Bay Adelaide West - Toronto, Ontario - Skyscrapers on Waymarking.com

The first tower development on the site was a joint project by Markborough Properties and TrizecHahn: a 57-storey office tower to be constructed at the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets. It was to have cost almost a billion dollars, and was the last of a series of construction projects in downtown Toronto launched in the boom years of the 1980s, when a number of massive towers were built nearby, such as Scotia Plaza.

Construction began in 1990, but the developers soon ran into problems. The economy went into recession and office vacancy rates in Toronto rose to 20%. Construction was halted, and in 1993, with over $500 million already invested, the project was permanently put on hold. All that was completed was the underground parking garage and several storeys of the concrete service shaft that stood from 1991 onwards, as a monument to the failed project in downtown Toronto. The stump of the service shaft was known to security and the locals as "the bunker" or simply "the stump". The parking garage was in operation, and the stump itself was used as a surface on which to mount advertisements.

In 2000 there was again talk of reviving the project, but the next year TrizecHahn sold its 50% share to Brookfield Properties for $49 million.

In October 2005, plans were filed with the City of Toronto to develop the property. An information sign (notice to amend the by law regulating zoning) was placed on Bay St. between 347 Bay and 355 Bay, both also Brookfield properties. The notice, in short, informed the public that three mixed-use high-rise towers surrounding an urban plaza will be built. The towers were then planned to vary in size from 43 to 50 storeys and contain an aggregate density of 240,396 square metres (2,587,600 sq ft). Brookfield Properties had signed KPMG and Goodmans as anchor tenants for the first tower, Bay Adelaide West, with Fasken Martineau and Heenan Blaikie also taking up residence in the building.

In June 2006, both buildings on Bay Street attached to this property were emptied of tenants and by December 11, 2006, both buildings had been taken down, with the north and west facades of the National Building (347 Bay) being removed for incorporation into the new buildings. The National Building had only recently been designated a heritage building under the Ontario Heritage Act (Part IV). By December 2006, dismantling of the service shaft stump was complete. Construction of the PATH tunnel north from Scotia Plaza through the Bay Adelaide Centre started in fall 2007.

Bay Adelaide West was completed in 2009 at 51 storeys. The development achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold status for the project's environmental sustainability and will produce an estimated 40% energy savings relative to other buildings.

Building Name: Bay Adelaide Centre West Tower Structure Height: 715 Number of Stories: 51 Year Built: 2009 Architect/Design Firm: WZMH Architects Use: Office Building Publicly accessible areas: Unknown Address: 333 Bay Street Building Website: [Web Link] The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) link: [Web Link] Style: Not listed Hours: Not listed Cost: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/13/2016 MrARC visited it