Toronto's New South Core

While driving or walking in the part of Toronto that’s become known as the South Core can be a pain in your south core, it won’t be that way much longer: Developers are promising a new waterfront neighborhood that’ll transform the area’s negative vibe. Here’s a closer look at what to expect.

The crown jewel is the Harbour and York Streets district. Previously occupied by the dingy, old OPP HQ building and the twisty-turny Gardiner off-ramp, the spot was considered a derelict wasteland until 2012, when Menkes Developments gambled and built an office tower there, changing the landscape. (Maybe we all need to learn to not say mean things about neighborhoods.) Its 25 York Street high-rise set a new tone, and the builder is now pushing on even further.

The emblematic chalk outline is ‘round the old OPP building on Harbour Street, where 25 York St rises and is now also the site of the new Harbour Plaza development, under construction next door to the posh Harbour 60 Steakhouse. There will be unobstructed parkland on the site when the city relocates the two York Bay-Yonge off-ramps in the coming years. Harbour Street will then become four lanes eastbound, keeping traffic flowing. (Our brake pads will be sending a thank you note.)

The mixed-use project includes a pair of sky-high residential towers (65 and 69 storeys) and a 35-storey, LEED Platinum office tower at 1 York St (anchored by Sunlife Financial) boasting 800k SF. The tower will sit atop a five-storey podium that’ll house 200k SF of retail (including Target’s largest Toronto store) serving 15,000 condo units within a one-mile radius—more than 1,200 in the complex alone. (That means there should be enough people around if you need someone to dog sit.)

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When it’s done in 2017, Menkes VP of commercial construction Guy Belanger says Harbour Plaza will be the first new downtown development in a generation that allows Torontonians to live, shop, and work all within a short stroll. (Hardly what city planners in the ‘50s envisioned when they built the Gardiner and separated the city from the waterfront.)

Next door, Oxford Properties’ RBC WaterPark Place will rise 30 storeys on Queens Quay Boulevard and offer another top-rated LEED option. All the new growth will put Union Station’s $800M reno to good use—and with the city’s bean counters predicting an 80% increase in downtown apartment-dwellers, that part of town will need help getting mobile.

A block west of Union, the city’s entertainment and sports district is booming, too. The recently opened Ripley’s Aquarium is already drawing tourist’ bucks and Delta Hotels wants a piece, so it’s setting up shop next door. In November, it’s opening its 567-room Delta Toronto South Financial Core Hotel (wow, that’s a lot to monogram on a towel) on Bremner Boulevar and York Street (above). It’ll be Toronto’s first new single-purpose hotel in two decades.

With no plans to dismantle the Gardiner, connecting the city’s core to the new South Core is part of the challenge and the plan. Guy says Menkes is extending the underground PATH system south of the Lakeshore and bringing it above grade in a glass-enclosed, climate-controlled, elevated tube that will finally connect “South Core’ers” to Union Station without having to schlep through knee-deep snow in the winter (or spring, or late spring—ugh). He says the PATH extension will no doubt encourage a lot of pedestrian traffic into the neighborhood.