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Plans have been filed for 2 Bloor Street East that would introduce a new use within the podium of the Hudson’s Bay Centre, bringing self-storage to one of Toronto’s busiest intersections. The proposal from Brookfield Property Partners and Larco Investments would repurpose the long-vacant former department store space at the northeast corner of Yonge and Bloor, intending to adapt it to changing market conditions that have made large-format retail increasingly difficult to lease. The complex is jointly owned by Brookfield and Larco, which control the west and east portions of the complex, respectively.
Designed by Adamson Associates Architects, with KPMB Architects as design architect, the project targets the unused upper levels of the podium while maintaining the existing building envelope. Rather than adding density, the application focuses on an internal conversion, introducing self-storage across floors two through five, while retaining and upgrading retail space on the first floor and on the concourse level.
The site at 2 and 90 Bloor Street East is part of a mixed-use block bounded by Park Road to the east, Asquith Avenue to the north, and Yonge Street to the west. Spanning 3,228m², the application focuses on the podium along Bloor Street East, formerly home to a Hudson’s Bay department store that has remained vacant since the store's closure in March, 2022. The complex features a range of uses, including office space in the 36-storey tower at 2 Bloor East, hotel and residential components in two towers to the east, and retail at grade and concourse levels, while sitting directly atop the Bloor-Yonge subway interchange with internal connections to transit. Surrounding the site, the Bloor-Yorkville area is defined by a mix of retail, office, residential, and hotel uses.
Since the department store’s closure, the developers have explored multiple reuse strategies, including continued retail, office conversion, and more extensive redevelopment, but each has faced limitations tied to the building’s deep floor-plates, limited lighting, and market conditions including a soft office leasing environment and declining demand for large-format retail downtown. More transformative redevelopment options have also been constrained by the site’s direct integration with the Bloor-Yonge subway station below, where structural and operational complexities limit opportunities for major intervention.
The application seeks a targeted Zoning By-law Amendment (ZBA), submitted by Urban Strategies Inc to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developers, to introduce “self-storage warehouse” as a permitted use within the existing zoning framework for the site. No new density is proposed, with the project retaining the existing 28,426m² of Gross Floor Area while redistributing its uses. Under the revised program, approximately 20,096m² would be dedicated to self-storage, replacing the second to fifth floors of the former large-format retail space, while 8,330m² on the first floor and concourse levels would be maintained and updated as retail.
Internally, the proposal involves a retrofit of the existing structure to accommodate the new use, including the introduction of three elevators serving the self-storage facility alongside a service elevator. With 571 above-grade parking spaces, alongside additional below-grade spots and 11 loading spaces, the conversion would leverage existing parking capacity.
Exterior work would be comparatively limited, centred on recladding the Bloor Street East facade and upgrading the ground-level interface, including new canopies. The ZBA itself is narrowly scoped, adding the self-storage use to existing site-specific permissions while restricting its location within the building and away from key frontages.
Surrounding the site, the Bloor-Yonge area continues to intensify. Directly below, work has started on the Bloor-Yonge Station Capacity Enhancement. To the west, a 70-storey tower is proposed at 50 Bloor Street West, while the 44- and 68-storey towers of The Pemberton are rising to the northwest. To the north, the 26-storey Adiago is completing construction, while across the street are plans for Cumberland Square, which would introduce three towers ranging from 51 to 75 storeys. The 28-storey Park Road rises to the northeast, next to the proposed Clear Hotel at 42 storeys. At the southwest corner, the 85-storey One Bloor West is under construction, with a 99-storey tower proposed adjacent to it at 19 Bloor West. To the south is a 64-storey proposal at 699 Yonge.
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: | Adamson Associates Architects, Arcadis, EllisDon, Grounded Engineering Inc., HGC Noise Vibration Acoustics, Mulvey & Banani, Urban Strategies Inc. |
