Toronto’s Entertainment District might be getting an ultrathin addition.The city has received an application to build a narrow 10-storey residential rental building at 86 John St. on a property wedged between Festival Tower and the Pinnacle. The lot is roughly 6.5 metres wide and just under 43 metres long. The new building would include a restaurant and 14 two-bedroom units — with most floors containing two units, one at each end, according to the application submitted at the end of May. The building would have no vehicle parking spaces, but would include two short-term and 13 long-term bicycle parking spaces. It would also include a multi-level restaurant space, two rooftop terraces and a shared outdoor amenity space, said Holly Saplamaeff, an associate at Sweeny & Co Architects, which submitted the revised application on behalf of Tawse Realco Inc.“(It’s) an exciting opportunity to activate a sliver of land that is sandwiched between two large residential towers on either side,” Saplamaeff said.The company previously applied to build an eight-storey commercial building on the site in 2016, according to a heritage impact statement prepared for the city. Saplamaeff said the project was revised to be a residential rental building because of “market demand.”Saplamaeff said the ultrathin building could serve as a precedent for other potential infill sites across Toronto. However, Mitchell Kosny, interim director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University, said the proposed building is not a “creative, progressive” solution to what he calls “unbuildable, oddball” sites, but rather yet another way for developers to make a profit.“It’s just a hunk of concrete slab jammed into a laneway,” he said.Kosny said demand will be high for the units given the prominent location directly behind the TIFF Bell Lightbox, but its status as a rental building means apartment ...
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