Oxford Properties has submitted a combined Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment (OPA/ZBA) application to the City of Toronto in order to transform a vacant parcel immediately west of Scarborough Town Centre into a high-density, mixed-use, mostly residential rental development.

Rendering of the proposed development. Image courtesy of the architects, BDP Quadrangle.

The 3.4-acre site at 25 Borough Drive –‘Block C’ of the Master Planned Scarborough Town Centre redevelopment (STC) – is located on the western edge of the STC lands and 400m west of Scarborough Centre RT Station. The proposal will deliver over 1,300 purpose-built rental units with a total gross floor area of 110,600 m². Within the last two decades, several condominium towers have been built south of the STC. This growth is planned to continue with several mixed-use, multi-tower development applications around the site, developments which collectively could introduce more than 8,000 residential units and 25,000 m² of non-residential GFA, per the first overall OPA and ZBA applications in October, 2019.

Aerial: Context of 25 Borough Drive of the proposed development. The subject property is a vacant block bounded by Brimley Rd to the west, Progress Ave to the north, Borough Dr to the east, and Triton Rd to the south. Image courtesy of Googlemaps

This proposal at 25 Borough Drive is for a BDP Quadrangle-designed, new mixed-use development comprised of towers of 32 and 41 storeys on the north block, and one 50-storey tower on the south block. Podiums as high as 7 storeys would have retail and residential uses at grade. A POPS (Privately Owned Publicly-accessible Space) of 2,290 m² is proposed between the blocks.

West Building Elevation. Image courtesy of the architects, BDP Quadrangle.

This submission maintains the key features of the larger October 2019 proposal, including the overall built form, parking and servicing strategies, the mid-block open space and public realm enhancements. New revisions address staff review comments and follow-up discussions that include, for example, increasing rental units to 1,372 (previously 1,342), and increasing the 3-bedroom counts from 5% to 7.5% with flexibility to provide more through-convertible units. Refinements were made to the ground floor—including new townhouses and re-orienting residential lobbies to enhance the public realm on adjacent streets—and revisions were made to the 7th floor amenity area along Progress Avenue to address concerns related to perceived scale impacts. The overall FSI across the block is 8.03 (previously 8.07).

Concept landscape plan. Image courtesy of dtah.

As requested by the City, the design team also completed a number of studies and analyses to illustrate the implications of tower orientation and floor plate sizes on shadowing and reducing visual impacts. Additional discussions will be required to resolve the overall parkland strategy, including the locations and approach to phasing of public parks and POPS across the broader STC lands.

Rendering of the proposed development. Image courtesy of the architects, BDP Quadrangle.

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Related Companies:

Arcadis, BDP Quadrangle, Figure3, Gradient Wind Engineers & Scientists, HGC Noise Vibration Acoustics, Kramer Design Associates Limited, MCW Consultants Ltd, Urban Strategies Inc.