Mayor Olivia Chow and other Councilors took part in a ground breaking launch of the construction of a new Etobicoke Civic Centre.
Mayor Olivia Chow and other city councillors on April 10 took part in a ground-breaking launch for the long-awaited Etobicoke Civic Centre.
Construction of the mixed-use centre is underway at City-owned lands at 3755 Bloor Street W., in the Kipling Avenue and Bloor Street W. area. It is expected to be completed in 2028, with staff moving in by December.
“The new Etobicoke Civic Centre is a landmark project that is part of a bigger vision to create a city centre in Toronto’s west end,” said Mayor Chow. “I am excited to see this development that allows residents to live, work and play in one place come to life and support our goal of getting our city back on track.”
The massive Etobicoke Civic Centre will house a library branch, child care and dental facilities among amenities.
The new civic hub will feature more than 508,000 square feet of accessible public-facing space. It will include four office towers, a podium-level multi-purpose council chamber, a child care centre, a new Toronto Public Library branch, a public health clinic for dental services and breastfeeding.
There will also be a recreation centre, ceremonial rooms, public meeting rooms, an art gallery and retail spaces, all leading out to an open civic square with a Sacred Fire Vessel.
The recreation facility is proposed to have a gymnasium, aquatic centre, multi-purpose rooms and fitness rooms, according to plans.
It will take hundreds of workers more than four years to build the facility which will have a large public square.
“This is a monumental day for the residents of Etobicoke, who have long needed a civic space that meets the growing needs of this community,” said Councillor Stephen Holyday. “With the Council Chamber and municipal offices co-located with many public facilities, the new Etobicoke Civic Centre will truly be a people-oriented development.”
The Centre will be the cornerstone of a community on six hectares of former Westwood Theatre Lands. It will anchor a new residential and retail area with as many as 2,700 homes, 900 of which will meet Toronto’s affordable housing criteria.
The Etobicoke Civic Centre will be part of a complete community surrounded by thousands of housing units.
The Six Points area was originally a web of roads until the city began work on a new intersection in 2017. This work cost $77 million and involved the demolition of bridges and creation of regular intersections between Kipling Avenue, Bloor Street W., and Dundas Street West.
The civic square will have various types of landscaping like large erratic (boulders) landscape elements, including a water feature, garden area, event plaza, a sacred fire vessel and outdoor seating areas.
It will have 427 parking spots in two floors of underground parking. The ground floor bike storage area will have 72 short-term and 67 long-term bicycle parking spaces, and a bicycle repair area.
The spacious Civic Centre which will cost about $526 million to build.
The basement level of the centre will house a district energy plant managed by Enwave Energy Corporation which will provide energy to the entire Bloor-Kipling precinct – making this Toronto’s first near-zero emissions community.