Developer hits pause on downtown three-tower project over BRT tussle

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A downtown tower project has been scaled back following a scrap between city hall and that builder over land seized for London’s bus rapid transit system.

Work has begun on an underground parking garage for a 25-storey residential apartment tower at 195 Dundas St. on the site of the old London Mews at Clarence Street, just as the recently completed project has begun renting its apartments. 

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But plans for two more towers on that site have been shelved for now, the project’s planner said.

“The three-tower development wasn’t approved. We filed an application for those towers. The BRT (bus rapid transit) system was in its infancy and the city wanted significant road widening at King and Clarence” streets, said Casey Kulchycki, planner with Zelinka Priamo, which is working with the developer Ayerswood.

“We ended up withdrawing the three-tower application.”

The city initially wanted five metres from King and Clarence streets, which would have scaled back the development.

In 2017, Ayerswood, owned by developer Tony Graat, pulled the building application and filed a $53-million lawsuit against the city when the city announced it planned to put a hub for the bus rapid transit system at King and Clarence streets.

In 2018, a Superior Court ruling dismissed the lawsuit. 

The hub would have resulted in large glass-and-steel structures being built at that corner outside the tower, impeding sidewalk traffic and an entrance to a proposed underground parking garage, Ayerswood said at the time. 

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The city would have expropriated land to make room at the tight spot and left too little space for the residential project, Ayerswood said.

But the city ended up moving the planned BRT station to Wellington and King streets and only took one and a half metres off Clarence Street.

That leaves plenty of land for future tower construction and Ayerswood is “weighing its options,” as to what it will do next, Kulchycki said.

“There’s land there now for multiple towers that could be built. Once the parking garage is done, we will revisit it,” likely by year’s end, he said.

The single tower with 140 units called Clarence Square was completed in May and began leasing in June. The underground parking garage now being built likely will be finished by year’s end, Kulchycki said.

There’s enough land remaining on the site for two more towers, but Ayerswood is uncertain whether it will resurrect plans for more towers or sell the land, Kulchycki said.

 As for other downtown towers ready for renting, Centro by Old Oak is nearing completion of its first tower, at Talbot and Fullarton streets, Kulchycki said.

Ayerswood originally applied to build the project in 2015. 

ndebono@postmedia.com

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