A new titan beginning to ascend into Toronto’s skyline is set to become one of the city’s tallest buildings, the culmination of a long road fraught with years of planning, the demise of an established development firm, even more years of stagnation, and even an order from the City to halt construction.
The enormous new skyscraper beginning to sprout from the southeast corner of Yonge and Gerrard, known as Concord Sky, certainly didn’t take the easy path to fruition, but approaching eight years since a vision was first floated for the site at 383 Yonge Street, things are finally coming together.
The project has gone through a series of high-profile ups and downs since it was first proposed in 2017, regularly making headlines for its trials and tribulations along the way.
Originally planned as a glittering new condo building known as YSL (Yonge Street Living) Residences in 2017, the project got underway in 2019 before encountering some significant challenges that would ultimately derail it by years.
YSL’s fate became uncertain when rumours emerged that the previous developer, Cresord, was facing a “cash crisis.” The company’s projects — including YSL — were later placed into receivership, and construction on the project was halted, leaving an abandoned pit filled with stagnant water in the heart of downtown.
The dormant construction site — an excavated pit lined by temporarily-braced building facades — was later purchased by veteran developer Concord Adex, and the tower was rebranded as Concord Sky in 2021. Construction began months later in early 2022, and has been pressing on steadily in the three years since.
Well, almost steadily, as a mid-2023 City-ordered work stoppage did put a brief delay in the otherwise meticulous process of building out the tower’s cavernous six-level underground parking garage.
Once that hurdle was cleared, it was back to business as usual on the busy construction site, and crews were once again hard at work.
Following the formation of this enormous parking garage, work began on building out new levels behind the preserved facades of the Gerrard Building at 385-391 Yonge, the Richard S. Williams Block at 363-365 Yonge, 367 Yonge, and the former Yonge Street Mission building.
New levels are being constructed behind preserved heritage facades. Fareen Karim.
The tower’s design by skyscraper specialists Kohn Pederson Fox, working with local firm architects—Alliance, features a wedge-shaped tower sprouting from a colossal rectilinear base.
Podium levels looming large over Yonge and Gerrard. Fareen Karim.
This podium volume is now approaching its final height with construction progressing several floors above these preserved facades, and will soon give way to the tower floors above and the start of the distinctive wedge shape.
The building already looks large compared to surroundings, but it will soon rank among the tallest in Canada. Fareen Karim.
The absolutely monolithic scale of the tower’s base is starting to offer a taste of just how massive of an impact this new development will have on Yonge Street.
Adjacent low-rise buildings already dwarfed by the new construction. Fareen Karim.
But its effects won’t just be felt at street level, as Concord Sky is set to rank among the tallest buildings in Toronto, as well as all of Canada.
The tower’s Yonge Street frontage. Fareen Karim.
At a height of 299 metres, the tower is planned to rise taller than anything that exists on the Toronto skyline as of early 2025, measuring just a tiny bit taller than the current tallest building in Canada, the 298-metre First Canadian Place at King and Bay.
Facing west along Gerrard towards Concord Sky. Fareen Karim.
However, Concord Sky will never achieve this claim to fame, as two towers with even greater heights are already well under construction elsewhere on Yonge Street, with the SkyTower and The One projects both set to overtake First Canadian Place this year as the country’s tallest building.
Concord Sky features a blank south wall along its base as a provision for future redevelopment of adjacent properties. Fareen Karim.
The west tower of the Forma development on King West is another skyscraper that will surpass Concord Sky’s height by a few metres, though construction has yet to begin as the developers focused initial sales efforts on the complex’s shorter 73-storey tower.
