Following April's announcement that Shopify would be its anchor tenant, the construction site of King Portland Centre has become a hive of activity. In Toronto's King West area, the Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed project for Allied Properties REIT and RioCan is immediately east of Musée, a condo project we profiled in another story today. The public realm enhancements coming to the area and mentioned in the Musée article will lead from it to the landscaped retail and restaurant-lined walkways around the modern brick King Portland Centre.

Rendering of the King Portland Centre, image courtesy of Allied/RioCan

Following preliminary clearing site work on the King Portland Centre site, work recently began on the demolition of a one-storey converted warehouse and a two and half-storey converted industrial building at the south end of the site. 

Demolition of 620 and 606 King Street West, image by Jack Landau

Fronting onto King Street, demolition of the two and a half-storey 620 King West has progressed significantly over the past few weeks, with only a fraction of the building's east side still standing. To its immediate east, the former home of Valdez at 606 King has had its rear portion demolished, and continues to come down.

Demolition of 620 King Street West, image by Jack Landau

On the north side of the site, demolition of a 2-storey rowhouse at 503 and 503A Adelaide Street West has been completed, allowing shoring to begin here. Over the next few months, the shoring process will stabilize the perimeter of the site, securing the surrounding soil and allowing for a safe excavation of the site's below-grade levels.

Shoring activity at the north end of the site, image by Jack Landau

The mixed-use King Portland Centre development will consist of a 12-storey volume of 255,565 square feet of office space (Shopify will take 112,000 square feet) and 13,035 square feet of retail space fronting King Street West. Facing Adelaide Street West will be 14 storeys or residential space with 116 rental apartments. While there be two more buttons in the elevators for the residential section, that portion will in fact be shorter than the office tower due to shorter floor heights in residential buildings. The King Portland Centre is currently scheduled for an early 2019 completion.

Additional information can be found in our dataBase entry for the King Portland Centre, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment using the space provided at the bottom of this page.