Proving people have a lot of more stuff than they know what to do with, an application has been submitted to the city’s planning department for site plan approval for an eight-story self-storage facility on Geary Avenue.
The proposed Green Storage building would be located just west of Dufferin Street at 259 Geary Ave., currently home to The Brick furniture store.
The storage facilitate, which will include ancillary retail space, is designed by Paul Hastings Architect & BDP Quadrangle, according to the application.
The new building is not far from the Galleria condo project on rapidly changing Dupont Avenue, whose buildings loom above the storage tower in artist’s renderings.
It's also near Geary's trendy dining strip, home to Famiglia Baldassarre and General Public.
The storage building would contain additional retail space at-grade along Geary Avenue — renderings depict a coffee roastery — demolish a portion of the existing Brick building and incorporate about 2,800 sq. ft. of privately owned public space along the western property line.
The project’s proponents said the proposal was refined in response to feedback from city planning and urban design staff.
The storage facility would have a gross floor area of 22,734 square metres.
In terms of parking, the proposed development would have 12 surface parking spaces, including three accessible spots, in addition to the 18 parking spaces in place for the existing retail building.
“In an effort to promote sustainable modes of transportation, the proposed development will provide a total of 20 short-term bicycle parking spaces and six long-term bicycle parking spaces, for a total of 26 spaces associated with the proposed self-storage and ancillary retail uses,” design firm MHBC wrote on behalf of proponent 259 Geary Avenue Inc.
The proposal would provide six new loading spaces: one for the ancillary retail use, and five for the self-storage facility.
“The proposed building has been designed to create an appropriate pedestrian-scaled street-wall along Geary Avenue and enhance the streetscape through a mixture of soft and hard landscaping," MHBC added, "as well as step-backs along the front facade at the 3rd and 7th floors to reduce shadow impacts on the street."
Setbacks will also allow for soft landscaping features and an adequate rear yard adjacent to the CPR Railway, MHBC said.
The firm Ecovert has been retained to provide energy and sustainability consulting for the building to meet Toronto Green Standard Version 4.0 requirements.
'Going Up?' is TorontoToday's look at construction projects in and around downtown. Is there a project or location you'd like us to check out? Send your request to [email protected]
