Etobicoke mall to be turned into comprehensive mixed-use development with 10 towers, parkland, and local retail and community buildings

Ontario Construction News staff writer

QuadReal has proposed a comprehensive redevelopment of Cloverdale Mall in Etobicoke to transform it into a mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented community with thousands of new residents, a park and local retail services.

The Toronto Design Review Panel, after reviewing the plans, called it a “masterful example of mall transformation” Urban Toronto reports.

The site will include a variety of green spaces and buildings, including 10 towers ranging in height from 16 to 48 storeys. The towers would be arranged along the south and west edges of the site on four-to-six storey mid-rise podiums.

The current mall is bordered by the East Mall, Dundas Street West, and Highway 427, with the interchange of Dundas and 427 at its southwest corner. The plans call for replacing the existing mall and parking lots with a complete community with a new street grid and a pedestrianized public realm.

Giannone Petricone Associates architects, planners Urban Strategies and landscape architects Janet Rosenberg & Studio have drafted the proposed development.

In the proposal, the design team seeks to implement a vision to:

The following four main aspects comprise the design team’s vision for the site:

• Enhance the public realm and community amenities;
• provide plenty of green space and new community amenity while emphasizing pedestrians;
• encourage mixed-uses including a variety of residential, commercial and community programs in a sustainable community design; and
• redefine the retail from a regional shopping mall experience to a more neighbourhood retail experience.

In the redesign, the property’s edges will be defined by high-speed traffic barriers. A new south street providing access to Dundas is planned to have a lighted intersection to take pressure off the East Mall as the primary access road while calming traffic along the highway-like Dundas just before it reaches the intersection, DataBid.com reports.

The site will include a community amenity, still unknown, but possibly a local arts and culture centre.

The designers have incorporated green spaces throughout the site, anchored by a large neighbourhood park to the east. The park consists of several acres. It will also contain a new food market building at its south end with a landscaped sloping green roof that merges the building with the park.

There will also be a ‘Village on the Park’ complex with a one-storey retail building framed with two eight storey mid-rises along the south and west edges. The central block will have open-air pedestrian walkways lined with retail that lead to a central covered gathering and event space.

DataBid is currently reporting on this project – Cloverdale Mall Redevelopment – Etobicoke    (0008092).