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An 85-storey development on the southeast corner of Yonge and Gerrard Streets in Downtown Toronto is moving forward following a change of ownership. Originally a Cresford project, the formerly 85-storey condo previously known as Yonge Street Living (YSL) has been acquired by Concord Adex. The site of the development has been relatively quiet since Cresford ran into liquidity issues that resulted in its financial collapse in 2020, causing the construction of many of its developments to be put on hold. Since then, four of Cresford's projects—in various stages of development—have been sold off to other developers, the most recent being YSL to Concord Adex.
The project has been renamed Concord Sky, and it will stand 299 metres high, housing a total of 1,100 units. The original YSL designs were created by New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) working with Toronto's architects—Alliance. Now, the Toronto-based firm will be moving forward with the project, while KPF is still involved in the design process. Upon its expected completion in 2026, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the country.
"We are working hard on all fronts to complete the building permit plans we inherited so we can begin construction as soon as possible," Gabriel Leung, Vice President of Development at Concord Adex told UrbanToronto.
According to Concord Adex, the new version of the building continues to be a work in progress, so we do not have the architectural plans, and therefore the ability to share final details re: most exact numbers. What we do know from the rendering released by the developer, however, is that the design of the new Concord Sky differs somewhat from the previous YSL design–mainly through a more stepped profile. We can confirm that the east and north facing sides of the building do have balconies, but we cannot say the same for the south or west facing sides based on the provided rendering.
Another thing we can say for certain, is that the building will not be rising taller than its proposed 299 metres to accommodate the "addition" of 10 floors, nor will it result in shorter ceiling heights on any of the levels to cram more floors in; the purchasers of about 700 suites in the project under Cresford who have decided to maintain their contract with Concord Adex will not suffer from lower ceiling heights.
The 95 storey claim that Concord Adex is making for the building is in line with maintaining Concord's floor numbering scheme, which removes all the levels ending in the number four, as well as the thirteenth level. As the result, a building which actually stands 84 floors tall–as is the case for Concord Sky–ends up in Concord's terms as 95-storey building.
Even if developers wanted to, the building would not be allowed by the City to exceed its previously approved height of 299 metres, for the reason that an increase would cast a shadow over Allan Gardens park grounds, located a couple blocks east of the project site. This is also the reason for the slanted design of the top of the building; the southeast corner is lower than the southwest corner—in fact the whole of the east side begins tapering two storeys sooner than the west side—so as to hold the shadow shy of reaching the public space.
It has been confirmed that Ryerson University will still be taking office space the base of the building, as was the case in previous incarnation of YSL. "Ryerson is still part of Concord Sky’s plans," says Leung. "Concord is also working with Ryerson to better integrate the school by opening up the development at grade. This more seamless approach will create more animation on Yonge Street, benefiting everyone involved."
More information on the development will come soon, but in the meantime, you can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like, 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, Gradient Wind Engineers & Scientists, HGC Engineering Inc, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Live Patrol Inc., Quasar Consulting Group, Rebar Enterprises Inc |
