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Plans have been filed with the City of Toronto to transform the low-rise commercial plaza at 1500 O’Connor Drive into a four-building rental community rising from 14 to 29 storeys. Designed by Arcadis for 1000920447 Ontario Inc., the mixed-use proposal In East York's O'Connor Parkview area would introduce heights far exceeding those in the immediate area.
Situated southwest of the upcoming O'Connor stop on the Eglinton Line 5, the 1.47-hectare site spans 1450 to 1500 O’Connor Drive, on the north side of the street between Bermondsey Road and Northline Road. Currently occupied by three one- to three-storey buildings, the property hosts restaurants, offices, medical clinics, light industrial uses, and a daycare, all fronted by a surface parking lot. It sits amid a varied mix of land uses, including low-rise housing and community facilities to the north and east, and commercial and light-industrial buildings to the west.
RDLandPlan Consultants Inc. has submitted Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, and Draft Plan of Subdivision applications to the City on behalf of the developer. The proposal calls for four buildings rising 14, 15, 21, and 29 storeys (54.5m to 98.5m), each anchored by a 4- or 6-storey podium framing a new internal public street.
The plan would deliver 915 purpose-built rental units across a total Gross Floor Area of 73,849m², resulting in a Floor Space Index of 5.03 times coverage of the lot. Residential uses would comprise about 72,300m² of the GFA, supported by 917m² of retail and 595m² dedicated to an on-site daycare.
A 1,465m² public park is planned at the northeast corner of the site along O’Connor Drive and the new internal street. This would be complemented by a landscaped POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space) spanning 211m² along O’Connor Drive. The tallest tower would stand closest to the centre of the site, stepping down toward the surrounding low-rise blocks to the north and south. Retail uses would front O’Connor Drive, animating the street with upgraded boulevards, while the daycare is planned at the base of the 15-storey building west of the new park.
Amenity areas across the four buildings would be split between 1,830m² indoors and 1,759m² outdoors. Vertical circulation would be handled by 11 elevators (three per tower, except for two in the 14-storey building) serving an average of approximately one cab for every 83 units, indicating acceptable response times when all elevators are operating.
Below grade, three levels of underground parking would provide 461 vehicular parking spaces for residents, 54 shared visitor and commercial/daycare spots, and six car-share spaces. Bicycle storage would include 825 long-term and 184 short-term spaces.
The site is erved by the 70 O’Connor and 91 Woodbine TTC buses, with stops a short walk away at Amsterdam Avenue. These routes connect south to Coxwell station on Danforth Line 2 and north to Eglinton Avenue, where the upcoming Eglinton Line 5’s O’Connor stop will sit about 1.3km from the site. Cyclists would be served by existing lanes on Bermondsey and Northline roads, linking the development to the broader city network.
The proposal stands out as the most substantial in its vicinity, where most surrounding proposals remain low-rise in scale. Nearby developments include a four-storey residential project at 49 Cranfield Road to the northwest, the four-storey Yardley Towns to the south, and the seven-storey Vaultra Storage O’Connor facility to the northeast. Taller buildings emerge northeast closer to Eglinton Avenue, with proposals such as the 10-storey Sunrise Condos and 1400 Victoria Park with four towers ranging from 13 to 26 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, Counterpoint Engineering, HGC Noise Vibration Acoustics, Lanterra Developments, LEA Consulting, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, STUDIO tla, WND Associates Ltd |
