[Northern Light]

Morguard has registered to lobby the City of Toronto on behalf of the owner, who I would take to be Riocan to explore redevelopment options for this shopping centre at 3003 Danforth Avenue (running west from Victoria Park)

First the entry on the registry, then a bit of discussion:

This is a large site:

Size: ~ 8 hectares/20 acres

The core building, on the left side of the plaza w/the white roof is the original mall/factory (It was Ford Motor Company before they decamped to Oakville)

I don't believe there is any residual heritage to the building which has been gutted more than once in the intervening decades.

The plaza/mall is a good revenue producer, pretty close to fully leased; though I suspect the Lowes may not be long for the world as it's pretty quite much of the time.

But the Metro is a flagship, high-performance store for that company.

That said, you could replace every ft2 of retail fairly easily while dotting the site with a fairly large number of towers. I think this site's potential is quite comparable to Galleria in the west end.

Easy walking distance to Line 2; and height precedents at Dawes and west, as well as in Crescent Town that suggest 30s+ is an easy sell and 45 well within reach.

I believe there might be justification to support a new school here, and probably combo the school yard with significant park.

Some of the site area would be lost to an internal road grid, but we're still talking thousands of units.

****

Site as it is today: (per streetview)

 

[cd concept]

What a huge parcel of land in this city to develope on lol!

 

[innsertnamehere]

Notably, this is the location of the first Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada, originally named after the plaza itself ("Shopper's" World; "Shopper's" Drug Mart).

The plaza was also first built as a manufacturing plant for Ford Motor Company in 1921, being converted into one of the first enclosed shopping centres in Canada in 1962. This is why the building has an unusual roof line, much of the mall is actually more than a century old.

 

[milkycontent]

Gonna miss this stretch of the Danforth. The Toronto we love is disappearing before our eyes...

 

[afransen]

Gonna miss this stretch of the Danforth. The Toronto we love is disappearing before our eyes...

View attachment 449506

 

[Lenser]

It's a dowdy old mall and most of its admittedly interesting history has been erased. Glad to hear it's in play.

 

[ShonTron]

After Ford left, American Motors took over the plant, before leaving for Brampton in the early 1960s. Peel-Elder, the developer of Peel Village in Brampton and the three Shoppers World malls (Brampton, Danforth, and Albion), had a land-swap with AMC, offering the Steeles/Kennedy location (now a Walmart) in return for taking over the Danforth lands and redeveloping it as SWD.

 

[junctionist]

With industrial conversions/renovations, the original facade is often still there beneath at least one layer of "modern" cladding tacked onto the original facade. That should definitely be investigated here before writing off the heritage preservation value. The layers can be peeled off, and the original facade can be restored.

 

[Northern Light]

With industrial conversions/renovations, the original facade is often still there beneath at least one layer of "modern" cladding tacked onto the original facade. That should definitely be investigated here before writing off the heritage preservation value because the layers can be peeled off and the original facade restored.

You made me look, to see how it appeared, when it was a Ford Plant.........found a pic, via the Facebook group, Vintage Toronto:

Original Copyright: Ford Canada
Source: https://www.facebook.com/VintageTor...o-oakville-photo-courtesy-fo/843668095703176/

 

[Lenser]

That's mos def a very classic retro-industrial look, especially that undulating, angular roofline. But is it still there, underneath a more modern exterior? I rather doubt it.

 

[Northern Light]

That's mos def a very classic retro-industrial look, especially that undulating, angular roofline. But is it still there, underneath a more modern exterior? I rather doubt it.

I don't know if it's still there at all.

My best guess though, is that the upper level brick pattern, above window level is there, since it's clearly been over-clad. I don't see why you would remove it in that context. However, depending on how the over-cladding is affixed, it may not restorable, assuming it's there at all.

The windows were definitely filled in entirely, at least there's no external evidence or internal evidence I've seen of their retention, so I feel that's the safe bet.

The original factory actually sits on a relatively small portion of the site (mostly Lowe's today). Might be worth restoring/recreating some of the original with towers in behind.

 

[Lenser]

Agreed. A bit of history ain't such a bad thing. I enjoy seeing the contrast between old/vanishing and contemporary architectural styles.

 

[whatever]

There's not much of the original under there:

From here.

 

[tstormers]

Notably, this is the location of the first Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada, originally named after the plaza itself ("Shopper's" World; "Shopper's" Drug Mart).

The plaza was also first built as a manufacturing plant for Ford Motor Company in 1921, being converted into one of the first enclosed shopping centres in Canada in 1962. This is why the building has an unusual roof line, much of the mall is actually more than a century old.

Wonder if there will be any push for heritage preservation, even if you can't notice much currently.

 

[Northern Light]

There's not much of the original under there:

From here.

You know, it's not much, but it's not bad either. Spec quality heritage-style windows w/jet black panes, set back anything new just a a couple of meters behind the heritage top, and have the podium offer a strong visual contrast in the same black as the windows, with maybe just one of the 2 brick colours from the original to add warmth as focal points over a main entrance or the like.