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Fairview Mall remains a popular regional shopping centre in Toronto’s northeast at Sheppard Avenue East and Don Mills Road. A proposal would result in two new towers on property immediately adjacent to the mall’s northwest corner at 5 Fairview Mall Drive. Bousfields has submitted applications for Official Plan Amendment and Zoning by-Law Amendment on behalf of the site’s owner and developer, NorthWest Healthcare Properties. The design by WZMH Architects for the southeast corner of Fairview Mall Drive and Don Mills Road would mean a noticeable change to the skyline of the area with two buildings overlooking the mall.
The site is currently occupied by a medical office building standing four storeys and with approximately 8,000m² of Gross Floor Area (GFA). The site also has parking lots on its north and east sides. It sits beside Fairview Mall at 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, a building with approximately 80,000m² of retail space.
The proposal would leave the medical office building as is, to co-exist alongside a pair of new residential towers. The North Tower would be 36 storeys, or 134.4 metres in height, and the South Tower a bit shorter at 31 storeys, or 111.9 metres. They would be connected by a podium of five storeys that would feature 549m² of retail space on the ground floor. In addition, the new build would add 10,883m² of office space on the second to fifth floors, in addition to the square footage already a part of the existing medical office building.
There would be a main residential and office entrance for the buildings at Fairview Mall Drive. A south entrance for the towers would be accessed from a new public road which is proposed as part of redevelopment of the mall's site. Floors two through five of the podium would have a step-back of three meters. Both towers would step back further at the sixth floor, which would be utilized for amenity space. The towers would share an outdoor amenity terrace atop the fifth floor roof.
With the loss of the surface level parking currently at the site, the medical office building would share a four-level garage that would be built under the two residential towers, containing 229 residential parking spots and 315 spaces for office and retail. In addition, the proposal calls for 449 residential bicycle parking spaces and 28 office spots for bicycles.
By retaining the medical office building, the project would result in additional medical office space in its podium. The proposal is the latest of many that would bring intensification to an area that has been seeing significant infill development activity, both recently built and proposed, in the area surrounding Don Mills subway station.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, 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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