Eight years after then-mayor John Tory proposed a bold vision to deck over Toronto’s Union Station rail corridor and create a new downtown park spanning the rail corridor from Bathurst Street to Blue Jays Way, the plan has morphed into a watered-down version of this once-grand plan, instead allocating much of this space to tall condo towers.
What was once the vision for Rail Deck Park has become Rail Deck Development following protracted legal and provincial appeals processes over ownership of air rights, and the proposal has only grown denser as it works its way through the planning and approvals process.
The latest version, which was filed with city planners in September, proposes even more residential density than before — now calling for nine towers as tall as 72 storeys and 7,900 units (increasing by over 1,700 units) on the 17-acre site.
The plan is being advanced by a partnership of LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada and Fengate Asset Management.
First proposed by CRAFT Acquisitions Corp in competition with the City-led Rail Deck Park plan in 2017, a plan to build a scaled-down version of the park with tall towers occupying the northern edge of the site has evolved over the years.
Initially planned with eight towers as high as 59 storeys, the current plan envisions nine towers with heights of 72, 68, 65, 63, 61, 58, 45, 40 and 36 storeys, featuring designs by Sweeny &Co Architects.
The towers are to contain a mix of condos, market-rate rental units, and a 210-suite hotel. Plans also call for a new City-run community centre to be built into the new high-rise neighbourhood.
The tallest towers in the scheme would be centred around the Spadina and Front intersection, with heights tapering down from the corner on blocks to the east and west.
Over 8.6 acres of potential parkland could eventually be built at this site, with the developer expected to fund a “Priority Park Area” for which talks with the City are ongoing.
The City could potentially enlarge this space with east and west extensions that would arch over additional portions of the rail corridor and connect with developer-funded, privately-owned public spaces that will be built into each block of the community.
With these public spaces all combined, the current vision for Rail Deck Park would span approximately 600 metres, growing to over 850 metres in length when factoring in the privately-owned public spaces.
