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Following UrbanToronto’s coverage last week of the Quayside resubmission and Building 2 revisions, new Site Plan Approval documents have been posted for Buildings 1B and 1C, bringing added clarity to the latest revisions to the redevelopment in Toronto's East Bayfront by Dream Unlimited and Great Gulf, in partnership with Waterfront Toronto. Together, the submissions advance Quayside’s first phase of construction east of Bonnycastle Street, where a mixed-tenure program is planned. The buildings would surround a new Community Forest and planned Community Hub.
Blocks 1B and 1C occupy the south and southwest portion of the 4.9-hectare Quayside lands, at the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard East between Bonnycastle Street and Small Street, extending south to Queens Quay East. The assembled properties of 257 through 291 Lake Shore Boulevard East, 200 Queens Quay East, and 2 Small Street cover about 2.8 hectares and are currently occupied by low-rise commercial and office buildings tied to the site’s former industrial past.
Urban Strategies Inc. has submitted the latest Site Plan Approval applications to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developers. The latest documents offer more insights into details such as height, amenities, and parking.
Building 1B, designed by Henning Larsen Architects with architects—Alliance as Architect of Record, would rise 66 storeys (231.4m), slightly taller than the 64-storey, 228.2m version from last year’s submission. The design contains 729 rental units, down from 816, divided into 553 market rentals and 176 affordable rentals, with the affordable suites distributed primarily on floors 2 to 16. The Gross Floor Area (GFA) would total 52,700m² (slightly down from 52,886m²), with a Floor Space Index (FSI) of 3.30 times lot coverage. Amenity programming would total 1,510m² indoors (up from 917m²) and 907m² outdoors (up from 281m²), with landscaped terraces overlooking the central Community Forest.
Below grade, two levels of shared parking call for 202 vehicular spaces (184 long-term and 18 short-term) alongside 570 bicycle spaces split between 419 long-term and 151 short-term stalls. The tower would include seven elevators, yielding roughly one elevator per 104 units, requiring high speed motors to deliver acceptable response times. Building 1B's massing has been refined to create a slimmer vertical profile, preserving daylight access and open-space views into the adjacent POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space).
Meanwhile, Building 1C, designed by Teeple Architects, would now be composed of three 13-storey mid-rises — two of which appear as one but are only connected at the roof — along the north side of Queens Quay East along the length of the block. Standing at 44.1m, this is a slight decrease from the 12-storey, 49.20m version in 2024. The additional storey now counted reflects amenity space use within the mechanical penthouse level. (UrbanToronto counts all storeys accessible to building users/residents and visitors)
Together, the 1C buildings contain 377 affordable rental units, an increase of 219 units from the previous submissions, while eliminating 86 market-rate units. The 1C buildings now offer a higher proportion of family-sized suites, now divided into 31 studios, 134 one-bedrooms, 148 two-bedrooms, and 64 three-bedrooms or larger. Amenity spaces would total 497m² indoors and 433m² outdoors (down from 566m² and 606m² in 2024), distributed across levels 1, 7, and the mechanical penthouse. An urban garden adds an additional 233m² of outdoor and 36 m² of indoor space to buildings 1C2 and 1C3.
No vehicular parking space figures have yet been provided for 1C, but 512 bicycle parking spaces are proposed, including 422 long-term and 76 short-term for residents, plus 6 long-term and 8 short-term for non-residents. There would be six elevators across the 1C buildings, resulting in a ratio of roughly one per 63 units. Though previously intended to feature mass-timber construction, the application explains that the shift to conventional construction is intended to simplify delivery, enabling faster build-out and the higher proportion of family-sized affordable units while maintaining energy-efficient standards under Toronto Green Standard v4 Tier 1.
Both Buildings 1B and 1C connect to a shared two-level underground garage serving the western portion of Quayside, accessed from Lake Shore Boulevard East. The site is served by TTC bus service from Union station operating along Queens Quay East. The planned Waterfront East LRT, once funded and constructed, would improve transit service in this corridor.
There is a focus of development activity across the East Bayfront; Blocks 3 and 4 of Quayside entail four additional towers spanning 12 to 72 storeys. To the east, 307 Lake Shore East is proposed at 49 storeys, while towers of 41 and 49 storeys are planned at 351 Lake Shore East. Southward, Tridel and Hines’ Bayside community includes the recently completed Aqualina and Aquavista (13 storeys), Aquabella (14 storeys), and Aqualuna (18 storeys). Westward, construction is wrapping up on the 21-storey Quay House and is underway for Pinnacle Lakeside’s first phase (towers from 15 to 54 storeys), while a 43-storey second phase is planned.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on these developments, but in the meantime, you can learn more about them from our Database files, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversations in the associated Project Forum threads or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been republished to correct design credits, suite numbers, and amenity space area in the 1C buildings.
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UrbanToronto's research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
| Related Companies: | Arcadis, architects—Alliance, Dream Unlimited, Great Gulf, Grounded Engineering Inc., RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, Urban Strategies Inc., Vortex Fire Consulting Inc. |
