It’s been nearly 8 years given that Pemberton Group filed plans for 139-149 Church Street and 18-20 Dalhousie Street, which is a stone’s toss from St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto.
Provided the proximity, redevelopment is a high order– the plans must be supportive to the City’s real estate requirements and the developing tall structure context of the location, without obstructing the medical facility’s helicopter flight course.
The latest Zoning By-law Change application for the site was submitted to the City last month for a 61-storey mixed-use structure with 469 apartment units and 4 ground-floor retail units along Church Street.
Makings prepared by Graziani + Corazza Architects reveal the development with a two-storey street wall, six-storey podium along the southern portion of the site, and a large step-backed aspect above the 24th flooring along the tower’s north facade to accommodate the healthcare facility’s airspace.Site Data, As
Of March 2026 Building height: 61 storeys/661 feet Residential GFA: 345,522 sq. ft
. The original proposition from June 2018 was for a 49-storey mixed-use structure with a 28-storey step back. By May 2020, the designer had picked up 137 Church Street, and filed a revised application pondering a 54-storey tower instead.Because of the trickiness surrounding how the building may intrude on St. Michael’s airspace, Pemberton continued to revise the proposition twice more, even after appealing it to the Ontario Land tribunal in September 2021 over the City’s lack of decision. Finally, the OLT approved a settlement in August 2022 for a 54-storey mixed-use structure with a 27-storey step back that was acceptable to
the hospital’s airspace guidelines at that time. The development was also set to accommodate around 3,014 sq. feet of retail gross floor location(GFA), 345,522 sq. feet of residential GFA, and 440 condominium systems. The August 2022 approval was eventually jeopardized in January 2024, when the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing provided a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) modifying the St. Michael’s Medical facility flight path in such a way that conflicted with a part of the authorized 54-storey tower.In response, and as shown in the March 2026 application, Pemberton presented the step-back aspect at the 24th flooring, and also reduced the tower floorplates from 7,675 sq. feet in levels 9 through 24, to around 5,027 sq. ft above the 24th flooring. The floorplates being more narrow and irregular in form is to guarantee” the building stays outside the flight course while keeping suitable building and construction and maintenance clearances,”according to the preparation report that went to city staff last month.Even with the current round of modifications, the GFAs– domestic, retail, and overall– have all remained
the same from the 54-storey tower authorized by the OLT in 2022. The preparation report also explains that, because the OLT approval in 2022,”the development context in the area now consists of authorized heights of up to 72 floors and existing heights of up to 52 floors “– so the 61-storey tower being proposed by Pemberton would fit right in. The existing development context of the area includes a 57-storey structure under construction at 60-64 Queen Street and 131-135 Church Street, and an approved 59-storey building at 83-89 Queen Street East and 119-127 Church Street.