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A long-stalled construction site at 327 Royal York Road next to Mimico GO station may move forward again, as a new proposal to the City of Toronto aims to facilitate a new development on the site with a pair of skyscraping towers. Submitted by KingSett Capital (operating as 2402871 Ontario Inc.), the plans call for towers of 51 and 55 storeys, designed by BDP Quadrangle, in place of the previous plan from the defunct former owner.
The site sits within the Mimico-Judson Secondary Plan and Major Transit Station Area. Located south of Christ Church Mimico Cemetery on the east side of Royal York Road, the site lies directly north of the existing GO station and abuts Metrolinx's Lakeshore West rail corridor.
The long-troubled site has seen a series of failed development attempts since 2011. The original proposal, On The GO Mimico by Terrasan and later its sister company, Stanton Renaissance, was to be a 27-storey condominium.
Shoring begin in 2014, excavation began in 2015, and by December, 2016 a crane had been raised in the completed pit. By April, 2017 much of the below grade forming work was done when construction halted before reaching grade after Stanton Renaissance defaulted on loans, prompting a court-ordered receivership. A Section 37 agreement tied to the project also failed to deliver promised community benefits, including the restoration of the old Mimico station building, now west of the tracks in Coronation Park, which was repurposed for a while into a condo sales centre. It was to become a community facility as part of the agreement, but was later left boarded up as the sales centre.
Vandyk Properties acquired the site in 2017 and rebranded it as 327 Royal York. Designed by SvN, Vandyk envisioned towers rising 29 and 44 storeys (146.4m) with 687 units above a rebuilt GO station. An October, 2018 Letter of Intent from Metrolinx began negotiations with the developer for rights to build above the station in exchange for financing a new station, and a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) was later issued in 2022 to fast-track the project.
By late 2020, Vandyk had amassed several more properties in the area and rebranded the planned multi-block area including the 327 Royal York site as Grand Central Mimico. A 2023 Site Plan Approval application revised the 327 Royal York plan to 34 and 35 storeys (118.5m) with 727 units, but by late 2023, mounting financial issues forced Vandyk into receivership, and Metrolinx terminated the partnership, effectively nullifying the MZO.
While Vandyk did effect some work in the pit to keep it safe, they did not perform any forming or demolition work to advance their plans before they went bankrupt. In the time since, an assistant to local City Councillor and Deputy Mayor for the west side of Toronto Amber Morley, stated that more shoring work was completed in 2024 to keep the pit from collapsing, but that more work by the new property owner, 2402871 Ontario Inc., will be needed as it remains flooded, with the shoring walls continuing to deteriorate.
Now, however, Bousfields has submitted Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Approval applications to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developer. The latest proposal calls for towers rising 176.01m and 188.01m from a shared three-storey podium.
The proposal includes 237m² of retail space at grade in the west tower and a total Gross Floor Area of 84,797m², resulting in a Floor Space Index of 17.63 coverage of the 6,763m² site. The residential component alone accounts for 84,560m², with no office uses included. The previous plan called for over 6,100m² of office area, while it also proposed to build a new station for GO. The new plan no longer proposes to replace the existing GO station, and now only offers pedestrian links to the west and east sides of the GO station. As KingSett normally rezones sites before looking to sell them to other developers, this plan does not encumber a future purchaser, or KingSett themselves should they develop on their own, to work with Metrolinx on a revised station.
The plan also does not state condo or rental as tenrure for the units, as either KingSett or a subsequent purchaser could make that decision in the future. In either case, the west tower is proposed with 594 residential units while the east tower is proposed with 580, for a combined total of 1,174 units. There would be six elevators in the 51-storey west tower, or one elevator per 99 units, and five elevators in the 55-storey tower, or one per 116 units. High speed elevators would be needed to provide quick enough service in the taller tower.
Thee new plans aims to be more transit oriented, and now only offers three levels of underground parking in the proposal, housing 108 vehicle spaces, down significantly from 277 in the previous design. The plan includes 804 long-term bicycle parking spaces, with 95 short-term spaces, increasing from the former total of 584.
Together, the indoor and outdoor amenity spaces would total 2,913m², an increase from the previous 1,779m². The publicly accessible plaza between the towers would function as a Privately-Owned Publicly accessible Space (POPS), providing a landscaped pedestrian connection from the buildings to the GO station.
A pedestrian clearway and drive aisle are planned side-by-side along the northern edge of the site as a buffer from the adjacent heritage-designated Christ Church Mimico Cemetery. ERA Architects' Heritage Impact Assessment, concluded that podium step-backs, reduced podium height, no suites on the first three levels, and a landscaped buffer would serve to mitigate visual impacts.
Besides the immediate access to regional rail service along the Lakeshore West GO line offered by the station located steps away, TTC bus routes run along Royal York Road. Metrolinx has indicated that improvements to the station and surrounding infrastructure remain part of its long-term vision, with flexibility to negotiate new agreements under the Transit-Oriented Communities program. Dedicated bike lanes on Royal York and additional east-west connections along Stanley Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard West provide access to the city-wide cycling network.
There are many other developments proposed around the site. To the east, the four towers of 39 Newcastle were zoned as 22 through 36-storey components of Grand Central Mimico, as were the three towers of The Buckingham at 12 through 37 storeys, while 25 Audley Street is proposed a 25-storey development, and 21–31 Windsor Street calls for four towers rising between 7 and 46 storeys. Grand Park Village further to the east includes plans for three towers ranging from 23 to 40 storeys. South of the site, 266 Royal York calls for towers of 29 and 36 storeys. North of the site, Royal Art Collection Etobicoke is proposed at 11 storeys as it transitions down to the human-scaled shopping street along this stretch of Royal York Road.
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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