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Remember when I had the audacity to suggest (gulp!) that building a $20 Billion subway line across Eglinton Avenue should make us consider adding density along that line?

What a crazy idea!

Well, at least the neighbours in Leaside thought so, as they put up yellow lawn signs arguing against “bad planning.”

Ironically, “bad planning” is the exact opposite of what the neighbours suggested, ie. spending $20 Billion on transit, only to have nobody use that transit, on account of nobody living in density surrounding the transit stops.

But that’s a topic for another day!  Or, perahps yesterday…

Now, the Eglinton LRT is a new piece of infrastructure, so it could take some time to allow for the amount of density that would make the new line worthwhile.

Meanwhile, on the Yonge line, we have a series of transit stops with varying levels of density.

Yonge & Sheppard is a city unto itself with tens of thousands of people using the subway stop every day.

Meanwhile, the Rosedale TTC station might see a handful of prep school kids coming-and-going with every stop at a very quiet station.

When I was growing up, Yonge & Eglinton wasn’t all that busy.  I remember in the late-1990’s when the new “SilverCity” movie theatre opened, and that seemed to be the turning point for this area.

Today, Yonge & Eglinton is its own Metropolis, sort of like Yonge & Sheppard, but perhaps less frenetic.

For years, people have sought out Yonge & St. Clair as they might not want a quieter, quainter alternative to Yonge & Eglinton.

But a few recent projects, both approved and in approval phases, are going to change the face of Yonge & St. Clair forever.

Let’s look the main residential buildings in the area just for context.

We’ll go oldest-to-newest, just for fun…

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61 & 63 St. Clair Avenue West

“Granite Place”

1979

18-Storeys

–

47 St. Clair Avenue West

“The Westclair”

1988

13-Storeys

–

40 Rosehill Avenue

“40 Rosehill Avenue Condos”

1988

15-Storeys

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5 Rosehill Avenue

“5 Rosehill”

1998

7-Storeys

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1 Balmoral Avenue

“One Balmoral”

1998

9-Storeys

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33 Delisle Avenue

“33 Delisle Avenue Condos”

2003

11-Storeys

–

10 Delisle Avenue

“The St. Clair”

2004

15-Storeys

–

48 St. Clair Avenue West

“Park Avenue”

2005

13-Storeys

–

55 Delisle Avenue

“The Carlyle”

2006

12-Storeys

–

60 St. Clair Avenue West

“60 St. Clair”

2007

14-Storeys

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1430 Yonge Street

“The Clairmont”

2008

14-Storeys

–

6 Jackes Avenue

“The Jack”

2021

11-Storeys

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Alright, so perhaps with photos, that was a bit long in the tooth, but you get the picture.

The first of the major condominiums in the area came along in 1979, aka the year before I was born, and the most recent is about 2-years-old now and looking pretty sharp!  Although, who doesn’t miss seeing “CHUM FM” on the east side of Yonge Street in huge letters?

If we look at the number of storeys, we see a low of seven and a high of eighteen.

What’s more interesting is that there are so many buildings in such a small range of heights:

7-Storeys
9-Storeys
11-Storeys
11-Storeys
12-Storeys
13-Storeys
13-Storeys
14-Storeys
14-Storeys
15-Storeys
15-Storeys
18-Storeys

This is why we always felt that Yonge & St. Clair was “quaint” when compared to something like Yonge & Eglinton, which is home to a multitude of 40, 50, and 60-storey condos, with a lot more on the way!

But if you’ve been following the development plans around the Yonge & St. Clair area like I have, you’ll undoubtedly have seen the signs for a posh new development called “One Delisle.”

One of anything is, for some odd reason, attractive.

Perhaps it’s like the gold medal or first place, I don’t know.

But 10 Delisle, 33 Delisle, and 55 Delisle can all eat their hearts out as they fawn over “One Delisle.”

Now, personally, I think this is ugly as hell, but I’m not an engineer nor am I in architecture, plus, my friends say I’m boring.  So what do I know?

