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First Capital has submitted revised plans to the City of Toronto for the redevelopment of a suburban plaza at 1881 Steeles Avenue West. Situated on the southeast corner of Steeles and Dufferin Street, the proposal calls for four towers ranging from 12 to 32 storeys, with a design by Turner Fleischer Architects, reducing the tallest heights from the previous revision.
First Capital has responded to concerns from City staff and local residents regarding the suitability of particular heights in the area. These concerns include the site's proximity to provincial employment lands, as well as ecological areas overseen by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, including a river system.
Spanning approximately 2.39 hectares, the site is home to Dufferin Corners Plaza, a multi-tenant commercial hub including a variety of commercial, medical, and restaurant establishments. Surrounded by low-rise light industrial and warehousing to retail and residential buildings, the site is part of the largely car-dependent Bathurst Manor neighbourhood. To the south is the DUKE* Heights employment area. *(DUfferin-KEele.)
First Capital's initial Zoning By-law Amendment application for the redevelopment was filed in December, 2019 for a pair of 27-storey towers plus one 11-storey and two 12 storey buildings. Since then, the project has undergone resubmissions in August, 2022 when the 11-storey building was eliminated in favour of adding 2,398m² of parkland in the southeast panhandle of the property to the adjacent and expansive G. Ross Lord Park, plus a new L-shaped public street. Now, a July, 2024 resubmission aims to resolve concerns regarding land use compatibility, appropriate setbacks, and massing.
The proposal’s four buildings include 12, 13 and dual 32-storey towers, with the latter two standing 105.05m tall. The tallest towers would share a six-storey podium at the southeast corner of the site, adjacent to the proposed public park spanning 2,821m². Residential units have been slightly reduced from the initial 1,171 units proposed in 2019 to 1,138 units in the current plan.
The design includes a 13-storey building to the west fronting Dufferin and a 12-storey building to the north fronting Steeles. The entire development is anchored by a total Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 91,737m², with a retail GFA of 3,365m² at grade in the 12 and 13-storey buildings, slightly reduced since the initial proposal of 3,502m².
There would be 2,640m² of indoor and 1,977m² of outdoor amenities. The site would include a three-level underground garage, accommodating 974 resident, 58 visitor, and 33 retail spaces, a reduction from the initially proposed 1,206 spots. This is alongside provisions for 779 long-term and 96 short-term bicycle parking spaces, similar to the previous proposals. The towers would be equipped with three elevators in each of the three tallest buildings and two in the smallest building, or approximately one elevator for every 80 to 119 units. This indicates reasonable wait times for the shorter towers, and longer than preferable wait times for the taller two.
The site is served by bus routes that connect to multiple TTC subway stations, as well as York Region Transit (YRT).
Several other projects and proposals can be found in the surrounding area. Directly to the east, 1875 Steeles Avenue West proposes three towers ranging from 14 to 39 storeys, which recently received a favourable report from City staff recommending its approval after responding to similar community concerns, and to the south is the proposal for the University of Toronto’s single-storey expansion of their high-density Downsview Library Storage building. To the east a two-storey Sanofi Pasteur industrial expansion is found.
To the north in Vaughan, 80 Glen Shields Avenue calls for 7 and 9-storey towers. Westward near Keele Street, the Milestone Corporate Campus proposal entails a 40-acre business park with five buildings ranging from 5 to 8 storeys.
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: | Bousfields, First Capital, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, Turner Fleischer Architects |
