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Next door to Toronto's Distillery District and the Canary District buildings (the first of which started out as the athletes village during the 2015 Pan-Am Games), a new rental complex is rising on the south side of Mill Street east of Cherry in the West Don Lands. The complex from WDL 8 LP—a consortium of developers Dream Unlimited, Kilmer Group and Tricon Residential—will bring a mix of affordable and market rental units to 'Block 8' in this neighbourhood.
The three towers—to rise 16, 16, and 26 storeys—are designed by Danish firm COBE Architects working with Toronto's architects—Alliance. Being constructed on one of a handful of sites donated by the previous Provincial government to jumpstart affordable housing, the project got another major boost in 2019 when the federal government invested $357 million in the site through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Construction began later that year with the arrival of shoring rigs in November, 2019.
Shoring led to excavation, continuing into early 2020 and paving the way for the first crane installation in May, 2020. Two additional cranes were added to the site in the months that followed, as work heated up on the building's single underground parking floor. By October, 2020, forming of the ground floor was well underway, and in the months since, the buildings have begun their rise into the sky.
Construction has gotten as far as the sixth floor slab in places, and once that floor is complete, it will mark the upper extent of the complex's podium volumes. To be brick-clad, the bases will create visual continuity with the heritage aesthetic of the Distillery to the west, while the towers above will have a more modern look, blending with the more contemporary designs of the Canary District buildings to the north.
A total of 756 rental units are being built on Block 8, 30% of which will be either fully accessible or adaptable. 229 units of the total are to be affordable units with rents ranging from average market rent for the City of Toronto to 40% of average market rent across all bedroom types, including the 45 three- and four-bedroom units under construction. Instead of being concentrated in a single location, the affordable units will be dispersed throughout the three buildings.
You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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| Related Companies: | architects—Alliance, Dream Unlimited, Tricon Residential, Unilux HVAC Industries Inc. |
