Travellers heading in and out of Billy Bishop Airport will notice a new outdoor development has taken shape along the waterfront — just steps away from the airport’s mainland entrance.
Bathurst Quay Common, a one-acre park that will soon include an arts centre and events plaza, has been enjoyed by locals and tourists since the space celebrated its soft opening during Nuit Blanche earlier this month.
Designed by PFS Studio, the new park is the final piece of a five-year, $50-million city investment aimed at revitalizing the property, which for years had been left unmaintained.
Now conjoined with Ireland Park, Bathurst Quay Common features a repaired dock wall, cobblestone waterfront promenade and spacious seating areas with a view of the water from two levels.
The city also partnered with the Canada Ireland Foundation to repurpose an old building on the property that used to be home to the administrative offices for the Canada Malting Co. (CMC), which abandoned the site in 1987.
That building, estimated for completion next year, will be transformed into a public and private events space and will include an arts centre, a café, a bar, washrooms and a rooftop terrace.
Nearly 100-year-old silos that once belonged to the CMC and were left abandoned by more recent tenants have also been fixed up, helping transform the area into a modern space that acknowledges Toronto's industrial era.
“The silos are one of the oldest, original maritime structures on our waterfront, and one of the last remaining pieces of our industrial history,” said Bryan Bowen, the city’s project director on the Bathurst Quay Common development.
“We wanted to give them a renewed sense of dignity and celebrate them as a piece of local history,” he said. “We restored them and repaired all the concrete damage. Then we applied a mineral-based tint all over the structures.”
Named after the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood, the park is part of a larger community plan that strategized ways to improve transportation, recreation and safety in the area.
That neighbourhood plan was adopted by city council in July 2017. Capital improvement projects began two years later.
“The residents played a central role in advocating for this property to stay in public ownership,” Bowen told TorontoToday. “There was a discussion years ago that this property might be sold off for commercial and parking uses. The neighbourhood rallied behind the idea of keeping it in public ownership and preserving it for restoration of heritage buildings and new public park uses.”
“Bathurst Quay is the central waterfront’s oldest neighbourhood,” he added. “There had been enormous investment in new parks at the east end of the waterfront, and they rightly identified they weren’t seeing any of this big waterfront revitalization investment — even though they’ve been here all along.”
Situated directly across from the Billy Bishop runway — which Torontonians recently learned will be active until at least 2045 — Bathurst Quay Common provides visitors with a front-row seat to flights, ships and other activity along the water.
The park will also likely be the first thing travellers see when exiting the airport.
“It’s a great first impression into our city,” Bowen said. “It’s naturally a wonderful and welcoming gateway for people flying in and out, and there’s great kinetics to this property. All the activity in the harbour — boats racing, ferries going by, people kayaking — really gives people a place to connect to the lake.”
A multi-purpose plaza for cultural events, vendors and music at the revamped site is currently in the works and should be completed next month.
The park, located at 3 Eireann Quay, will illuminate at night and remain operational throughout the winter months.