March 29, 2006

Urban Renewal

Facelift for Toronto’s waterfront

Long-awaited project breaks ground

W.D. LIGHTHALL

correspondent

With the demolition of an old warehouse on the West Don Lands this week, construction work is now underway on the first phase of the long-term plan to revitalize much of Toronto’s waterfront.

Under the master development plan by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. (TWRC), during the next 10 to 15 years, the 32-hectare West Don Lands will be redeveloped into a community of approximately 6,000 housing units.

“There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that now, the TWRC is moving from planning to implementation,” said TWRC chair Robert Fung.

Plans for the community include constructing a school, public transit line, an eight-hectare park called the Don River Park, a large berm for flood protection and widening the Don River near its mouth.

John Mollenhauer, president of the Toronto Construction Association, said putting the infrastructure in place first is vital to the success of the West Don Lands redevelopment plan.

“The transit and the services are a big part of it,” Mollenhauer said. “What the TWRC is doing is packaging and selling serviced land. They have to have the infrastructure for it to all make sense, and they’re committed to doing the infrastructure first.”

In the first phase of the West Don Lands revitalization, infrastructure construction is valued at $4 million, the berm at approximately $8 million and the Don River Park will cost an estimated $17.6 million to build.

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