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BGO has submitted new plans to the City of Toronto for 58 Atlantic Avenue in Liberty Village, seeking planning approvals for a 51-storey mixed-use rental tower with 30 affordable rental units. This replaces an earlier 12-storey office-led concept approved in 2022, reflecting post-pandemic changes in the office market. The proposal would retain and adaptively reuse the designated heritage building at 25 Liberty Street with a modest three-storey overbuild.
The subject site occupies a full block frontage on the south side of Liberty Street at Atlantic Avenue and Jefferson Avenue, comprising addresses at 25 and 35 Liberty Street, 56 and 58 Atlantic Avenue, and 51, 61, and 65 Jefferson Avenue. The lands are currently developed with a collection of one- to three-storey brick and stucco buildings, surface parking, and a Part IV–designated heritage structure at 25 Liberty Street. The site is surrounded by a mix of former industrial buildings, mid-rise commercial and residential uses, and an increasing number of high-density mixed-use developments. It is close to Exhibition GO station, the future Ontario Line 3’s Exhibition station, and the planned but unfunded King-Liberty GO station.
Planning has evolved through several office-focused iterations over the past decade, culminating in a Zoning By-law Amendment approved by City Council in July, 2022. That approval permitted a 12-storey office and retail building with on-site and off-site rental replacement obligations. Bousfields has now resubmitted Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment applications to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developer.
Designed by BDP Quadrangle, the new proposal organizes the site into two distinct built forms: a tall mixed-use rental tower on the western portion of the lands and a rehabilitated heritage building on the eastern edge fronting Liberty Street. The primary building would rise 51 storeys to a height of 172.96m, supported by a three- to five-storey podium. Adjacent to it, the heritage structure would be retained in situ and topped with a contemporary three-storey overbuild, bringing its overall height to six storeys, or 23.84m. Overseen by heritage specialists ERA Architects, this would allow the building to read as a freestanding volume rather than being minimized with a larger form.
The new design would deliver 514 purpose-built rental units, an increase from the previous 42 live-work rental units. The unit mix includes five studios, 241 one-bedroom, 209 two-bedroom, and 59 three-bedroom or larger units, with 20 rental replacements and 30 affordable units. Vertical circulation would be handled by four elevators serving the 484-unit main tower, translating to a ratio of one elevator per 121 units, requiring high speed motors for adequate response times. Another elevator would serve the 30-unit heritage structure.
Plans call for 1,205m² of interior amenities complemented by 851m² of outdoor amenities. Total Gross Floor Area is proposed at 47,336m², up from 26,444m², comprising about 45,471m² of residential, 624m² of retail space, and roughly 1,241m² of community space, resulting in a Floor Space Index of 14.54 times coverage of the 3,255m² site, up from 7.9 times coverage. At grade, the proposal introduces a publicly accessible pedestrian mews separating the tower from the retained heritage building, leading to a new POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space) of 230m² at the southeast corner of the site, opposite the planned public park at 34 Hanna Avenue.
Below grade, the development would include four underground parking levels accommodating 162 vehicular spaces, comprised of 155 residential spaces, five visitor spaces, and two retail spaces. Bicycle parking is planned at 512 spaces, including 417 long-term and 95 short-term residential spots.
Exhibition GO station on the Lakeshore West line is located approximately 210m to the south, or about a three-minute walk. Surface transit options include routes along Ossington Avenue and Dufferin Street, as well as the King streetcar. Looking ahead, the site would be near the future Exhibition station on the Ontario Line 3, planned roughly 210m south, while the proposed King-Liberty GO station would further strengthen regional connectivity to the north once funded and delivered. Cycling conditions include bike lanes along Strachan Avenue linking to the Lake Shore Boulevard West multi-use trails and additional cycling connections at Exhibition Place.
The proposal would rise within an increasingly dense development context. To the west, The Castle is planned at 11 storeys, while 147 Liberty Street calls for 55 storeys. Northeast, 85 Hanna Avenue is proposed at 10 storeys, alongside Liberty Yard, which would deliver three towers ranging from 32 to 36 storeys, and 80 Lynn Williams at 44 storeys. To the south, proposals include 30 Hanna Self-Storage at seven storeys and the Exhibition Transit-Oriented Community, with the Jefferson Site planned at 44 storeys and the Atlantic Site proposed at 38 and 54 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: | BDP Quadrangle, Blackwell, Bousfields, ERA Architects, HGC Noise Vibration Acoustics, LEA Consulting, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering |
