OPPORTUNITY ZONE

The Opportunity Zone is located in the north-west corner of the First Parliament Site at 265 Front St. E and is approximately 3300m2. This portion of the Site is currently owned by the Province of Ontario and is occupied by a car rental and car dealership. The Zone is divided into three components: a 2-storey Market Hall, 25-storey Residential Tower, and a proposed Ontario Line Station. The bulk of the Site’s annual revenue is generated on these premises.

DESIGN

The mixed-use complex consists of a 25-storey tower with a shared 3-storey podium. The 2-storey, 5128m2 Market Hall occupies the bulk of the podium with entrances on Front St. E and the Heritage Spine. The podium also houses the 296m2 ground floor footprint of Ontario Line Station street entrance on Front St. E, one residential floor, and the Residential Tower lobby with an entrance on Berkeley St. The Residential Tower sits on the north end of the Zone and overlooks the podium rooftop garden.

The podium features exterior wood finishes, and a heavy emphasis on transparency and glazing for winter-proofing the Market Hall without disconnecting it from the public realm. The station entrance to the north of the Zone is directly accessible from the residential lobby and Market Hall.

Market Hall

The 2-storey Market Hall is located in the podium of the mixed-use building and has space for 25 food and beverage retailers, each in an individual ghost kitchen. The concept was inspired by the Markethal in Rotterdam, Hawker Centres in Singapore, Portland Mercado in Portland, and Scadding Court Community Centre’s Market 707 in Toronto [See Appendix C]. The ghost kitchen model allows restaurant owners to rent a kitchen and stall from the Market Hall facility. These kitchens are a lower cost alternative to fixed location restaurants with punishingly high start-up costs, thus lowering the barrier for many would-be restaurateurs (Obando, 2020). While the ghost kitchens themselves do not have seating and are tailored to take-out or delivery only, there is ample common indoor and outdoor seating provided in the Market Hall and adjoining Heritage Spine. The flexible and collective format of the Market Hall will allow it to house food festivals and events that celebrate diverse foodways throughout all four seasons of the year, both indoor and out.

The Market Hall also offers a large commercial kitchen that is bookable for community groups, small businesses, and internal restaurant staff. This kitchen is large enough to handle catering and event orders, group cooking classes, and large scale food preparation. There is great potential for this kitchen to support programming in the Community Garden and Community Centre within the neighbouring Community Zone.

The commercial kitchen will also support an incubator program for food and beverage startups based out of the Market Hall once operational. Located in the heart of a growing and highly sought after community in Toronto, the incubator will create jobs over the long-term by providing the resources and teaching the skills small businesses need to become financially sustainable. The incubator program will have access to a sustainable urban agricultural garden on the roof of the podium.

Residential Tower 1

The first of two residential towers, this 25-storey structure occupies the third storey of the podium and sits on the north end of the mixed-use complex. It has a separate ground floor lobby and entrance to Berkeley St. The tower contains approximately 250 rental units, 40% of which are at 80% Average Market Rent (AMR) and a further 10% of which are at 40% AMR. Ideally, this is facilitated through the Housing Now initiative. See the Housing section for further detail on housing type and amenities.

Ontario Line Station

Metrolinx is planning to build a new Ontario Line station by the Site. This Concept Proposal places that subway entrance at the north-west corner of the Site. While the placement of this station has created complications in terms of land ownership and project timeline, the proximity of this station to the proposed developments creates numerous benefits upon completion. As a transit hub and key node in the network, the station will increase accessibility to the Site for both residents and visitors. This not only increases foot-traffic through the Market Hall but also reduces the need for parking space. While one level of parking is built into the Community Zone concept as a potential source of revenue and residential amenity, this feature is optional due to underground tunneling and soil remediation issues. It is important to re-evaluate the parking situation as the Metrolinx situation unfolds and as Toronto moves away from automobile reliance and towards quality active and public transit.

The location of the station in proximity to the Opportunity Zone development may also create channels for dialogue with the Province for expedited development, as per the Provincial Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Plan, part of the New Subway Transit Plan for the GTA.

RATIONALE

The Opportunity Zone is designed to attract economic activity and vitality to the Site and surrounding neighbourhood. The front entrance for both the Ontario Line station and the new Market Hall are on Front St. E., with an additional entrance for the latter opening onto the Heritage Spine. This satisfies the planning principles for intensification and strong address along Front St. E at the north end of the Site [See Appendix A]. The Opportunity Zone is derived from the Cultural Tourism Hub model put forward as an early stage design alternative. The Cultural Tourism Hub was explicitly focused on using Toronto’s position as a global city to attract and capture tourism revenue through cultural events and learning opportunities. The Team ultimately ruled this alternative out in favour of more balanced programming that prioritizes local residents. As part of this mission, the Opportunity Zone not only attracts visitor capital, but also creates jobs and supports Toronto’s small business ecosystem.

The decision to place the Opportunity Zone in the north-west corner of the Site is a result of key stakeholder feedback. The Ontario Heritage Trust is the current landowner of 265 Front St. E., where the car dealership and parking lot CP268 provide them a steady stream of rent and parking revenue. Stakeholders expressed a need to preserve their revenue in the new development to help support the Ontario Heritage Trust’s non-profit mission. The Team calculates the Opportunity Zone provides the greatest revenue of the four Zones due to the rent received from both commercial and residential leases within the mixed-use complex. This more than replaces existing revenue streams from the land.

In line with Ontario-wide COVID-19 recovery priorities outlined in the 2021 Ontario Budget, the Team anticipates that economic priorities over the next ten years will be focused on rebuilding sectors hardest hit over the past two years: small businesses, tourism, and employment. Similar priorities were echoed in conversations with City and neighbourhood stakeholders. As the heart of historical Toronto, the Site can expect to attract a depth and breadth of visitors on a daily basis with active and passive heritage programming. The food and business retailers and transient foodway programming compliment heritage programming by providing service and additional amenities: simply put, another reason to visit and stay longer.

IMPLEMENTATION

The City can use an RFP process to find developers for the mixed-use complex. Housing Now is an ideal program through which to facilitate the development with its mandate to work within mixed-income, mixed-use, and transit-oriented communities. See the Housing section for more detail on the operational model.

The Opportunity Zone can leverage third party nonprofit expertise to operate food retailing for social good. Precedents exist in the Portland Mercado [See Appendix C]. As the operator, the third party will be responsible for programming in the main market, the commercial kitchen, and the incubator space. Programming can extend to include partnerships with the community garden in the neighbouring Community Zone, or outdoor activities along the Heritage Spine. The Market Hall can work in conjunction with the St. Lawrence BIA to host these cultural events and festivals. Market Place spaces can be leased out to individual businesses if necessary. This reduces the social benefit but maintains revenue streams.

All lands remain publicly owned, as development and operating partners enter into a long-term lease with the City and Province.