What do New York City’s Hudson Yards, Chicago’s Millennium Park, and Paris’s Rive Gauche have in common? They’re all built directly on top of active railway lines. And Toronto has fresh plans to do the same – this time, as a brand-new mixed-use community rather than a standalone park.
For years, what to do with the airspace above the Union Station rail corridor has been a hot topic. Former Toronto mayor John Tory famously proposed Rail Deck Park – a 21-acre green space with a $1.7 billion price tag – back in 2016. Now, following several years of planning and ownership consolidation, the LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada and master developer Fengate Asset Management have unveiled reworked plans for an entire mixed-use community called Toronto Rail Yards.
Sitting above the north side of the rail corridor between Bathurst Street and Spadina Avenue, the elevated 14-acre community will feature 4000 homes, office space, 50,000 sq. ft of retail, two childcare centres, and a large public green space. At the heart of the community is a two-acre public realm featuring greenery, public art, play structures, seating areas, cycling routes, and community gathering spaces that will house everything from farmers markets to festivals and performances.
In total, the project would comprise approximately seven million sq. ft of development across eight towers – one office tower and seven residential buildings. The entire community will sit on a six-acre platform deck above the rail corridor.
According to Fengate, the scale of the project allows it to function as a complete neighbourhood, rather than a standalone development. "This is, for us, a really transformational project in the heart of downtown Toronto," said Jordana Ross, Vice President of Development at Fengate. "It's essentially going to transform unused air rights over the rail corridor into a dynamic, genuinely mixed-use community."
With walkability front and centre (there are no parking spaces), Toronto Rail Yards is designed as a transit-oriented community. It will connect directly to the future Spadina-Front GO station below, one stop from Union Station and within walking distance of the Financial District, Entertainment District, CityPlace, and The Well.
The housing will feature a range of unit sizes to accommodate varying demographics and lifestyles, says Ross. Currently, approximately 27% of the proposed units are planned as two- and three-bedroom homes geared toward families, although the final unit mix will evolve as the project progresses through planning and development.
A major focus of the proposal is the public realm, with landscaped connections linking Front Street to the deck above. Ross says those improvements could dramatically change a stretch of Front Street that currently lacks even a sidewalk. "Right now it's essentially a chain-link fence and an embankment down to the rail corridor," she said. "We're looking forward to really improving that condition."
While comparisons to New York's Hudson Yards are inevitable, Fengate says the project has been shaped by Toronto's unique context. "We're really proud of this being a Toronto-born project," said Ross, pointing to the complexity of coordinating with Metrolinx and integrating the future GO expansion plans.
The latest vision is more focused than earlier concepts for decking over the corridor. Portions above the active rail lines have been left undeveloped to accommodate future GO Expansion infrastructure and provide flexibility as Metrolinx advances planning for the Spadina-Front GO station. The result is a six-acre development platform north of the active tracks that still delivers approximately seven million sq. ft of mixed-use density.
Naturally, constructing an entire community above the active rail corridor is no easy engineering feat. Site preparation isn’t scheduled to start until 2028, and the deck alone will take three-and-a-half years to construct. If built as proposed, Toronto Rail Yards would generate significant economic activity: project materials estimate up to 4,600 construction jobs and approximately $1.5 billion in labour income over the course of development.
"It's a big, ambitious city-building move," said Ross. "There aren't many sites of this scale left in downtown Toronto anymore."
