Enormous 68-storey condo to replace Toronto LCBO and Dollarama locations

An LCBO and a Dollarama location are the latest targets in the crosshairs of developers as the condo-fication of Yonge Street soars to new heights.

A March proposal from the team of developers CentreCourt, Fitzrovia and Choice Properties REIT seeks to bring a 68-storey condo tower to a site at 543 through 549 Yonge Street.

The proposal designed by architects Arcadis would replace an existing four-storey office building housing an LCBO location at street level and a Dollarama in its basement retail unit.

The current building would be demolished to make way for the towering new condo development, vastly increasing density on a site just steps south of Wellesley subway station on the TTC's Line 1.

If completed today, its proposed height measuring just shy of 229 metres, would make the condo the 11th-tallest in Toronto.

A total of 663 condominium units are planned for the development, the vast majority proposed in investor-friendly single-bedroom (447) and studio (45) units, along with 102 two-bedrooms and 69 three-bedroom units better suited to families.

If the investor-heavy unit breakdown wasn't an indication that this building is not being designed with end-users in mind, the limited elevator count — just five banks serving over 130 units per elevator — is a clear sign that this building would likely cater largely to investors renting out their units.

This massive boost in residential density would be anchored to the street via a planned 356 square metres of retail space within the base of the new tower, though there is no explicit indication that Dollarama or the LCBO would retain their presence on site.

Developers are capitalizing on the site's positioning along the Line 1 subway, choosing to include a limited parking component of just nine visitor parking spaces in car stackers on the ground floor.

A single underground level would house a combined 730 bicycle parking spaces for residents and visitors, with residents expected to use the TTC for longer commutes.