(London) 323 Oxford St W (Esam Group/Sam Katz Holdings Inc., 24s, Matter Architectural Studio)

[ericmacm]

A large-scale development of a vacant piece of farmland located at 323 Oxford Street West in London adjacent to the Cherry Hill and Sugar Creek communities. This is still in the very early stages, but high-density development is planned with preliminary documents showing 15 towers with maximum heights of 16s with 8-10s podiums, with additional mid-rises and townhouses across other parts of the property. Large amounts of forested area and park land will be retained, and a reconstructed and re-naturalized Mud Creek will also run throughout the community. Road connections are planned for Westfield Drive in the Cherry Hill community to the east, and for Beaverbrook Drive at both the Sugar Creek community to the south and the Cherry Ridge community to the west.

Mud Creek revitalization work south of this property from Wonderland to Oxford is already in-progress as a separate project. This work is intended to solve stormwater drainage issues that affect the area, which is being achieved by re-naturalizing the existing creek channel, digging out sediment, and installing new culverts and drainage tunnels. Once the work is complete next year, it sounds like preliminary work (land clearing, realignment of Mud Creek north of Oxford, servicing, etc.) can begin.

I hope that the City of London finally pulls their heads out of the sand and builds the West BRT leg to Oxford/Wonderland - the area already needs it and a large scale development like this will make things even busier.

 

[ericmacm]

New updated document regarding this planned community. There have been some minor adjustments to the subdivision blocks and height distribution, but this is still going to be a massive community that will bring a huge amount of new housing to Oxford/Wonderland area. Heights have generally also been increased, with the tallest planned towers now at 24s. The first phase will consist of Block 1 (highrise), Block 3 (midrise), Block 4 (townhouse), and Block 15 (open space). The tallest towers will be located along Oxford and will gradually step back away from the road. The Mud Creek Rehabilitation project is also well underway at this time and is key in allowing this development to happen. This document includes changes to the subdivision plan, the updated phasing plan, some site plans for the blocks in the first phase, as well as some preliminary renders.

 

[rdaner]

Thanks! A quick map search shows that this is not all that far from downtown. Am I right?

 

[ericmacm]

Thanks! A quick map search shows that this is not all that far from downtown. Am I right?

It is very close to downtown. I currently live in this area and it is only a 5 min drive downtown.

 

[EnviroTO]

I wonder what would get Esam looking at developing this now? They have held these lands for over half a century and other than the Cherryhill Apartments and one tower on Proudfoot built over 30 years ago I don't think they have done anything substantial since (other than cheap retail).

 

[ericmacm]

I wonder what would get Esam looking at developing this now? They have held these lands for over half a century and other than the Cherryhill Apartments and one tower on Proudfoot built over 30 years ago I don't think they have done anything substantial since (other than cheap retail).

It’s hard to say - they initially filed the subdivision plan in the 1990s but didn’t do anything with it until now. They have owned and developed the entire commercial plaza on the northeast corner of Oxford/Wonderland as well as the GoodLife/Fit4Less and Fleetway commercial plaza. They also sold Cherry Hill Village to Minto for $215M in 2011, so their only holdings appear to be commercial and vacant land at this time.

I suspect that they’ve just been accumulating cash and waiting for the right time. Rent is also crazy high in London right now so that might also be another incentive to finally get this development going.

 

[rdaner]

3800 units on a site not far from London’s central area.

Builder plans 18 highrises, 3,800 units to reshape part of northwest London

Local builder is planning a massive 3,817-unit development made up of 51 buildings in west London, one of the largest in memory.

lfpress.com

 

[ericmacm]

Mud Creek Phase 2A and 2B is anticipated to start this spring and allow this development to finally happen. The development itself is slated to go before the planning committee in June.