Here’s what developers want to build at the corner of College and Beverley

Here’s what developers want to build at the corner of College and Beverley

The condo tower proposed for 203 College Street

What it is: A 33-storey, 356-unit condo tower that would replace the existing office building on the southeast corner of College and Beverley streets, just south of the University of Toronto. (Better known to U of T students as “where the Starbucks is.”)

Pedigree: The architect is Page + Steele IBI Group, and the developer is Parallax Investment Corporation, a company that made headlines in 2012 when it announced that it would begin preselling condos that were only three inches high and 10 inches wide, for use as safety deposit boxes. (So far, that project hasn’t come to fruition.) In 2013, Parallax completed its Downtown Condos on Wellington Street.

Most promising feature: The tower would have a three-storey podium with about 275 square metres of retail space—big enough for a new U of T coffee shop or two.

Risk factor: Although College Street has had a couple controversial tower approvals in recent years, 33 storeys is still very tall for the neighbourhood.

Likely opposition: Politicians may not love the fact that this building would cast long shadows on College Street. And residents of the Grange, a low-rise neighbourhood to the south that already struggles to coexist with its student population, would form a natural opposition bloc.

The odds: Considering the amount of angst that preceded the approval of a 25-storey student residence a block to the west, it wouldn’t be surprising if this proposal ran into trouble.