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Construction has begun on The Cedars, a 783-unit, mixed-income community taking shape at Markham Road and Dunelm Street in the Scarborough Village area a couple blocks north of Eglinton. Developed by non-profit builder Options for Homes in partnership with the City of Toronto and CreateTO, with support from the City’s Housing Secretariat, the four-phase project is bringing Toronto one of its first major co-operative housing developments in nearly three decades.
Mayor Olivia Chow, CreateTO CEO Vic Gupta, and Options for Homes CEO Daniel Ger joined community partners on October 29 to mark the groundbreaking for the community’s first phase: a 21-storey rental co-op tower that sets the foundation for the larger master plan.
Designed by RAW Design with landscape architecture by O2 Planning & Design, The Cedars is envisioned as a four-phase community combining co-operative rental and attainable ownership housing. Tridel’s construction arm, Deltera, is overseeing construction management for the project. Occupying a 24,606m² site just over a kilometre northeast of Eglinton GO station, the plan will produce six buildings ranging from 3 to 21 storeys, organized around a 3,716 m² central courtyard that will connect to a new 1.1-acre public park at the east end of the property.
The site’s transformation marks the latest step in a long process that began when Build Toronto assembled former Scarborough Expressway lands for redevelopment, later sold with a requirement for below-market housing. The Cedars advances plans detailed in 2022, now refined.
The first phase of the project centres on a 21-storey co-operative rental tower containing 245 homes, including 49 units that meet the City’s definition of Affordable Rental, plus 196 rent-controlled units. Operated by the Co-op Housing Management Network, the building will offer rents secured for 50 years. Rents are expected to range from roughly 80% to 90% of Toronto’s average market levels, aligning with the City’s affordability definitions. Construction of the tower is expected to finish in 2028.
“We are building The Cedars for the broad range of Torontonians who have been priced out of the housing market,” said Ger. “The people who live in our communities are working families who need good, stable housing in neighbourhoods that allow them to grow and flourish. We are excited to be building a community that has both co-op rental and attainable homeownership options. The Cedars will help fill a big gap in the housing market.”
The Cedars is being delivered through a network of municipal and provincial supports aimed at reducing costs for non-profit housing. The City of Toronto waived development charges, property taxes, and permit fees, while expediting both planning and building approvals to accelerate the start of construction. The land, purchased from the City through CreateTO, carried a requirement to provide below-market housing, strengthened by exemptions under Ontario’s Bill 23 for non-profit developers. Additional partnerships with YWCA Toronto and Community Living Toronto will see 20% of the co-op’s homes allocated to their clients.
“We’re bringing co-ops back,” said Mayor Olivia Chow. “The City waived fees and taxes and fast-tracked approvals and permits to get shovels in the ground to build The Cedars, Toronto’s first major co-op in nearly 30 years. Together with Options for Homes, we are turning a once-vacant City-owned site into a vibrant, mixed-income co-operative where people can build a home and future.”
Following completion of the rental co-op, three additional phases are planned to deliver attainable ownership housing through Options for Homes’ long-standing Ready Program. The initiative offers down payment assistance to eligible buyers of up to 15%, repayable only upon sale or relocation, reducing monthly carrying costs for end-user homeowners. Investors are excluded from purchasing, maintaining the community’s focus on long-term residents. Once all phases are built, The Cedars will stand among Canada’s largest attainable ownership communities, offering residents a path from secure rental housing to affordable homeownership within the same development.
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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