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Aerial view of the Quayside Development Area highlighted in red

Quayside

The Quayside development area is bounded by 
Bonnycastle Street in the west from
Queens Quay East north to Lake Shore Boulevard,
and the Victory Soya Mills Silos in the east,
from Lake Shore Boulevard south
to Lake Ontario and the Water’s Edge. 

Quayside will be a dynamic, inclusive and resilient community that plays a pivotal role in reorienting the city towards Lake Ontario.

This area of our waterfront represents an extraordinary opportunity to create one of Canada’s most sustainable low-carbon communities, serving people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities and incomes. A place that is inviting and lively year-round, providing retail, dining, entertainment and cultural experiences to seamlessly fuse the city to the water. 
 

Quayside is a 4.9-hectare (12-acre) area at the foot of Parliament Street, comprising about 3.2 hectares (8 acres) of developable land across five development blocks, as well as parkland, open space and future roads. It’s destined to become a vibrant hub, linking nearby neighbourhoods like St. Lawrence, the West Don Lands, the Distillery District, Bayside, and the future Villiers Island. Quayside is the geographic heart of this cluster of neighbourhoods and will help the area become more than the sum of its parts. 
 

Waterfront Toronto is leading the area’s public realm and, following a competitive procurement process, local developers Dream Unlimited and Great Gulf Group – together known as Quayside Impact – were selected to develop the mixed-use community. 

Quick Facts

Boundaries:

Description
Bonnycastle Street in the west, from Queens Quay to Lake Shore Boulevard, and the Victory Soya Mills Silos in the east, from Lake Shore Boulevard to Lake Ontario and the water’s edge.

Size:

Description
4.9-hectares (12-acres), comprising 3.2 hectares (8 acres) of developable land, as well as parkland, open space and future roads

Proximity:

Description
1.5 km from Toronto’s downtown

Public Realm Design Team:

Description
WSP (West 8 + DTAH)

Development Partner:

Description
Quayside Impact Limited Partnership (Dream Unlimited Corp. and Great Gulf Group)

Parks and Public Realm 
 

At Quayside, Waterfront Toronto will again design and deliver groundbreaking public spaces to activate the waterfront, meet the needs of residents and establish Quayside as a destination, including: 
 

  • Parliament Plaza: On either side of the realigned and narrowed Parliament Street will be two green spaces totalling about 0.3 hectares (0.8 acres). The aspiration is for these spaces to provide a lush green transition from Lake Shore to Queens Quay and complement the retail and other nearby ground floor amenities. 
  • Silo Park: This local park will be 0.4 hectares (1.1 acres) and serve the Quayside and Keating communities. Waterfront Toronto will host a design competition seeking a proposal for Silo Park. 
  • Water’s Edge Promenade: The Water’s Edge Promenade, featuring the signature granite mosaic with a double row of trees, provides a continuous public space along the lakefront. Nearly 4.3 kilometers of promenade have already been completed and soon will be extended into Quayside. 
  • Local Streets: A series of local streets will support Quayside. Two existing streets (Bonnycastle Street and Small Street) will be revitalized, and two new streets will be created – each designed in a manner consistent with others delivered elsewhere in East Bayfront.  
     

And, it’s hard to talk about the public spaces at Quayside without talking about Parliament Slip. The Quayside community and its public spaces wrap around this underused industrial berth called Parliament Slip. Waterfront Toronto views this as a special opportunity to create a bustling year-round gathering place by the water – offering recreation, entertainment and dining.

Read more on the Parliament Slip project page.  

Development 
 

Working together, local developers Dream Unlimited and Great Gulf Group (known as Quayside Impact) will transform Quayside into an extraordinary mixed-use, mixed-income community where residents can live, work and play. When complete, Quayside will be Canada’s largest all-electric, zero-carbon master-planned community and be home to about 7,500 people and 1,600 jobs.  
 

Included among the highlights are: 
 

  • More than 800 affordable housing units with more than half the units being family-sized (2+ bedroom). And, affordable housing will be included in each phase of the development, so that these units can be delivered faster. 
  • 2.5 acre green space, called the Community Forest, stretching from Bonnycastle to Parliament Streets 
  • A rooftop urban farm for community gardening 
  • Five towers plus one of Canada’s largest residential mass timber buildings  
     

The Quayside Impact team also includes Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects and Henning Larsen as Lead Architects. This team will be responsible for designing the buildings in the first phase of development and, through establishing urban design guidelines, will coordinate the design of subsequent blocks by others to ensure a curated collection of buildings that are distinct yet work together.  SLA Landscape Architects will design the Community Forest public space. 
 

Like all projects, the development of Quayside is following the municipal approvals process, including development approvals, as well as review by Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel and public consultation. 

International Competition


On March 10, 2021, Waterfront Toronto launched its search for a development partner for Quayside. The first step was to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to identify potential development proponents with the necessary experience, design portfolio and financial resources. You can read this backgrounder for more information about the RFQ or download the RFQ and addenda
 

From the pool of firms that responded to the RFQ, Waterfront Toronto selected four proponents to participate in a second stage and submit full proposals for the development of Quayside through a Request for Proposals process.  
 

On February 15, 2022, Waterfront Toronto announced the selection of Quayside Impact Limited Partnership – led by Dream Unlimited and Great Gulf Group – as the Preferred Proponent and began negotiations on a project agreement. On December 9, 2022, Waterfront Toronto announced its Board of Directors had approved the project agreement, confirming Quayside Impact as the Development Partner. 

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decorative image showing the cover of a "request for qualifications" document