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I thought we had a thread for this site already, but if we do, I can't find it.

This is the 'Shops at Wilson Station' which were built by then BuildTO as a big box centre on a former TTC parking lot.

DowneDewdney has now registered to lobby on behalf of Manulife in respect of this site, which I gather the latter picked up from the City at some point.

Aerial View of site:

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Streetview:

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Site Size: ~1.8ha / 4.5ac

Comments: BuildTO erected this plaza as part of a strategy to monetize the land for sale; they had no intention of being a commercial landlord here, they simply didn't think the site would vend at an attractive price, in a timely way as it was.

I think many of us would feel this was a sub-optimal use of the land, to say the least, but it seems their strategy succeeded at what it set out to achieve.

Interesting that Manulife seems to have new ideas.

While the site could, in theory have a new life as industrial use, given its location, I'm inclined to imagine that the redevelopment of the Downsview Airport lands is putting this in play as mixed-use.

Currently, there is no residential in this area as far as Dufferin.(about 530M away).

But it's sitting right beside a subway station, there's already a condo going in at 3651 Dufferin (east side of the street), for which we have a thread here:

3621 Dufferin | 43m | 10s | Dymon | TACT

urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

I suspect this is going to be part of a domino-like conversion of all of Wilson in this area.

The sheer size of what's in play here, merits attention from @HousingNowTO ; when an MCR request comes here, it needs to come with a material offer of affordable rental housing.
 
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I walked by this recently - from Wilson station westbound towards Dufferin. The site has a really complicated relationship to Wilson - there is a bit of a grade separation between the sidewalk and the current plaza that makes it difficult to access as a pedestrian. I wanted a Starbucks and had to go up a desire line that had formed because others clearly have issues getting from the sidewalk to the stores above without looping around via the main entrance. It also increases in height as you approach the Allen road on ramp / subway bridge.

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There is an entrance to Wilson station in the plaza tucked behind the easternmost building but again, v difficult to access and hidden.

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DavidCapizzano said:
I walked by this recently - from Wilson station westbound towards Dufferin. The site has a really complicated relationship to Wilson - there is a bit of a grade separation between the sidewalk and the current plaza that makes it difficult to access as a pedestrian. I wanted a Starbucks and had to go up a desire line that had formed because others clearly have issues getting from the sidewalk to the stores above without looping around via the main entrance. It also increases in height as you approach the Allen road on ramp / subway bridge.
Click to expand...

Yeah, not ideal, there are a couple of ways of addressing this; the most likely is to simply create a slightly more aggressive ramped sidewalk, as an option (not instead of) the existing one to get you to grade more quickly, or to add a set of stairs. Then you just have to try to make the sidewalk a bit more hospitable. That would be done via widening, streetscaping and pedestrian lighting, but it won't entirely mitigate either the grade separation or the highway-like vibe of Wilson there.

There are two alternative concepts I can envision.

The first simply creates an indoor entrance to what this site will be, at the current sidewalk level nearest to Wilson Station, and within said entrance you have an elevator and stairs/escalator up to the grade-level of the site.

A second option would to be actually place some retail down at sidewalk level. For the most part, I don't think this would do all that well and probably isn't viable..........but I can imagine a scenario where you have a grocery store mostly below grade with a second access from the higher grade level here; or one in which the grocer is up top, but a coffee bar down below.

DavidCapizzano said:
There is an entrance to Wilson station in the plaza tucked behind the easternmost building but again, v difficult to access and hidden.
Click to expand...

Is that ever hidden. 100% requires a re-think if a development here creates the opportunity to do so.

I want to see that as an indoor, (weather protected) entrance/exit, with highly visible access to the existing site and down to Wilson.
 
IIRC we had a thread for this back when the plaza was built - anyone want to bother digging that up and merging the threads?
 
Wow. I never would've expected this area to see 40+ floor towers, but that's based on my experiences in the area over twenty odd years. It's great to see these suburban artery roads transforming, but there certainly needs to be some infrastructure changes made here, to maje this area more trandit accessible, and at least somewhat pedestrian friiendly.
 
Would be the perfect gateway to the Wilson district in the Downsview development... I think it's going to be a few of many clusters of high rises in this area. Plus so nice to say goodbye to that Calgary-style strip plaza. Yuck.
 
I'm increasingly convinced @Lachlan Holmes only pops in every few weeks to scoop me. LOL

***

Standard note.............you heard about this site being in play back in Sept '23........UT... a solid 18 months before the application was filed/made public.

***

Let's see what Lachlan didn't post that might be of interest.

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**

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Landscape Plan:

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Oooh, this is interesting:

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@HousingNowTO will want in on this one....high density, MTSA, and trying to squirm out of the affordable housing requirements in the SASP.
 
The City has no mechanism to enforce inclusionary zoning provisions so the SASP doesn't matter.

That is until the MMAH gets around to approving it's PMTSA policies, which have been "under review" for like 3 years now.

Interesting to see the MTO setback wrapped around along the Allen - a City-owned expressway which does not require 14m setbacks. I don't believe MTO owns the entire interchange..
 
innsertnamehere said:
The City has no mechanism to enforce inclusionary zoning provisions so the SASP doesn't matter.

That is until the MMAH gets around to approving it's PMTSA policies, which have been "under review" for like 3 years now.
Click to expand...

No question that you're technically correct on the above. But I would note that there have been varying degrees of voluntary compliance from many applicants.

Its always possible that an application which is insufficient in its community mindedness could be meet with some unanticipated obstacles....

innsertnamehere said:
Interesting to see the MTO setback wrapped around along the Allen - a City-owned expressway which does not require 14m setbacks. I don't believe MTO owns the entire interchange..
Click to expand...

Here's the MTO control/permit zone for the area:

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You can find these here: https://www.hcms.mto.gov.on.ca/PermitsControlledArea
 
GenerationLee said:
Wow. I never would've expected this area to see 40+ floor towers, but that's based on my experiences in the area over twenty odd years. It's great to see these suburban artery roads transforming, but there certainly needs to be some infrastructure changes made here, to maje this area more trandit accessible, and at least somewhat pedestrian friiendly.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Billy Bishop Way and Wilson (and Transit Rd.) are already severely backed up with in-and-out traffic from the Stupid Centres®, so adding 2,000 residential parking spaces sounds like a nightmare in the making. There will need to be a reconfiguration of existing or addition of new roads for it to be feasible. The problem is that the property is hemmed in on two sides by the Allen and the 401.
 
Strange Advance said:
Agreed. Billy Bishop Way and Wilson (and Transit Rd.) are already severely backed up with in-and-out traffic from the Stupid Centres®, so adding 2,000 residential parking spaces sounds like a nightmare in the making. There will need to be a reconfiguration of existing or addition of new roads for it to be feasible. The problem is that the property is hemmed in on two sides by the Allen and the 401.
Click to expand...
Where do you see an additional 2,000 parking spaces? Looks like a total of 911 spaces, which would of course replace the existing surface parking.

You won't see any construction starting here before 2038/2039. The majority of the tenants in the plaza have lease terms and extensions totalling 20 years.
 
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