Two abandoned plots of land in Toronto are selling for over $31 million

Toronto real estate prices are often difficult to wrap your head around, but $31.5 million for two empty plots of land that look like they've been abandoned since the early 2000s is something else altogether.

That's the current asking price for 971 and 975 Weston Rd., two neighbouring properties in Weston-Mount Dennis that together comprise just under 1.5 acres.

And while what's currently there is essentially a sad patch of weeds, the staggering price tag starts to make some sense when you consider what could eventually be built here.

An aerial view of the sites. 

But, interestingly, the two lots are being sold together under power of sale, which for anyone unfamiliar, a power of sale generally occurs when a mortgage lender sells a property after the borrower defaults in order to recover the outstanding debt.

So, the fact that two parcels of land tied to a major Toronto development proposal have ended up on the market this way is certainly noteworthy.

The current state of 971 and 975 Weston Rd. 

The plot at 971 Weston Rd. measures 0.759 acres, while 975 Weston Rd. comes in at 0.694 acres, bringing the combined property to approximately 1.453 acres.

Both lots are currently vacant, but that hasn't always been the case.

Back in 2022, City planning documents noted that the larger stretch of land from 955 to 975 Weston Rd. contained two single-storey warehouse buildings.

The vacant land at 971 and 975 Weston Rd. 

More importantly, 971 and 975 Weston Rd. make up part of that larger redevelopment site, which has been working its way through Toronto's planning and approvals process for many years.

In fact, plans to redevelop this stretch of Weston Road go back more than two decades.

In 2005, an application was submitted to build 71 stacked townhouses on a portion of the site.

Then, in 2021, Haven Developments came along with something considerably more ambitious.

The developer submitted plans for the entire 955 to 975 Weston Rd. site, initially proposing two 11-storey residential buildings containing a total of 617 units.

But those plans didn't stay modest for long.

In January 2023, Haven Developments submitted a dramatically redesigned version of the project and, according to planning documents supporting the revised proposal, the area's designation as a Major Transit Station Area played a big role in the rethink.

The designation came as Mount Dennis was being transformed into a major transit hub, with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, GO Transit and UP Express all converging nearby.

And with all that transit infrastructure on the doorstep, the developer apparently saw an opportunity to go much bigger.

Working with Turner Fleischer Architects, Haven Developments swapped the two 11-storey buildings for towers reaching 24 and 34 storeys, rising from a shared eight-storey podium.

The redesign proposed a whopping 1,003 condo units — more than 60 per cent more than the original 617.

Current plan for 955 Weston Rd., image via City of Toronto

It wasn't simply a matter of piling more storeys onto the same buildings, either.

The project was substantially reworked, with the towers shifted toward the northeastern portion of the property and a mid-rise component along Weston Road.

The new configuration also freed up roughly 1,470 square metres at the northwest corner of the site for a proposed public park.

And, in a very Toronto-in-the-2020s move, the substantially larger development actually came with fewer parking spaces. The original 436 vehicle spaces were reduced to 368, while bicycle parking jumped from 629 spaces to 1,004 — essentially one for every proposed unit.

The plans evolved yet again before eventually heading to Etobicoke-York Community Council in 2024. By then, the proposal still included 34- and 24-storey towers, but the Weston Road portion had become a seven-storey mixed-use component and the total number of proposed homes had shifted slightly to 984.

The latest version also included 465 square metres of community space.

So, in the span of roughly two decades, plans for this stretch of Weston Road went from 71 stacked townhouses to a nearly 1,000-unit high-rise community.

Which makes the current state of 971 and 975 Weston Rd. — sitting vacant, overgrown and now being sold under power of sale — all the more striking.

Of course, whoever shells out $31.5 million isn't paying for the weeds.

A digital mock-up of the proposed buildings, image via City of Toronto

They're paying for the possibility of what could eventually grow in their place.