Arguably the most interesting (and certainly the most innovative) building proposal in the Leaside Business Park is at 154 Wicksteed Ave. Located at the point where Wicksteed does a jog, just east of Brentcliffe Road, it’s tailor-made for an interesting “flatiron design.”
But innovative? That’s in the proposed uses. Proposals for the site, formerly a flooring sales emporium (now moved to Laird Drive) and currently home to a children’s dance studio, began in 2019, with plans for a new six-storey office building to be constructed of mass timber. This proposal received rave reviews for its climate friendly and energy saving features from The Treehugger.1
This original plan was followed in 2022 by a seven-storey laboratory proposal to serve the hospital industry but built with regular steel and cement construction. Most recently, The Globe and Mail2 revealed a revised proposal for the site as a data centre, though there is, as of now, no application posted on the City’s Application Information Centre site.
This project appears to epitomize the opportunities (and challenges) for business in recent times – of intensifying to office uses, but then running into the pandemic downturn, exploring other uses and materials, and now perhaps making the most interesting move of all – jumping on the data centre boom – with a dense development in Leaside, close to the core, rather than a sprawling site in the distant suburbs. Of course, this tower will be full of computers, not so many people (hence no windows are necessary). But there’s nothing new in that setup – the Telus building at Laird and Esandar already set the precedent.
The power question
A longstanding concern in the Business Park has been power – will there be enough electricity, with all the residential development in play? However, in early January, the provincial government announced a new underwater transmission line from Darlington to Toronto that will “support 285,000 new homes, power businesses, create thousands of jobs,” according to the press release.
While the project has gone through three iterations to date, each of the three has presented an innovative, creative design that demonstrates a new “modern” opportunity for the Leaside Business Park, altogether in the spirit of John Godfrey’s “Leaside media village.”3
How industrial?
Is this enough to stop the erosion of the “industrial” side of the Business Park? That’s unclear, but the Park faces continuing challenges from speculators anxious to change the uses allowed to permit residential – changes made more feasible because of the provincial government’s weakening of their land use policies and overreaching of the City powers.
The latest threat is the application for conversion of the lands at 105-109 Vanderhoof Ave. and 10 Brentcliffe Rd., for an Official Plan Amendment to redesignate the lands from Core Employment Areas to Mixed Use Areas. The redesignation would provide the opportunity for future residential/mixed-use development. If approved, it would be precedent setting and represent a major loss to the Employment Lands, for several reasons:
- -The lands are south of Vanderhoof, which was established as the southern limit of Mixed Use (i.e. permitting residential) by the landmark Ontario Municipal Board decision in 2001.
- -The rest of the large block is Employment Lands and development is in accordance with that (e.g. Canadian Tire).
- -A similar application for the same lands was refused by City Council in 2023 along with three other properties in the Leaside Business Park.
The City scheduled a community consultation meeting for the application on Jan. 27.
1. This Toronto Building Is a Model for a Post-Pandemic Office It’s small, wood, local, efficient, and it has the best bike room in town. Lloyd Alter, Treehugger, Feb 11 2022 https://www.treehugger.com/toronto-building-post-pandemic-office-5218744.
2. As market shifts, developer plans new data centre. Alexandra Petros, Special to The Globe and Mail, Jan 6 2026. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/industry-news/property-report/article-as-market-shifts-developer-plans-new-data-centre/.
3. John Godfrey had a vision for the business park https://leasidelife.com/john-godfrey-had-a-vision-for-the-business-park/ #141 February 2024.
