The long-neglected neighbourhood is rapidly being developed into a mixed-use development that will first house the Athlete’s Village for the Pan/Parapan American Games.
The busiest place in Toronto these days is a construction site on the east side of downtown, on lands that were largely ignored or used to store heavy equipment for years. Now it’s being developed into the future home of The Canary District, which will include 805 market condominiums, 28 townhomes and 12 loft units; top-tier retail space; 253 units of affordable housing with a broad range of housing types, including two-storey maisonettes and one- and two-storey apartments; George Brown College’s first student residence; and a YMCA complex housing a pool, gym, fitness centre and community facilities.
Before all that is complete, it will first be used temporarily as the Athletes’ Village for the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. During the games, the Athletes’ Village will host approximately 10,000 athletes and officials from 41 countries. Following the games, the permanent buildings comprising the village will be re-imagined as The Canary District.
Recently REM took part in a media tour to see how construction is progressing. Officials say that with the mild conditions last winter and favourable weather this summer, considerable construction progress has been made and the project is ahead of schedule. It includes road infrastructure work, redeveloping Cherry Street and Old Eastern Avenue. The YMCA and George Brown College buildings are the furthest along in their construction and are on track for topping off in spring 2013. The first market building, now on sale, is scheduled to have a crane erected onsite in December and another in January. Construction on the second market condominium building is also underway with a crane scheduled to be erected in November and another in December of this year. Mass excavation is underway.
A rendering of the neighbourhood park view. (Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team)
The project is being developed by Dundee Kilmer Developments and built by EllisDon Ledcor. To ensure esthetic diversity, teams from four architecture firms – architectsAlliance, KPMB, Daoust Lestage and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller – were commissioned.
The new neighbourhood occupies 35 acres of land adjacent to the new 18-acre Don River Park.
The Canary District name comes from the Canary Restaurant, which was on the corner of Front Street East and Cherry Street from the mid-1960s to 2007. The building itself dates back to 1859 and took on several forms over the years, starting as the Palace Street School. It later took on a new life as the Cherry Street Hotel, before eventually becoming the Canary Restaurant. The building is being preserved but its end-use has not yet been determined.
The Canary District’s main street, Front Street East, will have 40,000 square feet of retail space housed on the ground floors of its residential buildings, with public art and pedestrian-friendly mews and courtyards.
Planning for the area’s redevelopment began in 2001 and has involved a wide range of stakeholders, including The City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto, Infrastructure Ontario and local community groups, the developers say.
