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In Toronto’s Don Mills area, a major redevelopment of semi-coordinated applications spans three adjacent office commercial properties that form what is referred to as the Wynford-Eglinton-Gervais (WEG) lands. An Official Plan Amendment submission has now been made to the City is by Brookfield Residential which has filed plans for 39 Wynford Drive, the first of the three properties, all of which will aim to transform the former office district into a mixed-use community. Proposals are expected soon for redevelopment work for neighbouring properties at 1200 Eglinton Avenue East, and 15 Gervais Drive where imagery of an initial pre-submission concept is already online.
The WEG lands framework is under review through the City’s continuing Don Mills Regeneration Area Study. This first submission's Planning Justification Report for 39 Wynford indicates that Official Plan Amendment and rezoning applications for 15 Gervais Drive and 1200 Eglinton Avenue East are also being prepared so as to advance through the approvals process alongside the 39 Wynford proposal.
39 Wynford Drive, (above), designed by Core Architects, would introduce four mixed-use buildings ranging from 12 to 52 storeys on the northern half of the block. In the southwest quadrant, 15 Gervais Drive by Resident was initially envisioned with with towers of 25 and 40 storeys (as per the second image below, but is now envisioned as two 52-storey towers, as per the map immediately below). Two final buildings are envisioned by a third ownership group in the southeast quadrant of the block at what appear to be 38 and 47 storeys.
A major component of the proposal is the broader public realm strategy tied to the WEG lands framework. At 39 Wynford, plans call for a new 1,365m² public park at the southeast corner of Wynford and Gervais, connected to a network of walkways, POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space), and mid-block connections extending east toward the Aga Khan Museum/Ismaili Centre lands. Across the larger WEG lands framework, three separate public parks totalling approximately 3,119m² are proposed, including additional open spaces planned for 15 Gervais Drive and 1200 Eglinton Avenue East.
The application at 39 Wynford Drive is on that street's south side, east of Gervais Drive. Bousfields has submitted an Official Plan Amendment application to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developer. The proposal would redevelop the site with four mixed-use buildings arranged around a new internal public realm network and public street connection extending east from Gervais Drive. The towers would rise 12 to 52 storeys, ranging from 45m to 169m. The massing strategy proposes generally 25m tower separation distances across the site.
The site is currently occupied by a 4-storey office building dating to 1962 and 1967, recently listed on the City’s Heritage Register, and originally known as the Neilsen Building. Designed by the acclaimed Canadian Modernist architect Peter Dickinson and completed by Webb & Menkes after Dickinson's passing, the building is sited amidst extensive surface parking and landscaped grounds along Wynford and Gervais. The proposal's heritage retention strategy, overseen by ERA Architects, is that rather than a complete demolition, to retain and relocate the original 1962 two-storey base closer to Wynford Drive, where it would form the podium element of the 52-storey tower, while removing the upper two storeys from the building's 1967 addition.
The Brookfield Residential proposal would introduce 1,245 rental units alongside 464m² of retail and other non-residential space concentrated at grade near the Wynford and Gervais intersection. The unit mix would include 66 studios, 579 one-bedroom units, 434 two-bedroom units, and 166 three-bedroom suites. Gross Floor Area is proposed at 103,488m², including approximately 103,024m² of residential space, resulting in a Floor Space Index of 8.43 times coverage of the 16,194m² lot. A single underground parking level is planned beneath the site, containing 460 vehicular parking spaces, including 440 residential visitor spaces and 20 retail spaces. Bicycle parking would be finalized through a future rezoning application.
On the south half of the site, the existing commercial building at 15 Gervais — proposed to be demolished — likewise shares its lot with surface parking, while the 1200 Eglinton lot has remained vacant since the demolition of a former office building on its land in 2020.
The lands fall within a Major Transit Station Area as the site is located approximately 105m from the Aga Khan Park & Museum stop on Eglinton Line 5 and roughly 115m from the Don Valley bus terminal at Don Valley station. In the future, the station will become an interchange with Ontario Line 3.
Beyond rapid transit, the area is served by numerous TTC surface routes. Cycling infrastructure includes cycle tracks along Eglinton Avenue East and Ferrand Drive alongside connections to the Don Mills Trail multi-use path.
The proposals join several others centred around Don Mills and Eglinton, and also along Wynford. To the southeast, the 15-storey e lofts is currently under construction, while proposals to the southwest include 805 Don Mills Road at 26 and 48 storeys, 770 Don Mills with three towers ranging from 37 to 48 storeys, and 793 Don Mills with four towers planned between 38 and 60 storeys. East of the WEG lands, applications include 123 Wynford Drive at 48 and 52 storeys, 175 Wynford Drive with four towers from 49 to 54 storeys, and 155 St Dennis with four towers ranging from 42 to 56 storeys. To the west, construction continues across Aspen Ridge's Crosstown Community, including the 27-storey Generations, the 39-storey Crosstown Block 6C, and the City's two-storey Don Mills Community Recreation Centre.
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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| Related Companies: | Bousfields, Core Architects, EQ Building Performance Inc., ERA Architects, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Resident, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering |
