Streetcar’s Riverside Square to change the face of Riverside forever.

Update August 7th 5:37pm:

We’ve been all over this story since we broke the news early yesterday and have some serious updates for you. I’m sure you will all be glad to hear that there will NOT be three 24 storey towers after all! Here are the updated details as of today:

There will be three buildings in total: 7 Storey fronting on Queen Street on the North Side of the Lot and two buildings on the South side of the lot at 13 storeys and 24 storeys at the south west corner. They’re still on target for 555 residential units and have added specifically 16,519 square metres of commercial/retail (aka non residential) with a total of 274 parking spaces. 

We’ll continue to update you on the story as it develops.

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First they snag the New Broadview Hotel aka Jilly’s and now Streetcar Developments buys the Toyota Dealership site and Tippet Richardson moving company site giving them 4 acres of prime Riverside land to play with. Here’s what they want to do. They’re calling it Riverside Square.

Based on the development proposal submitted to the city earlier this month. Streercars Riverside Square is all about mixed use. They want to build three 24 Story towers with approximately 555 residential units, thousands of square feet of retail and commercial space. We’ve heard rumors of Whole Foods being the anchor grocery tenant here (would would be a great fit actually)

Here’s what Aaron Knight, the Development Manager for Streetcar had to say in a recent letter to Broadview/Queen area residents:

Dear Resident of The Ninety,

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as your new neighbours; both as owner of the New Broadview Hotel and as the new owners of the lands located at 77-79 East Don Roadway (Tippet Richardson site) and 677 Queen East (Toyota site).

As you may know, we have plans to undertake an extensive restoration of the New Broadview Hotel. We intend on making the Hotel a centerpiece of the community once again. Equally as important is our acquisition of the Toyota and Tippet Richardson sites. The two sites represent over 4 acres of land area and are bound by Queen Street East, East Don Roadway and Eastern Avenue. Together they will be known as Riverside Square.

Given the scale and location of Riverside Square we see great opportunity to make much needed bike and pedestrian connections across the Don River to Corktown Common, provide new green space and perhaps most importantly: reintegrate the site into the traditional mixed-use character of the Queen East while providing valuable new services and publicly accessible amenities to the community.

Recently, a rezoning application for each site has been made, and over the coming weeks you can expect to see our Riverside Square project branding appearing in the area.

As we remain in the early stages of design, we would like to share our proposal with you to hear your feedback and ideas, and engage you in an open dialogue about the future of your neighbourhood. As such, we will be reaching out to your Board of Directors with the goal of arranging consultation sessions for early fall of this year.

Until then, feel free to contact us should you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Aaron Knight, MCIP RPP
Development Manager

Well there you have it. In true Streetcar form they’re reaching out to the community and engaging residents. They know full and well they will be a lot of of push back since this the THE largest development the East Side has ever seen.  A lot of people are going to complain about the lack of parking (they’re only building 178 spaces for 555 units). But the fact that they’re building 61 retail parking spaces means they really are focusing on building the infrastructure to support this many new residents.

Don’t know exactly how we feel about this yet as the info is so fresh but we’ll certainly develop an opinion and share will you all. What do you think? Comment below or on our FB Page or Twitter. Hope to hear from you!

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