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One of Guelph’s most impactful redevelopment proposals would transform the former W.C. Wood Plant No. 2 into a mixed-use residential community in The Ward, just east of Downtown, and within a short distance of Guelph Central GO and VIA station. Designed by Giannone Petricone Associates for Wood Development Group, with landscapes by Janet Rosenberg & Studio, the masterplan would introduce towers reaching as high as 23 storeys, lower-rise buildings, and new parkland. The Guelph Junction Railway bisecting the former industrial property would be bordered by an Eco-Park with a multi-use trail, while the surviving factory would be adaptively reused and the neighbouring Sacred Heart Catholic School yard expanded.
Spanning 3.95 hectares, the property comprises 33, 37, 39, and 45 Elizabeth Street, 64 Duke Street, 69 Huron Street, and 60 Alice Street, occupying much of the block bounded by those streets. The railway divides it into two irregular parcels: a northern surface parking lot and a larger southern parcel containing a one-storey warehouse wrapped around the surviving factory. Primarily used for storage, the warehouse also houses food distribution, children’s nutrition, and other community programs. The surrounding historically mixed industrial-residential neighbourhood contains low-rise houses, small businesses, and remaining industrial and commercial properties.
The site’s industrial history dates to 1916, when the F.E. Partridge Rubber Company built the surviving three-storey factory on Huron Street. Later used for textile and paper-box production, it was eventually incorporated into Plant No. 2 after W.C. Wood acquired the neighbouring Duke Street lumber yard in the late 1960s. The surrounding warehouse followed in the 1970s, with the plant taking its present form by the mid-1980s.
The masterplan organizes five buildings across three blocks, placing the tallest elements near the centre and lower forms along the site’s edges. The North Block would contain a central 19-storey tower with a two-storey podium and six-storey park-facing component, a three-to-four-storey building along Elizabeth Street, and four-storey stacked townhouses beside an internal plaza. On the south parcel, the West Block would comprise 14- and 23-storey towers rising from a shared three-storey podium, with six-storey intermediate sections. The East Block would pair a 16-storey tower on a two-storey podium with the three-storey factory, which could receive a two-storey addition. Together, the buildings are estimated to accommodate 825 to 875 homes.
The proposal calls for 87,900m² of new gross floor area, totalling approximately 94,000m² with the retained factory, for a floor space index of 2.2 times coverage of the site. Potential neighbourhood-serving commercial and community spaces would accompany homes ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, including family-sized apartments, stacked townhouses, and grade-related suites with individual entrances. Approximately 1,050 resident and visitor parking spaces would be provided within one underground level beneath each parcel and structured podium garages, along with about 1,000 long- and short-term bicycle spaces.
The built-form strategy uses two- and three-storey podiums, intermediate-height wings, and tower separations of at least 25m. Floor-plates would be limited to 1,200m² above the sixth storey and 1,100m² above the eighth, while long facades would be divided into smaller volumes. Approximately 17,400m², or 44% of the site, would form the public realm, including the Eco-Park and rail trail, expanded Sacred Heart schoolyard, and Huron Square outside the restored factory. Plazas, tree-lined private streets, Duke Mews, and a pathway to Alice Street would complete the network.
Redevelopment would require demolition, soil remediation, and the relocation of sanitary and storm sewers from beneath the warehouse to the rail corridor. Following separate preparation work on each parcel, phased construction would deliver the three-building North Block (which could proceed independently) and the West and East blocks on the south parcel. The final south-parcel phase would restore the factory and complete the 16-storey tower, Eco-Park, rail trail, Huron Square, Huron Lane, and schoolyard edge.
Plant No. 2 lies within Guelph’s Downtown Major Transit Station Area, approximately 600m, or a seven-to-ten-minute walk, from Guelph Central station. The hub serves VIA Rail and GO Transit’s Kitchener Line, with 22 platforms for Guelph Transit and regional GO buses; additional local stops are found on Elizabeth and Ontario streets. Cycling infrastructure would include the existing and planned all-ages-and-abilities facilities on Elizabeth Street and an on-site multi-use path extending the Guelph Junction Railway trail network.
Farther west, a cluster of higher-density proposals is emerging around Guelph Central station. These include a 14-storey development at 26–40 Carden Street, a new main library under construction at the 17- and 19-storey Baker District Redevelopment, a 23-storey proposal at 58 Wellington Street East, and a 25-storey development at 70 Fountain Street East.
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: | Giannone Petricone Associates, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Urban Strategies Inc. |
