Teardowns aren’t commonly high-rise office towers; the term more often applies to dilapidated bungalows destined to be replaced with lot-filling McMansions.
But an 18-storey commercial tower at 2 Carlton Street in downtown Toronto could become just that to make way for a 1,100-unit, 72-storey condo project — if a recently submitted rezoning application gets the go-ahead from city planners.
Early last week, Sherman Brown Barristers & Solicitors handed in a development application to the City’s planning department on behalf of Carlton Tower Limited, the current owner of the 2,425-square-metre property on the northeast corner of Yonge and Carlton Streets.
The proposal includes plans for a pair of 65-storey condo towers sitting atop a seven-storey podium, though current site zoning limits new buildings to a height of 61 metres, according to a cover letter included in the filing.
However, with reference to a “78-storey mixed-use building just south of the site,” the cover letter notes a development of this height wouldn’t be unprecedented for the immediate area.
At the southwest corner of Gerrard West and Yonge Street, a block south of 2 Carlton, the tallest residential tower in Canada clocks in at a towering 78 storeys. Aura earned the tallest title when developer Canderel completed the lofty 985-unit condo building in 2014.
The current tower at 2 Carlton dates back to 1959, and it features a mix of retail, office space and hotel rooms. The new application lays out plans for two floors of retail inside the proposed podium as well as 1,500-square-metres of outdoor amenity space crowning the it.
Initial renderings from IBI Group, which is listed as the project architect in documents, show two narrow, glassy towers with balconies askew.
