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After exploring more suburban pockets of the GTHA over the last few weeks, this week’s instalment of the UTPro Instant Report returns to the core of Toronto to study the notable development trends emerging right on the front lines of this city. Powered by data from our premium service UTPro, we are using a Ward Report to zoom in on the exploding Ward 13, Toronto Centre.
Encompassing about half of what is considered to be Toronto’s Downtown, Ward 13 is the residential and commercial epicentre of this city. Its boundaries are the Don Valley to the east and The Esplanade to the south, with a western border generally following Bay Street, and a north border shared by the Rosedale Valley, Bloor Street East, and Charles Street.
Ward 13 enjoys one of the largest swaths of mixed-use designated land in the city, along with institutional, apartment, and neighbourhood designations, and is served extensively by the TTC. buses, streetcars, and Yonge Line 1 and Bloor-Danforth Line 2. Add in Ontario Line 3 stations in the future, and that puts Ward 3 at the forefront of both new commercial and residential development.
Compiling a list of all developments within Ward 13, our Ward Report came back with a staggering total of 278 projects, making it the largest Instant Report we have seen — by a long shot. 118 of those projects are listed as recently completed, with another 38 listed as currently under construction. The remaining 120 projects are all in the pre-construction stage, either in planning or already in sales.
Taking a look at what is on offer within this behemoth collection of projects, one of the most recent completions of the bunch is The Rosedale on Bloor. This 55-storey tower delivers hotel, retail, and hundreds of new condo suites to a site a few blocks east of Yonge Street, a poster child for mixed-use project that is more common in dense areas.
Currently under construction a few kilometres to the south, Hyatt Place & The 203 Residences on Jarvis represents another intriguing mixed-use tower coming to Ward 13. At 32 storeys, the tower will provide a mix of 240 hotel suites coupled with 179 residential rental units, bringing both purpose-built housing to the Moss Park community and the hotel suites that promise more foot traffic for local businesses.
Finally, in the pre-construction group, a pair of proposals from KingSett Capital reflect the growing impetus to deliver landmark architecture in the heart of the city. 645 and 646 Yonge, across the street from each other, contemplate futuristic towers of 76 and 75 storeys respectively, and seek to make a bold impact on the Downtown skyline while delivering a shared total of over 1,000 new residential units on their blocks.
With so many projects, the accompanying data set from our Ward Report offers some comprehensive insights about the area overall. Of particular interest is the Gross Floor Area (GFA) breakdown for the ward, which shows us that 81.5% of the total GFA is for residential uses, while only 15.1% programmed for commercial uses; the remaining 3.4% is institutional space.
Putting all this information together, we can see that, despite Ward 13’s central location and diverse zoning designations, the pressure to deliver new homes for an ever-increasing population is creating a residential focus just like in the smaller and emerging nodes we have studied across the GTA. The difference here is that height allowances are some of the most accommodating, and transit is already robust and improving further, which would suggest — on paper — that Ward 13 is equipped to welcome the impending density.
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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.
