Construction starts on Toronto’s Sugar Wharf

TORONTO — Construction is now underway for Sugar Wharf, a new mixed-use community on Toronto’s waterfront.

Menkes, Greystone Managed Investments Inc. and Triovest Realty Advisors Inc. broke ground on a new office tower, 100 Queens Quay East, on Jan. 11. The tower is the first phase of Sugar Wharf, which will include employment, retail and residential uses, a new public elementary school and a new two-acre public park, states a media release.

It will be the largest mixed-use development on the Toronto waterfront with between 4,000 and 4,500 people working in the community, plus a resident population ranging between 7,000 and 8,000 people upon completion.

The community will be located on an 11.5-acre property at the northeast corner of Queens Quay East and Freeland Street, one block east of Yonge Street. The development site was purchased by the Menkes partnership group in 2016. Currently, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) occupies three buildings on the property — a retail store, a four-storey office building and a warehouse facility.

The new office tower will be a 25-storey building, featuring approximately 690,000 square feet of Class AAA space.

Designed by B+H Architects, the tower has been conceived with the objective of achieving LEED Platinum certification.

The LCBO will be a major tenant of the 100 Queens Quay East office tower, occupying approximately 225,000 square feet, or 33 per cent of the building. The ground floor of the building will feature a 25,000 square foot flagship LCBO retail store, which will replace the current Queens Quay store.

The Sugar Wharf community will also include approximately 300,000 square feet of multi-level commercial retail space and the residential component of the community will include five condominium towers, varying in height from 64 to 90 storeys, and a mid-rise rental building.

The development will also pay tribute to the previous historic uses on the lands by integrating key elements of the existing LCBO office building and warehouse into the project as well as the creation of a heritage mews, the release indicates.

Occupancy of the 100 Queens Quay East office tower is expected for spring 2021.