Brookfield Downsizes 20 Front West Plans on CN Tower Sightline

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
July 11, 2025 By Anthony Teles 2.2k

Brookfield reduces 20 plans for CN Tower Sightline 20 Front West Plans

The Toronto financial district could soon take shape the last phase of the Brookfield Place in residential areas. The Brookfield residential building has submitted a revised application for approval for the approval for the location for the 20 to 22 front Street West, where a 40-story mixed use building is now planned instead of a previously approved 52-story tower.

View to the northwest to 20 front West, designed by KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

Brookfield attributes the reduced scale to falling rental rates and rising vacancies. In particular, the revised massing makes the shadow effects on the Berczy Park softer and preserves more from the CN Tower View corridor along the Front Street from the east, also from popular points of view. In the steps of Union Station and directly connected to the Toronto path network, the KPMB Architects-Designed tower continues with core architects as architect of Record, the long-awaited third phase from Brookfield for the location.

The package is located on the north side of the front between the streets Yonge and Bay and forms the southern edge of the Brookfield Place complex. The currently inhabited by a 14-story office building and is surrounded by office works with a high density, incorporation and retail.

View to the northeast to the current location, picture of the submission to the city of Toronto

The location, built in 1923 as a Gowans Kent Building, had long been equipped as a place for the third trading tower of Brookfield Place, a plan that came to a standstill in the early 1990 recessions. The office building, which was extended by four floors in the mid -1980s, has not been used in the decades since then.

Brookfield's proposal to reuse the base of the heritage base adaptively was to change the official plan in July 2024 after the city council. Regarding the planned improvements on the floor of the East-Store store pieces and the heir of the Brook, which became the west of the chair and the west of the chair, and for the New glassing location and the new glazing location, and for the new glassing location and the New glassing location and the building of the west, to the west, he reused to the zoning of the zone insulation basis.

View northeast of the podium, designed by KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

The previous submission of 52 bumps was submitted in May 2023. The revised proposal called for a 40-story, specially built rent, which rose 134.92 m (after 175 m) with 480 residential units, from 599 years. Brookfield notes that the average unit sizes remain unchanged despite a reduced base plate.

The gross base area was dropped from 44,304 m² to 35,113 m². Retail would expand the Front Street West in the class to 625 m², which was increased from the original 546 m². As a result, the floor surface index was reduced from 30.79 to 24.4 times the cover of the 1,439 m² location.

Location plan, designed by KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

The updated plan proposes 1.929 m² total equipment area of 2,457 m², which consist of 1,560 m² inside and 369 m² outdoors. Four special residential elevators are planned that correspond to one Pro 120 units, which means that high -speed engines have to be provided appropriate to the reaction times.

Two underground levels would absorb a total of six vehicle parking spaces, all of which are set for visitors, while 432 long -term and 48 short -term bicycle parking spaces are proposed.

Plan on the ground floor, designed by KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

One of the concerns treated in the revised submission is the preservation of a prominent corridor of the Skyline View, which looks west along the Front Street Ost from Market Street. This viewpoint offers a framed view of the CN tower, which increases behind the financial district, with cultural reconstructing in the foreground, a perspective that is equally widespread by locals and visitors.

Looking west for the previous design of KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

The original 52-story proposal (above) was criticized because it can penetrate this line of sight. While the revised 40-story scheme (below) does not completely eliminate the visual penetration, the slimmer profile and the increased tower separation of 181 Bay Street make the disability and contribute to maintaining the clarity of this known urban view.

Looking west to the current design of KPMB Architects for Brookfield Residential

The location is less than 200 m or about a three-minute walk from Union Station and offers access to Go Transit, Up Express, via rail and several TTC-U-Bahn and surface routes. For cyclists there are routes along Yonge, Bay and the Esplanade with nearby connections to Martin Goodman Trail.

A map of the site and the surrounding area, picture of the submission to the city of Toronto

The proposal combines a rapidly growing group of important developments in the downtown core. A front with 45 and 49 floors is proposed directly on the other side of the street, while the CIBC Square gives itself a 50-story second phase exactly south of it in the first 49-story phase in the south. In the east, 45 The Esplanade requests approval for 39 floors. The most important suggestions include 49-51 YONGE in 62 Storeys, 191 Bay on 64 floors, 60 Yonge on 65 floors and 55 yonge on 68 floors. Further south are planned in Sugar Whare Phase 2 to reach up to 85 floors, while Pinnacle One Yonge is under construction, including the 106-story Skytower, which is to be the highest building of Canada.

The construction work for 20 Front West was approved in August 2025, with a sidewalk closure and a crew of the curb along the north side of the Front Street West by the end of 2030.

Urbantoronto will continue to pursue progress in this development. In the meantime, however, you can find out more about this from our database file linked below. If you want, you can join the conversation in the associated project forum thread or leave a comment in the room provided on this page.

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