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The latest weekly instalment of the UTPro Instant Report is here, offering the most current insights on development trends taking shape in the GTA’s fastest growing communities, powered by data from UrbanToronto’s advanced data service, UrbanToronto Pro. In today’s story, we have used the Ward Report function to investigate all of the projects found in the Don Mills area of Toronto, known municipally as Ward 16, Don Valley East.
The Ward is expansive in area, bound roughly by Leslie Street to the west, Highway 401 to the north, Victoria Park Avenue to the east, and the Don River to the south, terminating north of St Clair Avenue. In terms of land use, Ward 16 is largely zoned for Neighbourhood uses, but does feature several significant chunks of Employment Areas, and a number of Mixed Use and Apartment Area pockets, giving the Ward a level of flexibility in terms of development potential. Furthermore, the Ward is bisected by the soon-to-be-open Eglinton Line 5, which will add a rapid transit component to the development equation.
Checking out the list of projects identified in this Ward Report, we find that Ward 16 is one of the most active development centres we have seen recently, containing a total of 56 projects. Eight of them are listed as complete, with another 11 in the process of construction, while the remaining 37 projects are identified as being in various stages of pre-construction.
The most recent completion in the Ward is a 2-tower project dubbed Sonic and SuperSonic Condos. With heights of 28 and 30 storeys, the towers demonstrate the scale of development that has gained approval to date. The project brings some significant density to the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road, injecting over 600 new units on a site adjacent to where a Crosstown LRT Station will be located.
Under construction currently are the first phases of a project more indicative of how the next wave of development in the ward will look. The mixed-use Crosstown Community will deliver a range of building typologies, from townhouse to tower, harnessing the impending LRT infrastructure to support the development of a new urban hub offering nearly 5,000 units. This is the first of several multi-building projects that have been proposed in the area to go forward, while many more await zoning approval in the pre-construction group of projects in this area.
175 Wynford Drive is one of the other multi-building proposals in Ward 16 to stand out due to the ambitious heights of its proposed towers. The proposal, most recently made up of towers of 55, 59, and 65 storeys, has now been revised with four towers of 47, 49, 51, and 54 storeys being considered at the Ontario Land Tribunal. How the City and the OLT ultimately respond to this proposal will offer some insight into the fate of a host of similarly scaled proposals hoping to push the limits.
Supporting statistics from our Ward Report tell us the drive to increase density in the Ward is also expressed in the total number of buildings compared to the number of projects. All together, the 56 projects encompass 153 different buildings, representing an average of nearly three buildings per project.
What this tells us is that Ward 16 has a big decade ahead. With a large slate of proposals seeking to construct multi-tower projects, the ones that gain approval will act as templates for future development, and a new skyline will begin to emerge in this burgeoning Ward.
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As UrbanToronto continues to refine its role in the GTA development industry, our data services have evolved to become one of our defining elements and we want to share those capabilities with our community. The UrbanToronto Pro Instant Reports is just one of the ways our data can be applied to provide quick and convenient insights on the development trends of any area in the GTA, with filters for Wards MLS Zones, and Custom Areas.
