Plans for a proposed mixed-use building at 2323 Yonge Street, close to Yonge and Eglinton, have been revised, partially as a result of “the heightened housing crisis,” according to a site plan approval application submitted to the City last month.
The 0.19-hectare property at 2323–2329 Yonge St. is located at the northeast corner of Yonge Street and Roehampton Avenue, and is currently home to a beautiful concrete-form office building that will be torn down. It currently features an eight-storey office building with ground floor retail at 2323 Yonge St. and a single-storey commercial building (a Dollarama) at 2329 Yonge St..
In 2022, City Council approved the redevelopment of the site with a 34-storey mixed-use building containing a total of 30,600 square metres of gross floor area, a maximum of 23,900 square metres of residential gross floor area, and a minimum non-residential gross floor area of 6,700 square metres (5,295 square metres of which was to be used for office use).
However, according to the revised Site Plan Approval Application submitted to the city on June 17, the project developer — Phoenix 2323 Yonge Street Inc, owned by Riocan Real Estate Investment Trust — is seeking approval of a new zoning by-law amendment and revised official plan amendment and site plan applications for the site “[a]s a result of evolving policy considerations, the heightened housing crisis, changes in the nature of office work, together with contextual changes to the distribution of building heights within the urban structure of the Yonge-Eglinton Centre”.
The updated proposal states they’d like to redevelop the site with a 58-storey mixed-use building, designed by architects Dialog, at a height of 190.8 metres. The proposed building will include about 998 square metres of retail space and 45,877 square metres of residential gross floor area, including 750 dwelling units (double the number of units originally proposed), six elevators, as well as two levels of underground parking (50 vehicle spaces, 12 of which will be for electric vehicles), and 750 long- and short-term bike spaces.
The draft official plan amendment also states that the development of the site may be permitted without replacing the existing office gross floor area, “provided that such redevelopment includes a minimum of 3,117 square metres of gross floor area” dedicated to a combination of non-residential uses and affordable housing.
The office space might not be as big a priority considering that, in recent years, the return to in-person work has taken on the form of hybrid arrangements.
“In our opinion, as outlined in our Planning Rationale, the proposal is consistent with the planning framework established in the Provincial Policy Statement (the “PPS”), conforms to the policies of A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (the “Growth Plan”), the City of Toronto Official Plan (the “Official Plan”), as well as the Yonge-Eglinton Secondary Plan (the “YongeEglinton Secondary Plan”) and has regard for the applicable urban design guidelines,” the application reads.
