TORONTO-Waterfront Toronto, a public-private group charged with redeveloping the city’s land area at Lake Ontario, has selected Texas-based Hines to build an $800 million mixed-use complex on 10 acres in the East Bayfront district. The project, to be called Bayside, would have a mix of condos, apartments, offices and retail.

The City Council’s Executive Committee has approved the project, planned for vacant industrial land south of Queens Quay Boulevard between Lower Sherbourne and Parliament streets. The full council is expected to vote on the plan by Aug. 25.

Plans for the project include 1,700 new residential units. Most will be condos, but “about 20 of the units are required to be affordable rental housing,” says Hines VP of Development Avi Tesciuba. Also included will be 450,000 square feet of offices and 200,000 square feet of retail, all done in a phased manner based on demand, Tesciuba tells GlobeSt.com. “The site is already starting to get interest. It’s really spectacular, right on the water but also five minutes from Union Station and five minutes from the financial core of Downtown,” he says. “We will do phases of mid-rise buildings, with 300 residential units or 200,000 square feet of office at most.” First occupancy would be as early as 2014, and full completion would be by 2021, Tesciuba says.

Like many large cities, Toronto suffered from a history of initially building industrial uses for shipping along prime waterfront land. Cities such as Chicago have been able to retake this property for commercial and residential use, while cities such as Detroit have been somewhat unsuccessful. Following the release of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force's report in March 2000, the government of Canada, the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto jointly announced their support for the creation of Waterfront Toronto (formerly Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp.) to oversee and lead the waterfront’s renewal. Formally created in 2001, Waterfront Toronto is a tri-government funded corporation with a 25-year mandate to transform 2,000 acres of brownfield lands on Toronto’s waterfront into beautiful, sustainable mixed-use communities and dynamic public spaces.

This land for this project is also contaminated, Tesciuba says. “For the most part, since we’re doing underground parking, the soil will have to be removed,” he says.

Popular architects Cesar Pelli and Stanton Eckstut are working on the Bayside design. “We are trying to create the most walkable neighborhood in all of Toronto,” Eckstut said in a statement. The project is backed by an $800 million private sector investment, Tesciuba says.

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Waterfront Group Picks Hines for $800M Project

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