10K 
In the second half of 2021, OTT Properties Inc submitted a Site Plan Approval application to the City of Toronto to replace a low-rise office and factory complex in North York with a private members club. Located on the east side of Leslie Street north of Eglinton in Don Mills, the two-phase development dubbed the Phoenix Centre, would comprise social, dining, recreational, and business functions, will involve a series of removals, alterations, and additions adjoining the retained heritage fabric on the site.
The 4.6-hectare property is bound by Leslie Street to the west (and Wilket Creek Park beyond), a tributary creek and ravine to the north, a rail corridor-turned walking trail to the east, and a vacant commercial property (formerly Sony Music Canada's offices) to the immediate south. It contains a 2-storey office building and adjoining 1-storey factory originally constructed in 1962 and designed by Architect Gordon S. Adamson for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Subsequent additions were built from 2002 to 2007, including a 2-storey parking structure.
The brick office building, which fronts Leslie Street, exhibits modernist design principles with its strong horizontal forms and absence of classical details. Its primary (west) elevation features bronze window and door frames and recessed horizontal ribbon windows on the second storey, with deep overhanging bronze eaves above. In 2019, Heritage Planning Staff recommended the building’s inclusion on the City of Toronto Heritage Register. (The factory portion, however, features few window openings and minimal architectural detailing.)
Headed by preeminent American firm Kohn Pederson Fox — known for landmark skyscrapers including Hudson Yards, and a major expansion of MoMA NYC — along with Toronto-based B+H Architects, the site will be rehabilitated over two phases, as part of a long-term master planning process.
Phase 1 proposes to retain the original office structure while removing the majority of the factory structure.
Complementing the office’s rectilinear form, it would introduce a series of 1-6 storey terraced volumes set throughout the east portion of the site, behind the retained office building and atop and adjacent to retained rear factory building fabric. A central courtyard space, located within the original factory footprint and oriented towards the ravine lands at the north, would serve as outdoor amenity space, in addition to a rooftop terrace atop the office building.
Members would have access to various social and recreational uses such as basketball, tennis, badminton, and pickleball courts, a gym, swimming pools, an ice rink, children’s play areas, an auditorium, plus ancillary banquet halls and dining areas. OTT Financial will continue to use office space. The development would total 24,834m² GFA, consisting of the existing and retained 4,530m² of office uses together with an additional 23,114m² club use.
The architects have selected a glazing and masonry materiality compatible with the site’s heritage fabric: stone panels in white or dark grey textured finish, paired with aluminum panel in bronze colour. Conservation and enhancement would include the planted boulevard and the stone retaining wall along Leslie Street.
The entire development would accommodate 870 parking spaces (776 club, 94 office), 541 of those within a new three-level underground garage.
Details of the Phase 2 scope will be outlined as part of a subsequent application.
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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