Scarborough City Centre : Development News

Bridges are meant to connect, but this one managed to cut a community in half for years, until one city worker got an idea.

"In conversation with community members, this bridge would come up. I'd keep hearing about this bridge," says Andrea Raymond, a cultural outreach officer with the city's cultural services. She said the 871-foot-long Kingston Galloway/Orton Park bridge along Lawrence Avenue in Scarborough, with its narrow sidewalks and six lanes of traffic, was seen as boring and uninviting to local residents, who mostly walked over it rather than drove.

"One day when I was driving over the bridge," Raymond says, "I thought it might be a really good place for an art intervention."

Which is exactly what happened. For a total of $115,000, work began in July on a  huge mural by Rob Matejka and more than 20 local youth. It was completed at the end of August, and last weekend, it was the centerpiece of a local arts and community festival, which also included planting 800 native wildflowers in the part of Morningside Park that runs under the bridge.

The work was co-ordinated by the Scarborough Arts Council, Mural Routes and Evergreen.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrea Raymond


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The city has received an application to develop a property owned by Joe Lebovic on a small plot of land underneath hydro wires at 3010 McCowan Road that has raised some eyebrows in Chin Lee's ward of Scarborough-Rouge River.

"We've fought against it because it's not proven either way whether it's safe or not," says Councillor Lee of the possibility that close proximity to hydro lines can deleteriously affect one's health.

The proposal is to re-zone the property as residential in order to allow the construction of 25, 3-storey townhouses on the 1.04 hectare lot.

The application is before the Planning Committee now. If it's approved, it will go to public consultation, at which point Councillor Lee plans to lead his constituents in their opposition.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chin Lee

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a cool new house being built in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].

Work on the 1.3-million square foot Scarborough Town Centre, which customers have been putting up with since demolition began in the fall of 2008, is officially 6 months away from completion.

"It was time," says Kathy Meyers, STC's general manager of the $62-million project. "We were ripe for renovation."

The first full overhaul of Scarborough's flagship mall since it was built in 1973 (there was an extension to add cinemas in the mid-1990s) , the Petroff Partnership-led project is a thorough update of the mall to bring it into line with other more or less recent upgrades to Yorkdale and the Eaton Centre.

"A big part of the renovation is adding light and brightness," Meyers says, "opening up the ceilings, opening up the skylights."

Though there is no space being added to the 401 & McCowan mall, there will be new escalators, new elevators to accommodate strollers and wheelchairs, and significant new tenants, including a new Guess flagship and a Pink by Victoria's Secret.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kathy Meyers

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or renovating, even a cool new house in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].

The last phases of the project to widen Morningside Avenue to increase traffic capacity has been completed, including relocating and upgrading hydro poles and installing Bell and Rogers cables.

The city project, in collaboration with Toronto Hydro, also included two railway passes, which required Toronto Hydro to put their cables and casings for telecommunications cables underground.

"Moving the poles was the first phase," says Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Denise Atallah, "allowing for the road to be widened with a bike lane and new sidewalks." At the railway passes, she says, "we couldn't bring the equipment over the CP Rail line, so we had to underground everything, which involved trenching, putting in ducts for new cables, and creating joint ducts for partners like Rogers and Bell."

The project, which began in 2007, got power flowing by December, 2009, and recently got Bell and Rogers signals moving, cost Toronto Hydro $2.4 million, part of their $275-million investment in upgrading the city's electric distribution this year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Denise Atallah



Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or renovating, even a cool new house in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].