Five Mixed-Use Projects To Watch This Fall
Toronto continues to be a hotbed of development (anyone gridlocked on downtown streets this summer by construction-related lane closures knows this). With the city recently approving 755 storeys of new projects, things ain't slowing down. (So invest in a good car radio, you'll be in there for awhile.) Here are five key mixed-use developments to watch.
1. ONE BLOOR – The city’s symbolic crossroads at last gets a bit of architectural love. The mammoth, soon-to-be-iconic glass tower at Yonge and Bloor—which Great Gulf Homes calls its flagship project—is heading skyward, inching closer to 75 storeys every week. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, One Bloor will have 732 condo units and 100k SF of retail on three levels, with concourse-level shopping below grade and larger-scale commercial spaces in the first two storeys of the podium.
2. YORK SQUARE – With their Scandinavian-inspired design—and Swiss-cheese-like rooftop canopies—the 67- and 57-storey Ice Condominium towers are nearing completion at York Street and Lake Shore Boulevard. The towers are part of York Square, a JV of Lanterra Developments and Cadillac Fairview's that will include a 31-storey office tower with a PATH connection to Maple Leaf Square, the hotel-retail-entertainment complex (also a Lanterra-Cadillac Fairview JV) that was recast as "Jurassic Park" during the Raptors’ short-lived playoff run earlier this year.
3. HARBOUR SQUARE – Just down the street from Ice, work is underway on Menkes Developments’ mixed-use complex at the foot of York Street and Harbour Street. Harbour Square will include a 1,250-unit condo, Harbour Plaza, and the 35-storey One York Street office tower being developed in partnership with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOP), the anchor tenant. Menkes is shooting for the development to earn LEED Platinum. This weekend the complex will be tied into the new PATH bridge system that connects Air Canada Centre to the South Core under the Gardiner Expressway. See our previous coverage of the PATH bridge project.
4. CANARY DISTRICT – With the Pan Am Games under a year away, initial development at the Canary District is nearly done. The second community in the West Don Lands—part of Waterfront Toronto’s massive redevelopment master plan—the district will serve as the athletes' village for the games (afterward the sweat stains will be washed away and the buildings will be repurposed as residences). Built by Dundee Kilmer Developments, the district will have over 1,000 residential units, a 500-bed George Brown College residence and a new YMCA. An extended Front Street East (rendered above) will be lined with 40k SF of street-level retail
5. INDX — Construction has begun on Indx, a 54-storey, 1,000-unit condo on Temperance Street that will incorporate the historic Graphic Arts building. It’s not technically mixed-use, but Indx makes the list because it’s the first-ever purely residential project located in the financial district (others are hotel-condo). The project, by Lifetime Developments and CentreCourt Developments, targeted young Bay Street bucks wanting to live and play hard close to work. Its marketing campaign was inspired by the code of Barney Stinson, Neil Patrick Harris’ character on “How I Met Your Mother.” It worked; INDX was Toronto’s best-selling condo project in 2012.
