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A Minor Variance application for 35 Mabelle Avenue in Etobicoke's Islington area would increase the height of an approved tower from 49 to 53 storeys while switching the building from condominiums to market-rate rental housing. North Edge Properties and an ownership group including Hereditary Holdings Limited and 1583617 Ontario Limited have replaced Tribute Communities, while the new design comes from Kohn Partnership Architects. The proposal would rise within a growing cluster of high-rises across the CPKC Milton rail corridor from Islington subway station.
The approximately 0.46-hectare site is on the south side of Mabelle Avenue, west of Islington Avenue and south of Dundas Street West. Although the application retains the address 25 Mabelle Avenue with an existing slab-style 30-storey apartment tower on it, a severance created a new development parcel at 35 Mabelle Avenue on the currently vacant western portion of the site. Adjacent to the southwest is another high-rise residential building at 41 Mabelle, with more towers nearby, placing 35 Mabelle among the street's tower-in-the-park style sites, others of which have been intensified with other new infill towers in recent years. The area is within walking distance of shops, restaurants, and services along both Bloor and Dundas streets.
Plans for the vacant part of the 25 Mabelle property date to December, 2018, when a Zoning By-law Amendment application proposed a 55-storey, 176m tower with 606 condominiums and 817m² of retail. The +VG Architects’ concept was reworked by BDP Quadrangle in November, 2019 as a 49-storey, 159m building with 486 condominiums and 154m² of retail. The reduction was intended partly to limit shadowing on the Etobicoke Collegiate Institute field, while revisions to the base, circulation, landscaping, and underground garage sought to retain more mature trees. The Ontario Land Tribunal approved the zoning application in November, 2021.
A Site Plan Application submitted in September, 2022 retained 49 storeys but increased the unit count to 580 suites from 486. After the May, 2023 severance of the property, a dispute arose between the prospective purchaser and registered owners over the parcel and authority to advance the application. In October, 2025, the Tribunal adjourned the resulting Site Plan appeal indefinitely pending related Superior Court litigation. The latest plans instead seek variances for a 53-storey, 685-unit rental tower. MHBC Planning has submitted the Minor Variance application to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developers.
The redesign places a stepped base along Mabelle Avenue and the tower toward the south side of the parcel. At 166.5m, its 53 storeys would stand just 7.5m taller than the 49-storey, 159.05m scheme owing to shorter floor-to-floor heights. Its 685 market-rate rentals comprise 410 one-bedroom, 207 two-bedroom, and 68 three-bedroom units.
Gross Floor Area would rise by 5,505m², from 39,610m² to 45,115m², increasing the Floor Space Index from 8.69 to 9.89 times coverage of the 4,561m² site. While the former program included 79m² of retail space, the resubmission is entirely residential, removing the commercial component while adding 105 homes. Floors 6 through 8 with a mid-rise podium section would have 1,239m² floor-plates, dropping to 845m² at floor 9 and 829m² from floors 10 through 53. These exceed the zoning limits of 825m² for floors 6 through 19 and 780m² for floor 20 and above, though the tower would still have 25m of separation from the existing 30-storey 25 Mabelle building.
Residents would have access to 2,806m² of amenity space: 1,434m² indoors and 1,372m² outdoors, distributed at grade and on floors 6 and 9. Five elevators would provide a ratio of one per 137 units, indicating high-speed motors would be required to provide acceptable wait times when all elevators are operational. The five-level underground garage would contain 383 spaces (25 fewer than before) comprising 315 resident spaces (11 of which would be accessible), and 68 visitor spaces (three of which would be accessible). Bicycle parking would increase by 80 spaces, from 436 to 516, comprising 467 long-term and 49 short-term spaces.
Separated from Islington station by the rail corridor, the site is a few minutes' walk from the Bloor Line 2 transit hub, although TTC bus stops on Mabelle and Cordova avenues offer shorter walking distances. Cycling infrastructure includes an off-road trail through Tom Riley Park, a north–south route on Royal York Road, and an east–west bikeway along part of Bloor Street West. City plans identify a future Bloor extension east of the site and further study westward.
The proposal joins extensive infill development projects and proposals around Islington station. Northwest, the 26-storey 12 Cordova is under construction, and 4975 Dundas Street West is proposed at 44 storeys. To the north, 1276 Islington Avenue would rise 35 storeys. South of the rail corridor are the proposed 18-storey Verve Bloor and four towers ranging from 32 to 55 storeys at 3326 Bloor Street West. To the east, 1243 Islington Avenue is proposed at 61 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, Counterpoint Engineering, MHBC Planning, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, Urban Strategies Inc. |
