It was a productive day at CreateTO’s June 19 board meeting, with multiple adoptions of Housing Now proposals including a recommendation that will bring a Victoria Park Housing Now development one step closer to completion.

The site up for discussion was 777 Victoria Park Ave, a Housing Now mixed-use development set to include 705 new rental homes, including 256 affordable rental units and 449 rent-controlled market homes. The development will also connect Victoria Park Station to the Danforth. Currently, the lot is home to a TTC bus terminal and a commuter parking lot.

On January 27, 2020, CreateTO’s Board of Directors approved the proponent selection for the development of the 777 Victoria Park site. Since then, the proponent has been working to move plans forward, including getting their Site Plan approved, advancing design plans, and securing the relocation of a TCC PUDO (Pick-Up-Drop-Off) from the 777 Address to 781 Victoria, just north of the site.

But due to economic factors arising at the end of 2021, the proponents' plans were halted, along with other Phase 1 Housing Now projects, including 50 Wilson Heights Avenue and 5207 Dundas Street West. Last May, City Council adopted an approach “that responds to the changes in the development and financing markets over the past two years and ensures the delivery of affordable housing units for the Housing Now projects,” according to the report for action from the CEO of CreateTO. The “confidential” approach is helping to realign the Wilson Heights and Dundas developments.

Now, a similar approach, outlined in another “confidential attachment” has been proposed and adopted to help “ensure [777 Victoria Park’s] viability and delivery of 256 affordable housing units,” according to meeting records. "CreateTO will collaborate with City legal to make the amendments to the Agreements and prepare for execution of the [approach]."

The current schedule projects that construction will commence in Q1 2025.

In other news, the CreateTO also adopted a proposed memorandum of understanding with the Toronto Lands Corporation on behalf of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), in order to work towards incorporating a public elementary school within the Housing Now development at 770 Don Mills Road.

The site is located just south of the Science Centre, at the southwest corner of Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East and would provide a mixed-use, mixed-income development consisting of three towers of 37-storeys, 48-storeys and 39-storeys containing 1,254 residential units. The elementary school would be located in the podium of the 39-storey residential tower.

If successfully built, the development could represent “a framework for future joint partnerships between TLC and the City of Toronto, whereby schools and residential developments can be delivered creatively together on public lands,” says the memorandum.
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