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Following yesterday’s UrbanToronto story on 10 through 30 Blowers Crescent in Ajax, another proposal would add two 30-storey towers to the immediate north of them along the Salem Road corridor. First Route Properties has submitted preliminary plans for 60 Blowers Crescent, at the southwest corner of Salem Road North and Blowers Crescent in Durham Region, with planning by Bousfields and a massing design by Options Architects. The mixed-use proposal would require the redesignation of current employment lands to permit the residential uses.
The site occupies the southwest corner of Salem Road North at its northern intersection with Blowers Crescent. The flat, vacant property sits within a predominantly industrial and commercial area, with a two-storey medical building at 40 Blowers Crescent immediately west, self-storage and light industrial uses to the north, and Amazon and H&M warehouses across Salem Road to the east. Established low-rise neighbourhoods extend beyond the employment lands to the east and west, with the Carruthers Creek Trail system farther east.
The property received site plan approval in September, 2014 for two single-storey retail and service commercial buildings totalling 2,800m² of gross construction area, with 26 units and 107 parking spaces. According to the application’s planning report, the owner has been unable to secure tenants ahead of construction, prompting a change to a mixed-use development proposal.
To permit the residential component, the application seeks to redesignate the property from Employment Areas to Community Areas under the Durham Official Plan and from Prestige Employment to Mixed Commercial Corridor under the Ajax Official Plan. Bousfields has submitted the Zoning By-law Amendment application to the Town of Ajax on behalf of the developer.
The preliminary layout places two towers along Salem Road North, each rising 30 storeys to 99m, with the north tower anchoring the corner at Blowers Crescent. Together, they would contain 622 homes of unspecified tenure, with the unit mix to be established through Site Plan Approval. Plans call for 58,280m² of Gross Floor Area (GFA) resulting in a Floor Space Index of 5.89 times coverage of the 9,888m² site. The GFA would incude 46,678m² of residential space, and 2,593m² of non-residential, commercial uses which would line the street-facing ground floors, alongside grade-related residential uses.
Both towers would rise from six-storey podiums along Salem Road, with the north tower’s base also wrapping Blowers Crescent. The podiums would transition to four-storey rear sections incorporating parking structures screened by residential and commercial uses. The towers would have 800m² floor-plates. An approximately 20m-wide privately owned, publicly accessible mid-block connection would separate the podiums, complemented by landscaped space at the northeast corner. Outdoor amenity areas would occupy portions of the fourth- and sixth-storey roofs facing the site’s interior.
The proposal includes 560 parking spaces, comprising 467 residential spaces and 93 visitor parking spots for residential and non-residential use. Bicycle parking provisions would be determined during detailed design through the future Site Plan Application.
Surface transit serving the area includes DRT Route 920 on Salem Road and nearby Route 224, connecting to Ajax GO Station approximately 5km away, alongside east–west PULSE routes 900 on Kingston Road and 916 on Rossland Road. Cyclists can access dedicated lanes on Kingston Road East and the Carruthers Creek Trail, about 1km southeast of the site. Looking ahead, the planned Durham–Scarborough Bus Rapid Transit corridor would bring dedicated bus lanes to Kingston Road, roughly 1.4km south, linking Downtown Oshawa with Scarborough Centre.
To the northwest along Rossland Road East, proposals call for 10 storeys at 1 Rossland, two 26-storey towers at 154 Rossland, and four towers ranging from 18 to 25 storeys at 250 Rossland. The proposal joins a growing cluster of planned developments along Salem Road, including three towers of 28 to 30 storeys at 10–30 Blowers Crescent and the six-storey Ajax Country Inn & Suites to the south. Farther south, proposals include the six-storey SK Industrial Park, seven-storey Dymon Storage Salem, and the Salem & Kerrison 12-building community ranging from six to 25 storeys, alongside a 36-storey tower at 400 Salem Road North.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this proposal, 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: | Bousfields, Crozier Consulting Engineers |
