An enormous new tower just moved one step closer to approval for Toronto's Bloor-Yorkville area, the new landmark set to rise an astonishing 99 storeys into what is quickly becoming the city's own Billionaire's Row.

Toronto City Council adopted a settlement offer in late March that pushes plans forward for Reserve Properties and Westdale Properties' new flagship condo tower at 19 Bloor Street West.

At a staggering height of 317.4 metres, the revised plan for 19 Bloor Street West is actually a good deal taller than a previous version proposed a year earlier that was struck down by the City, kicking off an appeals and closed-door negotiation process that shaped the project for an expected approval in the coming months.

The development was first proposed in early 2023 with an ambitious 94-storey, 302-metre height that would have already been taller than any existing building in Canada (ignoring a couple already under construction with taller heights).

That proposal would subsequently be shot down by the City, with planners citing its floorplate size and tower separation distance as reasons for refusal. Following this setback, the proposal was appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal as discussions between the project team and the City continued behind the scenes.

Talks between these parties led to a revised design that shaved away the tower's massing to increase separation from adjacent buildings, laid out in new elevation diagrams.

However, updated renderings were not included in the settlement documents, leaving some mystery about how the Arcadis-designed skyscraper has morphed since its 94-storey version was tabled.

Though the updated plan in the settlement documents would improve the privacy of residents in adjacent buildings over the previous plan, its increased unit count — now planning almost 1,300 condos — and limited elevator count could make life difficult for residents of the new tower.

With a ratio of over 160 units to each elevator, residents of this classy new condo development could be forced to contend with long elevator wait times, an increasingly common trend in new-build residential towers.

The next steps for the project will involve a technical review of the revised plan and a future OLT meeting where City officials will support the settlement and bring the appeals process to a close.