Toronto's Unilever site
Toronto's Unilever site is the site of a redevelopment of a 25 hectares (62 acres) brownfield into a site where 50.000 office workers are expected to be employed.[1][2][3] It is just east of the Don River, and just south of Queen Street, near Broadview Avenue.[4] Plans to turn the campus of Unilever's former soap factory into an office complex date back to its sale, in 2012.[5]
Lever Brothers opened a soap factory on the site in 1890.[4] Property development firm First Gulf, and two partners bought the property in 2012.[4][6]
Building a East Harbour transit hub adjacent to the site was added to the site plans in 2018.[6].[7] Provincial commuter rail trains, and a new subway line will share the station, which will also be connected to the Toronto Transit Commission's streetcar network.
Original developers, First Gulf, planned for the site to be used solely for offices, but when it was sold to Cadillac Fairview, they requested the city to amend the plan to allow the addition of 4,400 apartments.[8]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑
"Up-And-Coming Or Over-And-Out? Cadillac Fairview's East Harbour Development In Toronto – Urbaneer". Cadillac Fairview Urbaneer. 2022-10-14. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
Designed as a transit-oriented community – with planned stops on the new Ontario Line and a GO train station, when completed – the development will be easily accessible for the estimated 50,000 employees that will commute to work there.
- ↑
"Will East Harbour be the city's hot new business hub?". CBC News. 2017-02-24. Archived from the original on 2017-02-25. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
The city calls it the former Unilever site. But the developer that's taken over the 60 acres of land down near Lake Shore Boulevard and the Don Valley Parkway has a new name for the space it hopes to turn into a second city business hub: East Harbour.
- ↑ Kate Robertson (2017-02-24). "The old Unilever soap factory is open for business". NOW Toronto. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2
Peter Kuitenbrouwer (2012-01-26). "Former Unilever factory at DVP and Lake Shore sold, to be redeveloped into 'business area'". National Post. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
The new owners of the Unilever site, near the mouth of the Don River, which made Sunlight and Dove soap products for more than a century, say they plan to transform the sprawling former factory into an office park for thousands of workers.
- ↑ "East Harbour Master Plan" (PDF). 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1
"The East Harbour transit hub site can't have housing because it's been set aside as an employment zone for 'high value' jobs, city councillor says". Toronto Star. 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
Several years later First Gulf, city and transit planners, the local community and other interests came together to forge a master plan for the East Harbour site, a blueprint finalized in 2018 that sets out to 'transition the former industrial area into a vibrant, contemporary employment district.'
- ↑
"East Harbour Transit Hub takes shape in Toronto" (video). Metrolinx via YouTube. 2025-11-04. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
The new East Harbour Transit Hub is taking shape. Once complete it will connect GO, TTC and the future Ontario Line to reshape how we move throughout the region.
- ↑ "Resubmission Proposes Residential Additions to East Harbour Plan". Urban Toronto. 2025-01-02. Retrieved 2025-01-03.