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Steps west of Scarborough Town Centre, Luiza Investments has submitted a proposal for a high-density mixed-use community. The application seeks to replace a low-rise industrial and commercial site with five new buildings up to 42 storeys, including retail, a new public park, and POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space). It would be located about a 22-minute walk from the future Scarborough Centre station, now under construction as part of the Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension.
Addressed to 1600 Brimley Road plus 26 and 34 Golden Gate Court, the 1.47-hectare site sits at the northwest corner of those two roads. Currently home to three single-storey buildings, lawns, and surface parking, the site is indicative of the area’s use as an employment district. It is bounded by low-rise industrial and commercial properties to the north, south, and west, while high-rise residential and civic uses, including the Scarborough Civic Centre and Town Centre, lie just to the east.
Arcadis has submitted a Zoning By-law Amendment application to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developer. The proposal features four towers of 37, 37, 39, and 42 storeys plus an 8-storey mid-rise, all grouped around a new public street and open space network. The three northern towers would rise from a shared four-storey podium, with the tallest tower reaching 139.06m.
The project totals 1,774 residential units across the five buildings, with 10% of units sized as three-bedroom. Total Gross Floor Area across the site is planned at 115,744m², resulting in a Floor Space Index of 7.87 times lot coverage. Of this, the vast majority would be residential, with only 640m² dedicated to retail and commercial uses concentrated in the southeast and centre-north towers. A public park spanning 2,210m² is proposed at the west end of the site. The POPS is planned at the southeast corner as an entrance into the emerging Scarborough Centre district.
The proposal includes 3,488m² of indoor and 2,616m² of outdoor amenity space, found at grade and on upper podium levels, including the shared podium and mid-rise rooftops. Each of the high rises would be served by four elevators, yielding elevator-to-unit ratios ranging from approximately one per 96 to 108 units, necessitating higher speed elevators in the taller buildings to provide quick enough response times. The 8-storey mid-rise calls for two elevators for its 91 units. Phasing is split between a southern Phase 1 and northern Phase 2. Phase 1 also includes the POPS and the first portion of the underground garage. Phase 2 would deliver the remaining three towers and complete the central courtyard and park.
Parking would be housed in a two-level underground garage spanning the site, offering 551 motor vehicle spaces for residents and short-term use. Bicycle parking entails 1,188 long-term and 124 short-term spaces across both phases. While Brimley Road lacks bike lanes today, it has been identified in the City’s Near-Term Cycling Network Implementation Plan for future infrastructure, complementing a nearby multi-use trail along Birkdale Ravine.
1600 Brimley Road will be more than a kilometre from the new Scarborough Centre station, which would be open around the time the first phases could be built at the site. TTC buses that ply Brimley Road will likely serve the new station, offering short rides to the city's mass transit network. Metrolinx’s planned Durham-Scarborough Bus Rapid Transit route is also planned to serve the new station, offering better transit conenctions along Ellesmere Road to Pickering and on to Oshawa.
The proposal joins other high-rise intensification in and around Scarborough Town Centre. To the north, work on the Brimley & Progress Towers (as high as 47 storeys) started last year but has since stalled. To the northeast, Oxford Properties' Scarborough Town Centre’s Block C is beginning construction with three towers between 35 and 45 storeys, forming part of their masterplanned community that ultimately envisions 32 buildings reaching up to 65 storeys around the shopping centre. To the east, 158 Borough is proposed at 27 and 42 storeys, while 100 Borough envisions five towers ranging from 26 to 50 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: | Arcadis, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering |
