After years of stalled progress, it seems a mid-rise rental project planned for Toronto's Junction neighbourhood won't be moving forward at all as the property has now been listed for sale.
The owners of 2978-2988 Dundas Street West, located on the northwest corner of Dundas and Pacific Avenue, brought the property onto the market late last week with an asking price of $11,750,000. Although currently home to a two-storey mixed-use building, the listing notes the site comes with a "fully approved/zoned development with potential to rezone for additional density."
Those development plans for the site date back to 2014, when a seven-storey apartment building with 42 residential rental units was proposed by little-known HandCast Development Inc., according to a project website that has since been taken down. Other documents have identified the applicant as 2261293 Ontario Inc., while other reports list SharpWise Investments as the developer.
The for-sale site at 2978-2988 Dundas St W.(CBRE Limited, Brokerage)
By 2016, the plans were revised to incorporate adjoining properties at 406-408 Pacific Avenue, add another storey, and double the unit count to 84, with 892 sq. m of retail space proposed for the ground floor. The plans were resubmitted once again in 2018 with a new design that included more brick on the facade, and in July of that year, they were approved by Toronto City Council.
But not everyone was happy with the decision, namely the Junction Heritage Conservation District, who appealed the approval to the Land Planning Appeal Tribunal (now the Ontario Land Tribunal). They believed the proposed development was "not sympathetic to the character of the Junction neighbourhood" and was "aggressively modern."
But the developer, represented by attorney Joe Hoffman, argued that the brick design was intentionally chosen to help the building fit in with the existing neighbourhood. The appeal was ultimately denied by LPAT in December 2019 and the owners were free to go ahead and develop the property. But nothing ever came to fruition.
The property owners, through the realtor listing the site, declined STOREYS' request for comment.
Until another developer picks up the property and decides to move forward with construction, its likely that the Junction site will stay as-is. It's currently home to several commercial operations, including a barber shop, clothing store, Mexican restaurant, and arts market, with seven rental units up above.
