A proposed 48-storey condo could be developed on top of a downtown church
Supporters say the development would mark a positive shift in how religious organizations repurpose under-used land
Around this time last week, we were looking at a rendering of a proposed 48-storey development that was set to be built on top of Filmores Gentleman’s Club on Dundas Street East, wondering, How are they going to do this? That major 520-unit project was cancelled shortly thereafter, which Menkes Developments confirmed was due to insufficient sales. (We’re not sure yet whether Filmores will stay there or continue its search for a new location.)
This week, there’s another 48-storey development making headlines—this one would be on top of St. Luke’s United Church near Allan Gardens. As reported by Toronto Today, if approved by city council, the proposed development would create 440 new residential units, with 30 per cent of those reserved as affordable housing. This is the same development that was previously proposed as a 12-storey building in 2022. Its capacity has increased due to amendments in development regulations near transit hubs. The 48-storey proposal will now go to Toronto city council.
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Kindred Works, the developer, would partially preserve the 139-year-old heritage church, but would demolish an antechamber and gymnasium inside. A community event space and café would be added.
Some in the area oppose the development, citing heritage preservation as well as the fact that it would tower over Allan Gardens and potentially affect its greenhouse, which recently underwent renovation. “It’s a landmark property; it’s a significant part of a protected heritage area,” longtime neighbourhood resident Paul Dilse, a retired heritage planner, told the CBC. “Everybody up to this point has said this is something worth preserving, and now we’re not. All that’s going to be left is three walls.”
Per Toronto Today, supporters argue that the development would mark a positive shift in how religious organizations repurpose under-used land. “When it is finally completed, it will be one of the largest ‘Yes in God’s Backyard’—or YIGBY—developments in the city,” said housing advocate Mark Richardson, of HousingNowTO, at a recent Toronto and East York community council meeting.
Richardson also told the CBC that heritage concerns need to shift in consideration of Toronto’s affordable housing crisis. “Our priority should always be on delivering housing and particularly affordable housing in this city, and the developers here are trying to do their best with the constraints that they have to retain some of the church’s facade,” he said. “We really need to be a little bit less precious about heritage rules that were brought in in the 1960s and 1970s when we didn’t have the affordable housing crisis we have today.”
The application will be voted on at city council next month.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
