1.2K 
A 30-storey rental tower has been proposed at 73–79 Toronto Street in Downtown Barrie, joining a growing collection of tall-building plans for the densifying area. Designed by Hirman Architects for 1001014757 Ontario Inc, the project is set within the Queen’s Park District and Barrie’s Urban Growth Centre, and ranks among the tallest developments planned for this part of the city.
The assembly comprises 73, 75, and 79 Toronto Street, on its east side just north of Dunlop Street West. It is currently developed with three low-rise house-form buildings, including a triplex at 75 Toronto, along with rear-yard parking. The site is at the meeting point of two distinct contexts: the shops, restaurants, transit facilities, and high-rises of the Dunlop corridor to the south, and the predominantly low-rise Queen’s Park neighbourhood to the north, east, and west.
The three existing houses reflect successive periods in the neighbourhood’s development: the one-and-a-half-storey building at 79 Toronto dates to the late 19th century, the two-storey house at 75 Toronto to the early 20th century, and the one-and-a-half-storey house at 73 Toronto to the mid-20th century. Despite their age, none is listed on the City of Barrie Heritage Register or designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.
The proposal would replace the three houses with a 101.9m-tall building rising from a six-storey podium. Its 20,568m² of Gross Floor Area would include 19,987m² of residential space and 581m² of commercial space at grade, resulting in a Floor Space Index of 8.42 times coverage of the 2,444m² site. All 322 units are planned as market-rate rentals, with a mix of 46 studios, 184 one-bedrooms, 69 two-bedrooms, and 23 units with three or more bedrooms. Three elevators would serve the 322 apartments, a ratio of approximately one elevator for every 107 units, indicating high-speed motors would be needed for prompt response times when all elevators are operational.
Residents would have access to approximately 897m² of indoor and 926m² of outdoor amenity space on the first and seventh floors. Landscaping would be concentrated along Toronto Street and around the site perimeter. Five levels of above-grade parking would be enclosed within the six-storey podium, providing 236 shared resident and visitor spaces, while 68 bicycle spaces are also proposed.
Twelve Barrie Transit routes have stops within 500m, including services connecting to downtown, Allandale Transit Terminal, Georgian College, and Barrie South GO. The nearest stops are between 300m and 450m away, or roughly a six-to-nine-minute walk. For cyclists, the Waterfront Multi-use Trail is approximately 500m away on Lakeshore Drive, while planned improvements include a boulevard cycling facility along Toronto Street, along with nearby bike lanes, signed routes, and cycle tracks on Toronto, Park, High, Bradford, and Ross streets.
The proposal joins a widening cluster of intensification across Downtown Barrie. To the north, the Victoria Village Manor expansion and 136 Bayfield Street are each planned at 12 storeys, while southwest of the site, 34–50 Bradford Street calls for 25- and 29-storey towers. Taller projects include the two 33-storey Debut Waterfront Residences towers under construction to the southeast, along with the proposed 27-storey Grand Opera Tower and 32-storey development at 47–53 Collier Street to the east. Northeast of the site, the 20-storey Residences on Owen and 21-storey Sophia McDonald Residences are under construction, while two more 33-storey towers are proposed at 50 Worsley Street.
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.
* * *
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, ERA Architects |
