'Signature' downtown highrise project revs up core construction boom

Article content

Work has begun on an ambitious residential tower development in downtown, and work on another highrise will begin in weeks, one London planner says.

A giant crane has gone up at 195 Dundas St., marking the start of construction of a 25-storey, 180-unit tower near the Dundas-Clarence Street intersection in a longtime parking lot that once housed the London Mews mall.

The Ayerswood Development project will be joined in about a month by another crane rising at 108 Fullarton St. Old Oak will begin work there on the massive Centro development, a 650-unit, $245-million, two-tower project close to the London courthouse, said Greg Priamo of Zelinka Priamo, the planner working on both projects.

Core boosters are thrilled. “This is great timing considering the impact COVID-19 has had on the downtown,” said Barbara Maly, executive director of the merchants group Downtown London.

The project, being built by Tony Graat, has been a long time coming. It’s been planned for about six years and has overcome several hurdles to get to this point.

The land was bought in 2014. But the project was hobbled when the developer filed a lawsuit against city hall over a nearby bus rapid transit line. City hall wanted to build a transit hub that would have affected the building’s design – the hub was ultimately moved.

The Ayerswood tower will be set back about 30 metres from Dundas Street and the front of the building will be developed as a plaza, connecting the building to the main street and fitting into the Dundas Place flex street, Priamo said.

“It will take on the same design as Dundas Place, a seamless relationship,” Priamo said. “For the residents of the building it will represent the front door.”

The Ayerswood site is now a parking lot and Priamo estimates construction will be done in about 18 months. It is the first of Ayerswood’s three-phase development on that site between Dundas and King streets that will eventually see three towers built. It will be a $300-million project with about 700 units.

Ward 6 Coun. Phil Squire, chair of council’s planning committee, recalls the space even before it was the London Mews shopping plaza – when it was the Iroquois Tavern, a high-end cocktail lounge. He’s impressed with the site’s latest turn.

“This is a signature development,” Squire said. “It’s good news.”

There are other towers under construction in the core, on Richmond Street and King Street, and another just completed on Horton Street. There’s also a residential highrise under construction on the old South Street hospital lands and another recently announced for Old East Village.

That kind of intensification – new, high-density construction in existing neighbourhoods – is a key part of city hall’s plan to curb more-expensive sprawl. A recent city hall analysis showed that 38.2 per cent of building in London last year was infill or intensification, short of the 45 per cent goal but enough to be considered a success, one expert said.

195 DUNDAS ST.

• Developer: Ayerswood Development
• Particulars: $300 million, three towers, 700 units between Dundas and King streets at Clarence Street on the site of the former London Mews downtown mall. A $45-million, 25-storey 140-unit tower at 195 Dundas St. is the first of the three planned towers
• Status:  A crane is on-site as construction has started.
• The other two phases will see additional towers with about 230 and 250 units in each, built in what is now a parking lot between Dundas and King streets

108 FULLARTON ST.

• Called: Centro. Known initially as the Camden Terrace site, it also will encompass 475-501 Talbot St. and 93-95 Dufferin Ave.
• Developer: Old Oak. Initially planned by Rygar Developments, Old Oak purchased the site from Rygar principal John Rodgers
• Particulars: $245 million, 652 units, plus 650-space parking garage and commercial space for lease on the main floor
• It may become the largest tower development west of Toronto, with two towers, one a rental building of about 40 storeys, the second a 232-unit condo building of 29 storeys
• The 40-storey tower will be 129-metres tall, topping One London Place (109 metres)
• Old Oak will rebuild the Camden Terrace façade, removed brick by brick and stored during demolition, in the lobby of the Centro development. Both heritage preservation moves were demanded by city politicians when the Rygar project was approved.
• Work is scheduled to begin, with a crane on site, in March.