street. It is not know when a fifth plan for the property will surface.
Across McMurrich from the 906 Yonge site at Davenport, yet another project bearing the Yorkville moniker, Lifetime Developments' The Yorkville Condominiums, is topped off and almost fully clad. The 31-storey, Wallman Architects-designed condominium tower adds a notable shot of colour to the area with its copper-hued fins and a cantilevered extrusion wrapped in reflective gold glazing. Occupancy for the development is slated for mid-2015.
South a couple blocks on Yonge Street, Bazis and Plaza recently applied for a shoring permit for 1 Yorkville, the first step in constructing a 55-storey Rosario Varacalli-designed condo tower. The new development will feature 585 condominium units atop ground floor commercial space utilizing the retained facades of the existing heritage buildings on site.
Plans for the proposed redevelopment of Oxford Properties' Cumberland Terrace at 2 Bloor West were submitted to the city last year, generating much discussion on UrbanToronto. Renderings showed a 54-storey, architectsAlliance-designed tower rising from a large retail podium, and we can expect the design to be further refined with an update expected soon.
Just north of the Cumberland Terrace site and west of 1 Yorkville, Minto Group's plans to replace the Yorkville parking garage with a pair of Wallman Architects-designed condo towers were recently approved at a late-2014 marathon council meeting. The 62- and 40-storey towers will contain 655 and 511 condominium units respectively, and we can expect marketing of the development to commence this year.
Minto also has another project in the works to the west across Bay Street called Minto Yorkville Park. The 25-storey, Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed condominium development saw some activity late last year, when an application to demolish the existing 9 storey office building on the site was submitted in October 2014.
Also in the heart of Yorkville proper, exterior work is now nearing completion at Alterra and Zinc Developments’ 36Hazelton. Designed by Quadrangle Architects, the new boutique condominium building is notable for the incorporation of the 1928 façade of St. Basil’s Catholic School into its seven-storey stepped envelope. The first residents should be moving in later this year.
On Bloor Street just west of Avenue Road, construction of Metropia, Bazis and Plaza's Exhibit Residences is now on the seventh floor. The Rosario Varacalli-designed condominium tower will rise 32 storeys on a high-traffic stretch of Bloor, across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum.
To the east on Bloor Street, Krugarand Corporation's proposal to develop 80 Bloor West has been quiet in recent months. Plans to build a new 66-storey architectsAlliance-designed mixed-use tower on the site may resurface at City Hall this year though, so we will be keeping a watchful eye out for any activity on the project.
Over at the corner of Bay Street and St. Mary Street, construction of Pemberton Group's U Condominiums is now in its late stages. The shorter of the 56- and 46-storey architectsAlliance-designed condominium towers recently topped off and had glazing applied to its mechanical penthouse level. The first residents are expected to begin replacing construction crews and populating the development later this year. The taller tower will top off in a couple months.
Just west of U Condos, Loretto College's 70 St. Mary Street was recently approved during the same marathon council meeting in September that greenlighted a combined 755 new storeys of development around the city. The 40-storey architectsAlliance-designed condominium development would add 220 new units to the area plus student housing and new accommodations for the Loretto Sisters.
South of Bloor, there is activity behind the scenes for KingSett Capital's The St. Thomas. The proposed 23-storey and 10-storey mixed use buildings, designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, would contain 267 residential units, and will retain the existing historic apartment building at 8 St. Thomas.
Just across St. Thomas Street to the east, both retention and demolition work recently commenced at the site of 7 St. Thomas, a nine-storey Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed office development at the corner at Sultan Street. Though much smaller in stature than some of the other developments in the area, the project's retention of the existing Victorian façades and use of unique fritted glazing are adding to the anticipation for the building. Construction is currently scheduled for completion in Winter of 2016.
At 230 meters, Morguard Corporation's 50 Bloor Street West would bring a major presence to to the block west of the Yonge and Bloor intersection… but there are no plans to build the 71-storey, Pellow + Associates Architects-designed tower soon. It was one of the many developments approved during the previously mentioned August 2014 City Council meeting. We should hear about plans for the Holt Renfrew store on the site this year though.
Expected to be even taller than the future 50 Bloor West, Mizrahi's recent $300 million purchase of Stollery's and adjacent properties at the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor is paving the way for a new landmark development. The project is being designed by internationally renowned firm Foster + Partners, partnered with Toronto-based Core Architects. Earlier this month, an application was filed by the developer proposing to demolish existing 3-storey retail building occupying the site.
The catalyst for all of the ultra-high-density projects planned for the Yonge and Bloor area is rising steadily on the intersection's southeast corner. Great Gulf Homes' One Bloor East now stands 42 storeys tall, over halfway towards its lofty goal of 75 storeys. The Hariri Pontarini-designed condominium tower, which has become a fan favourite on UrbanToronto, is expected to top off in 2016.
A block southeast of One Bloor East on Charles Street, work continues on 45 Charles Ltd and Edenshaw Homes Ltd's CHAZ Yorkville Condos. The Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed tower is now topped off at 47 storeys, and cladding installation has progressed up to the steel-framed mechanical penthouse level above, meaning it won't be too much longer until the project is officially complete. The first residents will be moving in this year.
Across the street to the north, the podium levels are rising at the site of Cresford Developments' Casa II. The 56-storey, architectsAlliance-designed condominium tower will add to the growing canyon of condominium towers forming on this once quiet east-west running side street.
Next door, work has begun on Casa II's younger sibling, Casa III. Shoring work for the 55-storey condominium tower got under way in 2014, along the demolition of a former post office on the site. The completed development will add 621 residential units across the street from its first phase and alongside the second phase.
Further east on Charles Street, developer Aspen Ridge Homes has applied for a zoning amendment to allow for a new high-rise condominium development at 68 Charles East. The project, which would redevelop the historic apartments known as The Manhattan, would rise 52 storeys with a design by Quadrangle Architects.
Back on Yonge Street, an application was filed last Summer by Lifetime Developments, asking to amend a zoning bylaw and allow a 42-storey condominium development to rise from the site of 10 St. Mary Street, currently the site of a mid-20th century nine-storey office building. This will progress through the planning process this year.
Immediately south of 10 St. Mary on Yonge stands an eight-storey building that has for years served as the home to the "Church" of Scientology. Modifications and renovations of the building's interiors has begun, but there are still no signs of the controversial PoMo recladding of the modernist exterior, despite the organization having more to temporary accommodations in the Entertainment District a year ago.
There is a whole lot to look forward to development-wise in 2015, and we will return soon with previews covering the other major nodes in the GTA. For additional information and renderings about the projects mentioned in this article, check out the dataBase files listed below.
