Richview Square is a shopping plaza like many others across suburban Toronto: single storey retail at the back of the lot with a big surface parking lot out front. There is one big difference here though, and that's a sizeable piece of property out front—unused green space facing Eglinton Avenue which was formerly reserved as part of the corridor for a future expressway—which is now proposed to be combined with the plaza property in a major redevelopment.

Looking north to Richview Square, image retrieved from Apple Maps

On November 1, plans for the redevelopment of Richview Square were revealed at a community consultation. The proposal merges two sites—Richview Square (owned by Trinity Development Group) and 4620 Eglinton Avenue West (owned by Build Toronto)—making up approximately 7.5 acres of land. Conceptualization of a possible development began as early as 2011 when Build Toronto began to explore redevelopment opportunities with the City of Toronto. Land along the north side of Eglinton Avenue, which decades earlier had been set aside for a long-cancelled extension of Highway 403 into the city, have been sold for residential development, piece by piece. This is the first of the pieces where a multi-use high-density development is envisioned, and it is happening at the same time that the Eglinton West LRT extension of the Crosstown LRT line is being studied.

An intial Open House was held on May 27, 2017 to introduce the development team and share their objectives with neighbours and get feedback. An Interactive Community Meeting followed on August 15 to share the redefined development objectives and preliminary site plan, and to engage in more detailed conversations around specific development topics. The November 1 meeting took place to share more detailed plans for the development before the team submits a formal application to the City of Toronto in the coming months.

Looking north to the Richview Square Redevelopment, designed by Core Architects for Trinity Development and Build Toronto

In addition to the community meetings, the development team have also met with representatives from the Richmond Gardens Ratepayers and Residents Association and the Friends of Silver Creek School to get their input. From these meetings, the team acknowledged several concerns from residents including a potential lost sense of community, the infrastructure required to support the new density, the affordability of rent for future retail units, and the overlapping agendas of the redevelopment with the proposed Eglinton West LRT.

Looking southwest to the Richview Square Redevelopment, designed by Core Architects for Trinity Development and Build Toronto

The team told the attendees that the proposal is inspired by and takes guidance from several Provincial and Municipal policies including the Provincial Policy Statement, the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the City of Toronto Official Plan, the Urban Design Guidelines, and the Toronto Green Standards. As part of the presentation, the developers gave some statistical background on the increasing number of people who are moving to cities, Toronto in particular. They expect the neighbourhoods near the project site to experience a population increase of 3.2% over the next 5 years.

Rendering of street level retail at Richview redevelopment by Core Architects

The neighbourhood is currently primarily low-rise residential, with a majority of single family homes and some townhouses, but also with some high-rise buildings near Eglinton and Kipling. There are several small retail plazas, but the developers identified that the residents are underserved by retail in the area. As such, the presentation expressed a vision to “create a new neighbourhood destination that integrates with the surrounding community in the heart of Etobicoke.”

Site Plan of Richview redevelopment showing four buildings and landscape by Core Architects and Land Art Landscape Architects

The proposed plan for the four buildings designed by Core Architects incorporate retail units, amenity spaces, underground parking, public gathering spaces, and a stock of new housing options with a range of sizes. Below the new buildings would be two levels of underground parking. The first floor of all buildings would include retail, including the existing retail block, renovated, at the north end of Richview Square. Buildings B and C as per the plan above would also have retail on the second floor, and include indoor and outdoor amenity spaces on the third floor. Residential units would top off Buildings A, B, and C above the retail floors, totalling 16 storeys for Building A and 22 storeys for Buildings B and C. Landscaping for the site—designed by Land Art Design Landscape Architects—will include the addition of 127 trees, and graphic tiling along the main spine of the site to unify the buildings. The spine is proposed to be used for parking or to be closed to vehicles for outdoor markets or events.

Further community consultation will be led by the City of Toronto after a formal application is submitted from Trinity Development Group and Build Toronto. As the proposal circulates and evolves through the planning process, we will keep you updated as new information becomes available. In the meantime, you can find more renderings in our database file for the development, linked below. Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the space provided on this page, or join the discussion in our associated Forum thread.