Location: 55 Yonge Street, Toronto
Developers: H&R REIT and Primaris Management Inc.
Architects: BDP Quadrangle and Partisans
Planning documents submitted to Toronto city planners to develop a futuristic-looking tower at Yonge and King streets have officially been made available online.
In mid-March, Toronto-based H&R REIT and Primaris Management Inc. provided the City with a Zoning By-law Amendment application to build a 66-storey high-rise at 53 and 55 Yonge Street. Livabl initially reported on the proposed project back in March before the application documents were submitted to planners, and when the developer-made website for the tower was first launched. The planning documents share some finer details about the development that is slated for the major downtown intersection.
The development site in question is located on the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Colborne Street between King and Wellington streets. The 15,996-square-foot, L-shaped building lot comprises two properties with a building on each site.
The 12-storey building at 55 Yonge Street was constructed in 1958, and is primarily used as office space with a dental office and travel agency on the main floor, explains the planning rationale by Bousfields Inc. A north-south shared private laneway on the east side of the lot provides access to a single level of underground parking located behind the 55 Yonge Street building. Built in the 1930s, the five-storey building at 53 Yonge Street is also used for retail and office space.
The proposal seeks to redevelop the site into a 66-storey, mixed-use tower with 482 residential units, plus office and retail space. The tenure of the residential units have not been specified in the planning rationale. Previously reported to be rental apartments, a section on the project’s developer website states that the tenure of the tower’s residential component has yet to be determined.
Of the 482 residences, the breakdown would include 40 bachelor, 199 one-bedroom, 50 one-bedroom-plus-den, 126 two-bedroom, 19 two-bedroom-plus-den and 48 three-bedroom units. The size of the residences would average 371 square feet, 556 square feet, 945 square feet and 1,455 square feet, respectively.
Spanning 556,246 square feet of gross floor area, the high-rise would consist of a 14-storey base element topped by a 52-storey tower component. In the base building, the 27-foot-tall ground floor and mezzanine levels would house eight elevators that would be divided equally between the office and residential portions, along with separate lobbies and a bicycle storage room. Approximately 3,724 square feet of retail space is slated for the ground floor and 8,600 square feet on the mezzanine level.
On the second floor, 5,381 square feet of office space would be built along with another bike storage room with 433 parking spaces and a repair station. Floors three to 14 would each contain roughly 13,777 square feet of office space.
Floors 15 and 16 act as a transition between the base and the tower portion, which narrows upward from the 17th floor. An indoor and outdoor amenity area would be shared between the office and residential tenants on the 15th floor, including an event space, dining room, wraparound terrace, and an outdoor pool with an adjacent lounge. The 16th floor would provide a gym, yoga room, flex space, a study lounge and another terrace. At the top of the tower on the 57th floor, an indoor lounge would also lend views of the city from all sides.
A two-level underground parking garage would provide 43 spaces accessible from the lot’s private laneway.
In the neighbourhood, sales continue at 88 Scott, while construction is ongoing at Twenty Lombard.
