The community will be approximately 2 million square feet upon completion, approximately one-third the size of the West Don Lands development planned by Waterfront Toronto.

Developing the community in time for the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games is accelerating the West Don Lands master development plan five to 10 years earlier than expected, creating needed public infrastructure. It will also create new market and affordable housing in the City of Toronto following the Games.

These new facilities will be used as the Athletes' Village but will remain in the community for years to come, helping boost the regional economy and improving local residents' quality of life:

George Brown College Student Residence

  • To improve the student experience, George Brown College will open its first student residence in the new West Don Lands community.  
  • The residence will serve athletes for the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games before it is converted into a multi-purpose building in 2016. 
  • With the addition of the new residence, George Brown College will be able to better accommodate growing student demand, which over the past seven years has seen applications grow by more than 50 per cent and enrolment grow 70 per cent. 
  • The residence will be located on the northeast corner of Front and Cherry Streets in close proximity to the St. James and Waterfront campuses and the College's new English as a Second Language and Digital Gaming location at 333 King Street West. 
  • It will be 175,000 square feet, eight storeys high and will accommodate 500 students.
  • Each student suite will include: 
    • Two bedrooms per unit 
    • A kitchenette
    • Shared washroom 
    • Common room 
    • Study space 
  • Residence amenities will include: 
    • State-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure 
    • Social spaces 
    • Elevators 
    • Full accessibility, including washrooms 
    • Full laundry facilities 
    • Bicycle storage spaces and state-of-the-art security system
  • The building will be designed and built by architectsAlliance and EllisDon in joint venture with Ledcor Construction. 
  • The structure will be built to LEED® (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) Gold environmental standards. 

YMCA 

  • The YMCA has committed to being included in this major redevelopment project to create a YMCA Centre of Community that will support residents after the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games.
  • The West Don Lands development will serve as an athlete training centre during the games and will be converted into a much-needed community centreafterward. It will have no long-term public financing needs thanks to the YMCAs self-sustaining economic model that ensures no child is left out and every family who needs financial assistance has access to YMCA centres and programs. 
  • YMCA Centres of Community strive to build the foundations of community health by serving all ages and income levels while ensuring our children have equal access to opportunity. 
  • At the corner of Front and Cherry streets, this new Cherry St. locale will be converted into a large, modern 82,000 square-foot YMCA Centre following the Games in summer 2015. Built to LEED® Gold building standards, the facility will include spaces for youth and community activities, a gymnasium, swimming pool, and fitness studios and exercise areas. 
  • This new YMCA will provide services and programs to support over 8,000 people in a neighbourhood where population is projected to increase 13.5 per cent by 2020. 
  • The surrounding neighbourhood is currently comprised of mainly rental households where 30 per cent of families have children at home. It is a diverse neighbourhood with 41 per cent belonging to visible minority groups and immigrants making up 34 per cent of the communities served. 
  • The new Cherry Street YMCA will draw families into local networks and help build strong communities to ensure a strong, healthy community for the future. 

New Roadways and Extensions 

  • Front Street and Bayview Avenue will be extended into the West Don Lands community with connections to other commuter routes like Parliament and Cherry Streets to enhance north/south connections to neighbourhoods east and north of downtown.  
  • A pedestrian-friendly network of roads with bike paths and public spaces will connect the West Don Lands with adjacent communities.
  • Cherry Street will be widened and upgraded to accommodate streetcars in a dedicated right of way.

Affordable and Market Housing

The project will create new housing in downtown Toronto and provide a range of housing types and unit sizes to accommodate a variety of family sizes, income levels and age groups. 

Following the Games: 

  • 787 units of market housing will be available for occupancy; five per cent of the total number of residential units will be available for affordable ownership. 
  • Twenty-four per cent of the total residential units (253 units) constructed for the project will be affordable rental housing. 

Leveraging Government Investment 

The project is leveraging waterfront related government investment that has funded the building of the required infrastructure that enables development. 

  • A Flood Protection Landform (FPL)

This landform is a major component in a series of measures that will provide comprehensive flood protection for a 210 hectare (518 acre) area. The area protected is bound by the Don River on the east to the CN Tower in the West, and from Lake Ontario in the south to as far north as Queen Street. It will help to prevent an estimated $162.5 million in flood damage to existing development in the event of a storm of the magnitude of Hurricane Hazel.

The construction of the FPL has also unlocked the potential for new development in the West Don Lands and East Bayfront precincts, allowing for the creation of approximately 12,000 residential units and up to 4 million square feet of commercial and non-residential space.  

Prior to beginning construction of the Flood Protection Landform, the province arranged for:

  • contaminated soils and groundwater within the West Don Lands to be managed; 
  • the site to be re-graded to direct storm water away from the Lower Don River; 
  • existing roads and utilities to be relocated and construction of new utilities and infrastructure, including Bayview Avenue and Mill Street; and
  • the relocation of existing businesses. 

The environmental assessment and risk management approach adopted for installation of the West Don Lands flood protection landform recently received a 2011Brownie Award for Excellence in Project Development: Neighbourhood Scale from the Canadian Urban Institute.

Waterfront Toronto is constructing an innovative storm water treatment and conveyance system to service the West Don Lands community and future development in the North Keating portion of the Lower Don Lands. West Don Lands and North Keating are located within the floodplain of the Don River and flood mitigation and storm water management are critical issues that need to be addressed as part of revitalization. 

As a former industrial area, the West Don Lands lacks appropriate storm water infrastructure to support the influx of new residents that redevelopment will bring. Plus, construction of the area's flood protection land form has rerouted storm water flows away from the Don River, which previously received the bulk of the area's storm water.

Managing and treating storm water - created by rain and melting snow - is critical to safely convey runoff, prevent flooding, and to ensure pollutants in the water are removed prior to the water being discharged into Lake Ontario.

The new system for the West Don Lands is an innovative and cost effective approach to managing storm water in the area. The state-of-the-art design addresses a number of constraints posed by its location within a dense, downtown urban setting and the use of the selected technologies in the multi-step treatment system is the first of its kind in Canada.

The West Don Lands storm water treatment facility has been recognized with a 2011 Award of Excellence by Canadian Architect magazine. The annual awards recognize architectural design excellence and are given to architects and architectural graduates for buildings in the design stage.