Adaptive reuse: 1 Marlborough

A Toronto development called 1 Marlborough would keep the old Pierce-Arrow showroom on Yonge Street and build 58 homes above and behind it. (audax.ca) Devron Developments and Dorsay Development Corporation say the project is planned as a 13-storey building at 1140 Yonge Street, with a sales launch in fall 2026 and completion targeted for 2030. Suites are expected to range from about 1,800 to more than 8,000 square feet. (tiopepi.net) The design keeps the historic street-facing base and adds new floors above it, a form of “vertical infill” that uses air space over an existing building instead of clearing the site. Audax says the plan would reopen the original arches, restore stone and brick details, and add setbacks and terraces on the upper levels. (audax.ca) The project has been in Toronto’s planning system for years. A city report says an Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment application was filed on September 2, 2020, for a 13-storey mixed-use building at 1134-1140 Yonge Street. (toronto.ca) That matters because the site is not just another storefront on Yonge Street. City heritage documents describe 1140 Yonge as a rare surviving Toronto automobile showroom, built in 1930 for Pierce-Arrow and recognized on the Heritage Register on September 25, 1978. (toronto.ca) Toronto City Council strengthened that protection in December 2021, when it passed Designation By-law 1082-2021 under the Ontario Heritage Act for 1140 Yonge Street. The by-law cites the building’s double-height cast-stone arches and sculptural detailing by artist Merle Foster. (secure.toronto.ca; toronto.ca) The site also carries a second Toronto history: broadcasting. Heritage and local preservation sources say the former showroom later served as a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television studio for many years. (toronto.ca; acotoronto.ca) The scheme changed as it moved through review. A 2020 city consultation report described a 66-unit proposal, while current project material from the developers markets 58 homes, showing how the plan shifted toward fewer, much larger residences. (toronto.ca; 1marlborough.com) UrbanToronto lists the project in pre-construction and names Audax as architect, ERA Architects as heritage architect, and Holbrook & Associates as landscape architect. The same listing shows the development team includes Devron, Dorsay, and Constantine Enterprises Inc. (urbantoronto.ca) If it proceeds on the current timeline, 1 Marlborough will test a familiar Toronto development question on a small, high-profile corner: how much new housing can be added without wiping out the building that gives the address its identity. (toronto.ca; audax.ca)