Maxwell Stiss

Ground Level Retail and Mid-Rise Development Trends along the ‘Avenues’ of the City of Toronto from 2010-2014 ©2015

The City of Toronto is growing rapidly and plans to accommodate a significant portion of its incoming population through mixed-use mid-rise developments along the Avenues. The Avenues are main streets, with existing or planned public transit routes, that could be re-developed and re-invigorated through new development that increases population density and improves retail/commercial street patronage. The development community has however, shown a preference to exhaust high-rise development opportunities, expecting higher returns on investments as opposed to mid-rise developments which pose a series of challenges. Recent and ongoing changes to Ontario’s Building Code, Planning Legislation and especially the ‘Avenues’ policies are aimed at shifting development interest towards more mid-rise development projects, thereby creating a need for analysis of retail streetscapes from a business and housing perspective. This research analyzes the trends of retail and the mid-rise housing market along the Avenues in order to update the literature and provide insights on the changes that have occurred over the past five years. The analysis demonstrates that mid-rise development projects are proposed in some areas where planning visions are encouraged, however, greater efforts must be made to increase the scope and location of mid-rise developments such that they help reduce areas of high vacancy, promote increased residential and employment density and meet the needs of the local community.