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741 Side-by-Side Bloor Condo Plans Consolidated into 36-Storey Student Residence
A redevelopment proposal across from the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto’s St George campus is dramatically changing plans for 208 and 210 Bloor Street West, where plans for previously approved side-by-side condominium towers have been scrapped, the properties consolidated into a single one for a 36-storey privately run student residence designed by Turner Fleischer for Resident and Tribute Communities. The proposal would more than double the combined residential yield of the earlier projects while largely remaining within the already-approved zoning envelopes established through prior approvals for the two sites.
The proposal applies to an assembly on the north side of Bloor Street West between Avenue Road and Bedford Road, currently with a nine-storey commercial building at 208 Bloor and a two-storey commercial building at 210 Bloor. To the north are private laneways behind Museum House and Exhibit Condominiums to the east. The surrounding area features a mix of institutional, residential, and commercial uses tied closely to the University of Toronto and the Bloor-Yorkville corridor.
The redevelopment follows separate planning approval processes for the two properties over the past several years. At 210 Bloor Street West, Tribute Communities first submitted plans in 2018 for a 29-storey condominium tower designed by Core Architects containing 42 two-bedroom units plus retail space at grade. The application was refused by City Council in 2019 before advancing to the then-named Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, where the proposal ultimately secured approval through an Ontario Land Tribunal decision in 2021. The approved scheme included a three-level underground garage with 75 residential parking spaces.
Next door to the east, Resident (then operating as Plaza Partners) pursued a separate redevelopment proposal for 208 Bloor Street West beginning in 2021. Designed by BDP Quadrangle, the project evolved through multiple revisions before receiving approval in 2023 for a 34-storey mixed-use condominium tower with 142 units and community space at grade.
Following those approvals, and responding to the changing real estate market, the two development teams entered into a joint venture to combine the properties into a single redevelopment parcel. The current proposal now advances through a consolidated Site Plan Approval resubmission, submitted by Goodmans LLP to the City of Toronto on behalf of the developers, alongside Minor Variance applications tied primarily to integrating the two previously approved zoning frameworks into one project. The proposal would introduce a 36-storey private student residence rising 114.14m. A retail component totalling 220.7m² would line the Bloor Street frontage, while the project would achieve a Floor Space Index of 21.20 times coverage of the 1,315m² site.
The building would contain 426 student rental units with approximately 1,006 beds. The suite mix would include 69 one-bedroom units, 233 two-bedroom units, and 124 three-bedroom-plus units, reflecting the student-oriented programming through a strong emphasis on shared accommodations. The development would provide 27,889m² of Gross Floor Area, including 27,668m² dedicated to residential uses. Residents would have access to 1,491m² of indoor amenity space alongside 41m² of outdoor amenity areas. Four elevators are proposed for the tower, equating to roughly one for every 107 units, indicating that high speed motors would be required to provide adequate response times.
A single underground level is proposed beneath the building, a substantial reduction from earlier plans for multiple below-grade parking levels. The underground floor would accommodate bike lockers, laundry facilities, and amenity areas, while maintaining an approximately 8.1m separation from the nearby TTC tunnel infrastructure. Vehicular parking would be limited to four short-term surface spaces accessed through the existing laneway network behind the site, with no resident parking proposed. Bicycle infrastructure would include 235 spaces overall, consisting of 192 long-term and 43 short-term spaces.
The proposal is within one of Toronto’s most transit-connected corridors, located approximately 200m east of St George station and roughly 350m from both Museum and Bay stations.
The proposal arrives amid continued intensification across the western Bloor-Yorkville and University precincts. To the west, the University of Toronto’s 14-storey Academic Wood Tower is under construction alongside residential proposals including the 15-storey 64 Prince Arthur and the 36-storey 145 St George. South of the site, demolition of the former McLaughlin Planetarium is making way for U of T’s 6-storey Centre for Civilizations, Cultures, and Cities. Nearby construction activity also includes the 20-storey 89 Avenue Yorkville and 31-storey One Thirty Eight to the northeast, while larger proposals farther east include 69 Yorkville at 39 storeys, 83 Bloor West at 77 storeys, and 80 Bloor Street West at 78 storeys.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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