New super-development being built downtown

By Adrian Ghobrial and news staff

Building an entire community from the ground up — it’s a bold vision, but one that is taking shape in Toronto’s downtown core.

A development of gigantic proportions is under construction Front Street near Spadina Avenue.

If you walk by the area, you’ll see now is a 7 acre hole in the ground that many in the city believe is paving a way towards a bold new future when it comes to how we build up in Toronto.

“We are building a new kind of 21st century neighbourhood” urban designer Ken Greenberg told CityNews. “It’s growing out of layers of history. This is really becoming what we call a complete community”

Some will argue that Toronto’s recent history when it comes to condo and high rise developments has been underwhelming. This mega project at promises to be something different.

The project is called The Well — but the name is a bit of a misnomer — the site is the equivalent of 10,000 backyard swimming pools. It will be home to 1800 residential units, more than 400,000 square feet of retail and dining space and one million square feet of office tower space.

“36 per cent of all the units on the site will be 2 and 3 bedrooms.It will be a true neighborhood for the people who live there and for those that work there.” ward 20 City Councillor Joe Cressy said.

The sprawling space used to be, in part, home to the Globe and Mail building. It’s just one of several large scale super-developments reshaping the city. Other projects include the Mirvish Village plans at Bathurst and Bloor streets and the redevelopment of the Bloor and Dundas Streets area.

“We try to figure out what the street patterns are, what the block patterns are, where the parks are.” said architect David Pontarini, who is involved in each of these projects. “Then we go from the street up into the tower and up into the skylines.”

The Well on Front Street and Spadina Avenue is expected to be completed in the next 3 to 5 years.

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