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In a move symbolic of the Greater Toronto Area suburbs' growing density and transition to greener transit options, AWIN Group of Dealerships has submitted Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment applications to demolish a Mercedes Benz dealership for residential use. The proposal at 8350 Kennedy Road would bring two mixed-use towers and a park to the site about 470m south of Highway 7 in Markham’s Unionville neighbourhood.
The site has an irregular shape of about 12,252m² in area. It has a frontage of about 165m along Kennedy Road, with Mildred Temple Park to the west. The automotive dealership onsite is a two-storey commercial building with surface parking.
The design by Arcadis — the Amsterdam-based global firm that acquired Toronto-based IBI Group in Fall 2022 — proposes two residential buildings for the site consisting of 23 and 27 storeys, standing 83m and 94.8m respectively. This would bring 769 new residential units to the Unionville area. With three elevators in the shorter building and four in the other, the site would somewhat exceed the threshold of 1 elevator per 100 units.
The two towers are set to have a total gross floor area of 61,162m², with a gross site density of 4.99 FSI. Their podiums would stand eight storeys, with stepbacks above the sixth floor to create separate elements and allow for more sunlight on the public realm. There would be retail area at grade totalling 1,105m² on the east side of both buildings, fronting Kennedy Road.
The amenities would be equally divided with indoor and outdoor amenity areas totalling 1,538m² each. The 27-storey site would include outdoor amenities on the second floor, and both would have rooftop amenities on the eighth floor connecting to indoor amenity spaces.
Along with the residential and commercial features, the design includes a park about 1,127m² in area and a proposed POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly accessible Space) of approximately 1,854m² in area. The latter would run along the north and south boundaries with an entry at the northeast end of the site, allowing for pedestrians to access the park off Kennedy Road. The park is planned for the northwest portion of the site, directly across from Mildred Temple Park.
The site has a southbound bus stop directly in front at Kennedy Road. York Region Transit (YRT) buses service the site along that road, with VIVA Purple and Pink buses connecting to Richmond Hill Centre Terminal, as well as the Unionville GO Station and Finch GO Bus Terminal and subway station. Additional bus routes allow for east-west and north-south travel.
Located about 1.2km northeast of Unionville GO Station, the site is set to further benefit from future transit plans. The Markham Centre review process has included the Unionville Multi-Modal Station at the current location of the Unionville GO Station. The Multi-Modal Station is set to provide a mix of options including the GO Train, 407 Transitway, YRT buses, and Viva Rapidway services.
Cars are not left unserved here, nevertheless; three levels of underground parking are designed to provide 652 vehicle parking spaces, 77 being for visitors and 37 for retail use. Drivers would access the site through a driveway from Kennedy Road at the centre of the site.
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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| Related Companies: | Arcadis, Goldberg Group, Gradient Wind Engineers & Scientists, HGC Engineering Inc, Scott Shields Architects |
