Golden Mile Plaza Revitalization Project Goes to SPA

September 30, 2021

The 67-year-old shop­ping cen­tre at 1880 Eglin­ton Avenue East sits on a 19-acre site along Scarborough’s com­mer­cial dis­trict, dubbed as the Gold­en Mile. The sites prox­im­i­ty to the future Crosstown LRT tran­sit line makes it a prime can­di­date for rede­vel­op­ment, with tran­sit con­nec­tiv­i­ty pro­vid­ing increased eco­nom­ic and social oppor­tu­ni­ties for its res­i­dents. GPA, along­side clients Choice Prop­er­ties REIT and the Daniels Cor­po­ra­tion, have designed a com­plete com­mu­ni­ty, which includes 11 new build­ings with mixed-use pro­gram­ming, an inno­va­tion hub, and a pedes­tri­an realm with car-free space as well as retail at grade. 

Phase 1, announced in March of 2021, will include a 44 and 38 storey tow­er, a 44 storey pur­pose-built mar­ket rental apart­ment, retail at street-lev­el, as well as com­mer­cial and insti­tu­tion­al space. Of the slat­ed 1,450 res­i­den­tial units, one third will be rental, to facil­i­tate a mixed-income com­mu­ni­ty. Along­side these ini­tial build­ings will be the con­struc­tion of pedes­tri­an mews, four P.O.P.s (pri­vate­ly owned pub­lic spaces) and land­scap­ing that leads to a large pub­lic park in the site’s north­east­ern cor­ner. 

A sig­nif­i­cant ini­tia­tive that sets Gold­en Mile apart from oth­er large-scale inten­si­fi­ca­tion projects is the Inno­va­tion Dis­trict, a con­cept that was born in the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion process between neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents and the landown­ers. Poten­tial inte­gra­tion of insti­tu­tions like the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Cen­ten­ni­al Col­lege aim to cre­ate jobs and oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers by enhanc­ing access to edu­ca­tion­al and career resources. 

The sec­ond phase of devel­op­ment includes retail pro­gram­ming anchored by a large new gro­cery store. Over the years, the Gold­en Mile and its sur­round­ing area is antic­i­pat­ed to become home to some 40,000 new res­i­dents. Con­struc­tion on Phase 1 is slat­ed to begin in 2023, with addi­tion­al excit­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions to come.