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Menkes Developments is looking for notable changes with a minor variance application to Toronto's Committee of Adjustment for Sugar Wharf Condominiums Phase 2. Planned on the former LCBO headquarters site in the East Bayfront, the project designed by architects—Alliance — the three closely-built, white-slatted towers just to the right of centre of the image below — will no longer look as rendered should the application be approved.
The site, addressed to 55 Lake Shore Boulevard East, runs south to Queens Quay East between Freeland and Cooper streets, and spans 12,656m². As can be seen in an earlier site plan covering all four blocks of the larger Sugar Wharf site below, across the middle of the site, a new street is being built, an extension of Harbour Street east of Yonge, but with the name now changed to Downes Street. South of Downes Street the site will mostly become a new neighbourhood park. (Despite the detail in the early overall site plan below, the park has not been designed yet.)
With the two eastern quadrants of the overall development completed, it's the northwest quadrant of the site with which this planning application is concerned. Cleared other than for some walls of the former LCBO buildings, as per the image below, preserved heritage walls remain held aloft along the north and west edges of the block. The plan has always been to incorporate the walls into the redevelopment, and they would continue to be through the Minor Variance application, it's just that the location of the towers and use of spaces of the redevelopment behind those walls have now been completely rethought.
The original plan for this block was for three towers rising a pair of podiums, with the northern two towers bridging across the two podiums. The north podium (built behind the walls of the former LCBO office building) was to mostly provide lobby space for the two north towers along with affordable housing suites. The much larger south podium was to feature one tower rising from midway along its south side, plus significant retail space on the ground and second floors, and a new public school mostly on the third floor. The northern two towers had a 30 metre gap between them, while the south tower was offset between them by 25 metres at its closest points.
Toronto's PATH system would have connected through the second floor of the south podium, bridging across Freeland Street from the Pinnacle One Yonge development to the west, and then dropping two storeys within the east end of the podium to cross under Cooper Street to the Sugar Wharf Phase 1 buildings.
In the new plan, seen below, the north podium becomes a separate building, entirely made up of the public school plus daycare facilities, behind the heritage walls. With its own Toronto District Board of Education funding, the school could be built without waiting for the rest of the development proceeding.
The towers would now all rise on the southern two thirds of the block, each wedge-shaped, and separated by 25 metres of space. They would rise out of the ground, with individual podiums attached to parts of the east and west towers, but with open space at ground level between them, allowing people to walk through the site, notably students who could walk from the school, between the towers to the future park on the block south of Downes Street. The gaps between the towers would have a glass canopy over parts of them to shelter them from the elements, while the PATH connection would bridge over the walkways and link the three towers, while still connecting to Pinnacle One Yonge to the west over Freeland Street, and Sugar Wharf Phase 1 under Cooper Street.
The residential towers, originally slated to stand 79 (260m), 87 (290m), and 90 (299m) storeys, have been scaled back to 70 (238.7m), 78 (262.6m), and 85 (283.6m) storeys. From a previous tally of 2,705 units including 196 affordable rentals, the current proposal now features 2,640 market condominium units with a decrease to 188 affordable units, due to the decrease in tower heights and Gross Floor Area (GFA).
The total Gross Floor Area (GFA) has been adjusted to 182,806m², with significantly less retail space at 1,285m², all of it at ground level facing Downes Street, in response to reduced demand for in-store shopping. The total Floor Space Index (FSI) for the site would now be 14. The outdoor residential amenity area, initially planned atop the south podium, would now span 2,158m² across accessible rooftop areas of the towers' podiums, while 3,442m² of indoor amenities would be found on the second and third floors of the towers.
There would be eight elevators in the 70-storey east tower for 790 units, or one elevator per 99 units, indicating reasonable wait times. There would be eight elevators in the 78-storey west tower for 882 units, or one elevator per 110 units, indicating longer wait times. There would be seven elevators in the 85-storey south tower for 968 units, or one elevator for every 138 units, indicating much longer wait times.
Below ground, three levels of underground garage would offer 389 resident parking spaces, none for visitors, but 21 for non-residential use. This would be complemented by bicycle parking facilities with 2,376 long-term and 264 short-term spaces, along with 10 additional spots designated for commercial use.
Situated a 15-minute walk east from Union station, the site is surrounded by projects and proposals that are all generally tall. The 64 and 70-storey towers of Sugar Wharf Phase 1 stand completed to the east. Directly to the west, Pinnacle One Yonge is at various stages; its first phase 65-storey is complete, its 105-storey second phase — to be Canada's tallest building — is under construction, while its 92-storey third phase is approved but not yet in sales. To the southwest, the Pinnacle One commercial complex originally proposed heights of 24 and 40 storeys including a hotel, but a tall residential rethink of that site is underway following the post-pandemic drop in demand for office space. To the south, Pier 27's Phase 3 calls for 11 and 45 storeys. North of the Gardiner Expressway and the Union Station Rail Corridor, 45 The Esplanade is proposed at 39 storeys.
The application to the Committee of Adjustment for Sugar Wharf Phase 2 was submitted over the last week of August and first two weeks of September, 2024, with a hearing date yet to be scheduled. No renderings of the exteriors of the redesigned development have been released at this point, and sales have not started for this phase.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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