21 January 2008
Joining the Two Simcoe Streets
Toronto Ontario - After decades of lying barren and
vacant, one of the prime areas of undeveloped land adjacent to the city core is on the verge of rapid development, with the extension
of a new road under the Union Station rail yard.
About mid-year, the road through a recently completed tunnel will be opened to traffic, extending Simcoe Street, which in
the 19th century ended at the Lake Ontario shore at Front Street, back to its historic waterside terminus.
The cost of the $45-million project is being shared between the city and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, the company that
owns the historic Royal York Hotel across from Union Station, said John Bryson, the official in charge of bridges at the Toronto
Transportation Department.
Fairmont's obligation to build the tunnel dates back to the 1980s, when the city first wrestled with the fate of the railway lands, the
large swaths of waterfront owned by Canada's two national railways who a century earlier made a place for railroads in Toronto by
filling in a large part of the harbour.
Through its landholding company, CPR agreed to finance a tunnel that would open up its rail lands and the obligation was passed on when
it turned its downtown landholding over to Fairmont, a company created out of Canadian Pacific Hotels.
Some of the land south of the rail yard has been sold, while Fairmont still retains part of it, said the company's spokesman Mike
Taylor.
"The construction of the tunnel was to get into that land," Mr. Taylor said.
Although the agreement to build has been in place since 1983, construction did not start until last year.
City officials said that two factors were responsible for the 25-year delay: the timing was a commercial decision by
Fairmont, and once the developer decided to go ahead, it took time to get all the necessary approvals, including a 2005
rail-safety clearance by the Federal Transportation Agency.
City traffic officials are still studying what changes they will make in the flow of Simcoe Street, which currently is
one-way southbound between Queen Street and Front Street, where it ends.
While they expect a portion of it will have to be turned into a two-way street, they said it is not likely Simcoe will be
a two-way street all the way north from Front to Queen.
The commercial climate for the development of the lands bounded by York Street, the extended Simcoe Street, the rail yard, and the
Gardner Expressway, has changed dramatically since CP first signed its agreement with the city.
To the east, Air Canada Centre has been built, and a mixed-use development, Maple Leaf Square, is being built in front of
it. To the west, lies the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the Roundhouse. And the city has built Bremner Boulevard, a city street
running east-west from York Street to Spadina Ave. across the tract.
While Fairmont still owns one piece of the tract - Mr. Young would not say what the company might do with it - other sites have been
sold to heavyweight operators.
Cadillac-Fairview and Lanterra developments, partners in Maple Leaf Square, bought a major site on the west side of York
Street, across from their current project.
The Conservatory Group of Markham, which is just finishing the Infinity Condos on the south side of Bremner, bought an adjacent site on
the south side of Grand Trunk Crescent, a street named after an early railway.
And on the northwest corner of Bremner and York, BCIMC Realty Corp, which is controlled by public-sector pension plans in
British Columbia, is building a 26-storey office-tower.
Get ready for gridlock at Bathurst bridge this fall.
While the extension of Simcoe Street under the rail yards this summer will make it easier for traffic between the lakefront and the
city core, the relief will not last long.
This fall, after the CNE is over, Bathurst Street south of Front Street will be closed for about a year, while the bridge over railway
lines is taken down and replaced.
City traffic officials said that new bridge will be wider than the old, with a dedicated roadway for street cars as well as two lanes
of traffic, bike lanes, and sidewalks.
While the new bridge is being built, the city will also build a new intersection on the south side to link Fort York Boulevard and
Bremner Boulevard, which is being extended from Spadina Avenue to Bathurst.
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