Our annual Growth To Watch For series is back for another year, bigger, taller, and more comprehensive than ever before. This year's Growth to Watch For reports are presented by NEEZO Studios. Over the course of the year, we will bring you to every significant development happening across the 416 and beyond into the Greater Toronto Area. We're covering everything from brand new proposals, to those inching their way through the planning process, to those under construction or about to be completed. 

A total of 21 reports from Toronto and additional reports from the surrounding 905 will be available to subscribers throughout the year. (Details of how to get the reports can be found at the bottom of this article.) For a taste of what's offered in the second report in our 2020 series, here's a sneak peek at some of the contents.

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Our tour begins where we left off at the conclusion of our last report, at Richmond and Bathurst Streets. From here, the report moves on a zigzagging path through an area bounded by Bathurst Street in the east, Parkside Drive in the west, Lake Ontario to the south, and northern boundaries following Howard Park Avenue, the GO Kitchener Line, and a line running halfway between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West. Along the way, we cover the many planned and active projects bringing change to this part of the city.

Boundaries: Bathurst to Parkside, Ulster/Howard Park to the Lake, base image via Google Maps

A wide range of project types are found in the area covered by this report, from the high-density towers hugging the district's eastern border, to large institutional buildings, as well as the smaller mid-rise, low-rise, and townhome developments filling out the lower density communities.

Among the changes coming at the east end of the area covered, the tallest and densest projects planned and under construction in this neck of the woods are concentrated in the East Liberty and Ordnance Triangle areas, where a cluster of towers are rising. This cluster includes the Garrison Point community, consisting of condominium and rental housing, and fronting onto a new public space. 

Garrison Point in March 2020, image by Forum contributor Lachlan Holmes

A network of new and planned public spaces and infrastructure are helping to tie all of these new projects together. The Garrison Point complex is now fronted by a 2019-opened extension to Stanley Park and a pair of pedestrian and cycle bridges known as Garrison Crossing, crossing the Lakeshore and Kitchener rail corridors in the photo above. Another important public space in the area is The Bentway, a linear park under the Gardiner Expressway, activated by year-round programming since its opening in January, 2018. A second phase, currently in the works, would extend the park east across Fort York Boulevard towards Spadina Avenue.

The Bentway, image by Marc Mitanis

The area covered also includes Ontario Place, where a redevelopment plan for the shuttered park is being worked on behind the scenes. The new Trillium Park created a new attraction at Ontario Place in 2017, though the announcement that the new provincial government had begun a process to redevelop the entire Ontario Place lands came in early 2019, drawing concern over the fate of the Zeidler-designed Cinesphere and signature Pods. Though the future of Ontario Place remains unknown to the public, our report has more information covering the topic.

Ontario Place, image by Marc Mitanis

New Growth to Watch For 2020 reports are to be released on an ongoing basis, each covering a different section of the Greater Toronto Area. The series' upcoming 3rd report will move into the South Etobicoke area.

Subscribers can get access to the complete existing and future reports for the year on our Growth to Watch For 2020 landing page. Subscribe today as a standalone subscription purchase for $199+tax, and you'll receive access to all reports.

The full list of the Toronto Growth to Watch For 2020 instalments includes:

1.  Entertainment District

2.  King & Queen West, Liberty Village & Parkdale

3.  South Etobicoke

4.  Etobicoke Centre & Bloor West

5.  Dupont, the Junction, & St. Clair West

6.  North Etobicoke & Weston

7.  York to Yorkdale to York Mills

8.  Downsview & York University

9.  North York Centre & Willowdale

10.  North Scarborough

11.  Central Scarborough

12.  Beaches, Leslieville, & The Danforth

13.  East York & Don Mills

14.  Midtown: Eglinton to St. Clair

15.  Bloor-Yorkville & Rosedale

16.  Corktown-Regent Park-Cabbagetown

17.  Jarvis & Church Corridors

18.  Downtown Toronto North

19.  U of T, West of Downtown

20.  Downtown Toronto Core

21.  Toronto's Central Waterfront

Additional reports will cover development in the surrounding '905' region.

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