Toronto East Harbour | 214.2m | 65s | Cadillac Fairview | Adamson

[Lenser]

To have a building of that height on the east side of the Don would definitely be an historic precedent.... it would amount to a huge change to the area. I'm not opposed to it, mind you. Just the scale of this looming development is mind-boggling.

 

[Deadpool X]

Yes. There is shadowing impacts in the area based on the residential to the north. I believe the max height is around the 250-260m range depending on the building location on the site. Pretty tall for not being downtown.

Yeah, anything over 200 m would be good for this parcel.

 

[afransen]

One would think that that residential being shadowed might also be facing redevelopment pressure when OL is built.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I'm not terribly opposed to the initial phases being all commercial/office.

I'm convinced that once this important node is under construction, that the entirety of land between Lake Shore and Eastern Avenue from the Don to Leslie will face substantial residential development pressure. That there will be your residential. Anchored by the employment and entertainment node at East Harbour.

(not even mentioning the residential that will be built concurrently in the Portlands and Lower Don Lands)

 

[JasonParis]

times notwithstanding).... seems to be a pretty sure bet.

I do think getting the East Harbour GO stop to built very quickly will accelerate interest as well. I'm not sure how its timeline works vis-à-vis initial office construction though.

Just a thought, but was a Richmond Hill stop ever considered in the area too? It's so close that you could conceivably have three GO lines feeding into the East Harbour area.

 

[ADRM]

Honest question, are there precedents for lively after-hours office/entertainment districts with no residential component? All the examples I can think of have at least some on-site residential.

I think it sorta depends on how you define "district." There are a few pockets of high-density office-only districts in both London and NYC (the two I know best off-hand because I've lived in both, not necessarily the only two cities with examples). In the former, three come to mind: a couple distinct clusters in the City where it's basically exclusively pubs and restaurants that very successfully animate the district post-work, and also in the new office cluster around Victoria Station (which again is animated mostly by bars and restaurants, but also by a very popular theatre).

In NYC, obviously there's now lots of residential in the financial district writ large, but there's a distinct (almost) office-only cluster that starts pretty much at the WTC and extends westward to Brookfield Place. In those cases, you again have a bunch of restaurants and food courts, but also a mall and a couple extremely well visited tourist sites that provide excellent animation.

The common thread through those examples is of course a mix of uses that does not include residential (at least at any real scale) but is genuinely attractive enough to make the place sticky, and is relatively proximate to residential outside the cluster itself. The latter is sort of true here -- there's not much density in the adjacent SFHs, but some of the mid-rises coming online/in the pipeline will help a bit -- so I think they've really just gotta nail the former.

 

[smably]

The common thread through those examples is of course a mix of uses that does not include residential (at least at any real scale) but is genuinely attractive enough to make the place sticky, and is relatively proximate to residential outside the cluster itself. The latter is sort of true here -- there's not much density in the adjacent SFHs, but some of the mid-rises coming online/in the pipeline will help a bit -- so I think they've really just gotta nail the former.

True, there's probably some significant residential density coming south of Lake Shore as the Port Lands develop. Lake Shore as it exists right now is a big barrier (in terms of distance between pedestrian crossings, signal timing, width, general anti-urbanity), but hopefully there's some appetite for a redesign as the Port Lands planning advances, allowing developments on the north and south to be integrated better.

 

[Deadpool X]

I do think getting the East Harbour GO stop to built very quickly will accelerate interest as well. I'm not sure how its timeline works vis-à-vis initial office construction though.

Just a thought, but was a Richmond Hill stop ever considered in the area too? It's so close that you could conceivably have three GO lines feeding into the East Harbour area.

Richmond Hill line has the lowest ridership of all lines and it's not going to change much in the next few decades. I doubt it will add significantly value here. Also, that line is super slow. Making it even slower is not going to go well with the commuters.

 

[JasonParis]

Yes, but seemingly some would eventually be commuting to East Harbour anyway. There's even some talk of the MTCC moving there eventually too. So I don'tsee an allocation for a potential RH stop completely out of the cards.

 

[Northern Light]

GO Richmond Hill is on the wrong side of the river for a station to be useful here. (at its closest, about 200M from nearest corner of East Harbour; and that would only be true if a platform went in on that curve, which is highly improbable. Likely closer to 300M away at closest.

Even if you could shoehorn one in.

I'm not personally aware of any station having been considered on that line in relation to this development.

In the past, a station was considered for Cherry Street, but to my knowledge is on no one's list today as that 'spot' has really been occupied by East Harbour.

There has been some musing about restoring a Queen Station on the R-H line; but the general consensus as I recall was that it would only work if Bayview were closed.

So while anything is possible, I would suggest an R-H stop serving East Harbour is quite unlikely.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

It's also important to keep in mind that Richmond Hill GO carries just 10k per day pre-Covid.

The surface routes surrounding East Harbour carry significantly more. Enhancing integration of surface routes to East Harbour would have a way more worthwhile impact.

 

[ciceror]

when is this project likely to start construction?

 

[Northern Light]

when is this project likely to start construction?

There is no public answer to this question right now.

If there were, be sure, it would be posted here!

 

[sacred]

Are the grandiose plans for the sheltered transit hub actually likely to happen, or are they more like concept art? I find this project really inspiring but I don't want to get my hopes up too high

 

[tstormers]

Are the grandiose plans for the sheltered transit hub actually likely to happen, or are they more like concept art? I find this project really inspiring but I don't want to get my hopes up too high

They were definitely talks to cover it with First Gulf, but multiple options are on the table including just the typical GO Station canopies. Cadillac Fairview might change their mind, as they would be paying for a portion of it.