Plans have been filed with the City of Toronto to redevelop a South Eglinton-Davisville heritage building with a 45-storey mixed-use rental apartment building that would deliver 517 new housing units and retail at grade. The plans come from Toronto-based developer Graywood Developments, who submitted Zoning By-Law Amendment, Official Plan Amendment, and Site Plan Control applications in mid-March that are currently pending review.
Located at 170 and 180 Merton St., the development site sits just north of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery between Yonge St. and Mount Pleasant Rd. Currently, the lot is occupied by the former Visiting Homemakers Association building designed by Leslie Rebanks. The historic building was constructed in 1969 at two-and-a-half storeys and received its heritage designation in October 2019.
Finalized plans were drafted after extensive consultation with community members and associations between December 2024 and March, including the board members from the nearby Geneva Centre for Autism and the South Eglinton Davisville Residents’ Association.
Envisioned for the site is an architecturally distinct tower that will partially retain the existing heritage building's front and side facades, in-situ, to be reused as a lobby space. Additionally, the existing terrace fronting Merton St. is proposed to serve as an outdoor amenity area.
The historic facade would be apart of the building's four-storey base, elevating the design with its white brick façade and the “castle-like” octagonal massing at the southwest corner, according to Graywood's planning rationale.
Early photo of the Visiting Homemakers Association building/City of Toronto
170 Merton St. today/Google Maps
Rendering showing retained heritage structure/Turner Fleischer Architects
Rendering showing retained heritage structure/Turner Fleischer Architects
Designs from Turner Fleischer Architects marry the geometric look of the heritage building with an eye-catching, jutting block-like design along the base of the building that then transitions into a more uniform tower featuring distinctive copper siding elements.
At grade alongside the terrace amenity area and residential lobby would be 3,003 sq. ft of retail space and an additional outdoor amenity space along the back edge of the building offering a pet relief area and several dining and lounging areas, totalling 3,951 sq. ft of outdoor amenity space at the ground level. The development also offers a generous amount of outdoor space throughout, with a 3,359-sq.-ft amenity terrace located on level two and another 1,441-sq.-ft terrace on level five.
Indoor amenity spaces would be found connecting to outdoor amenity spaces on levels two and five, totalling 11,132 sq. ft of indoor amenity space. In the tower above, the 517 rental units would be divided into 299 one-bedrooms, 165 two-bedrooms, and 53 three-bedrooms.
Also available to residents would be 24 resident vehicle parking spaces, eight visitor spaces, and two pick-up-drop-off (PUDO) spaces, as well as 583 bicycle spaces, 104 of which would be short-term and 10 of which would be publicly accessible.
For those looking to take advantage of public transit, the development would be located in close proximity to a number of options, and would be a seven- to eight-minute walk southeast of Davisville Station on the Line 1 Yonge-University subway, just over a kilometre south of the future Mount Pleasant LRT station, and within walking distance of several surface transit stops.
If approved and once complete, 170 and 180 Merton St. will bring life back into a unique heritage building with substantial new rental housing in an area of the city that enjoys superb connectivity to public transit.
170 and 180 Merton St./Turner Fleischer Architects
170 and 180 Merton St./Turner Fleischer Architects
170 and 180 Merton St./Turner Fleischer Architects
170 and 180 Merton St./Turner Fleischer Architects
