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Residential density is continuing to replace former industrial sites to the south of The Queensway in Toronto’s Etobicoke-Lakeshore area. Following in the footsteps of the precedent-setting 7-tower iQ Condos development by Remington Group as well as Altree Developments’ Thirty Six Zorra, Kooby Investment Corporation has updated their Official Plan Amendment application for the redevelopment of an industrial property at 2 St Lawrence Avenue.
Originally submitted in 2016 as a three tower proposal, the developer is looking to transform the industrial property into a two-tower residential development with an 1,700 m² on-site park. Two massing alternatives, designed by Kohn Partnership Architects, have been submitted to accompany the application. They give options for redeveloping the site, and both include extending Caven Street southwards and intersecting the site with an additional east-west public road running between Zorra Street and St Lawrence Avenue.
The first option includes a 31-storey tower set back from and parallel to the Gardiner, and an 8-storey L-shaped building fronting the new east-west street. The tower would house 160 dwelling units in its six-storey podium and 291 units on the upper floors. The mid-rise building is proposed with 201 units. Here, parkland would be tucked between the two buildings and fronting the Caven Street extension.
The second option calls for the same 31-storey, 451-unit building, but alters the mid-rise component. The floor plate is reduced in this option, allowing for the parkland to be relocated to the south-east corner of where Caven Street intersects with the new east-west street. The height of the building then increases to ten stories in this configuration, with the unit count increasing by 2, to 203.
The original three tower application was appealed to the LPAT in early 2018, after the City failed to respond to the proposal in a timely manner. The project has since had two pre-hearings, with a third scheduled for November, 2019, which will focus on the updated proposal.
The image below, submitted with the Site Plan Application for Thirty Six Zorra (outlined in green), shows the larger context of the developing neighbourhood, with the 2 St. Lawrence lands highlighted in red. Highlighted in dark blue, are lands owned by the provincial government, of which Kooby Investments is negotiating a potential acquisition pending the outcome of the Official Plan Amendment Application. Outlined in pink are the completed first and second phases of the iQ Condos Development, just to the south of which is the planned Phase Three, outlined in orange. Also included in the diagram are 27 and 22 storey towers proposed by Sobeys Developments at 1061 The Queensway, outlined in turquoise. That development is also working its way through the planning process. The numbers that label each building represent the number of floors for each of the proposed, approved, or constructed developments.
Stay tuned as deliberation about intensifying this area continues, and these projects head further through the development process. Until then, check out the database files and associated Forum threads, linked below, to learn more about any one of these projects. You can add your voice in the threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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