But it looks like a cylindrical version of an upside-down pineapple:

You’re trying to picture a pineapple, aren’t you?

It’s some sort of fruit or vegetable that’s banging off the walls of my brain, but I’m not sure.

One Delisle was launched in mid-2021 and is slated for occupancy in 2026.

Prices are, from what I can gather, around $2,300/sqft in pre-construction, but those prices may have fluctuated with the market.

Parking spaces are a mere $160,000.

But it’s the height of this tower that I find interesting as it’s going to soar some 47-storeys high!

That’s a far cry from the thirteen towers we noted above that range from 7-storeys to 18-storeys.

However, this is not going to be the tallest building in the area.

Nope.

Those 47-Storeys were trumped pretty quickly by this tower which will be built at 1365 – 1375 Yonge Street (at Rosehill Ave), and will rise 50-Storeys:

See the small building in the foreground, on the right?

That’s 5 Rosehill Avenue.  A 1998-built condo, rising a mere 7-storeys.

For those residents in the area who don’t love the idea of a 50-storey condo, this has to be a lot tougher to swallow, given what this development was originally planned to be.

Are you ready for this?

A nursing home.

Yes.

A nursing home was scrapped in favour of a 50-storey condo, but the nursing home was “only” going to be 17-storeys, so I suppose it’s tough for any developer to give that up…

HERE is the City of Toronto zoning bylaw application amendment, dated November 16th, 2020.

An investment trust called “Welltower Inc” owned the site and had planned to build a total of 239 “bedsitting rooms” (123 assisted living and 116 memory care rooms) and an additional 5,000 square feet of
non-residential floor area.

The site was sold to three Toronto-based firms, Cameron Stephens Equity Capital, Originate Developments and Westdale Properties, which will all partner in the new development.

Next up, we have an entire redevelopment of the east side of Yonge Street, across from the site of “The One.”

Four buildings are slated for this project, at 47, 39, 27, and 13 storeys respectively:

This project is massive.

It encompasses all of 1481 through 1485 Yonge Street, plus 1 to 31 Heath Street East, 30 to 36 Alvin Avenue, and 26 St. Clair Avenue East.

HERE is the application on the City of Toronto’s website.

These buildings will encompass 1,361 new condominium units, a new park at the northwest corner of the site, and a courtyard privately owned publicly-accessible space

Not to be outdone, there is a another high-rise planned, although this one is only 39-storeys:

This will be called “The Hill” and is by Metropia, which was founded by the former CEO and founder of better-known Tribute Communities.

39-storeys, 406 units, and sales apparently starting this fall, but projects like this are tough to pinpoint.

Had enough yet?

I hope not!

Because there’s even more on the way!

Slate Asset Management controls all four corners of Yonge & St. Clair.

An application has been filed to build a 49-storey tower at 1 St. Clair Avenue west which would contain residential, office, and retail.

Here’s the rendering:

It’s pretty, I’ll give it that!

There’s not a lot of information just yet, and the website for the project simply links to a 2021 page from Urban Toronto, but you get the idea.

Slate Asset Management is going to have a huge hand in how this intersection looks as the next generation of Torontonians take roots, and personally, I don’t hate it.

There’s a subway stop at the intersection.  There’s a streetcar running west and a bus running east.  Yonge Street is literally and figuratively the “major artery” of the central core, and I think that every single 2-storey retail shop on Yonge Street, from Front Street all the way to Finch Avenue, is eventually going to have high-rises.

No, the neighbours in Rosedale, Summerhill, Chaplin Estates, Davisville Village, Allenby, Bedford Park, Sherwood Park, Lawrence Park, Teddington Park, et al might not like it, but it’s coming.

Don’t even get me started on The Danforth and how/when/why we’ll see high rises lining the street from Broadview eastward.

Density makes sense when it’s on a subway line in a city with one of the worst public transit systems of all comparable major cities across the planet.

Or should we still be NIMBY’ing our way to building 6-storey towers?

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