Two new high-rise projects to add “vibrancy” to Oshawa’s downtown streetscape

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Published June 7, 2023 at 9:40 am

Rendering of rooftop of 88 King St. W

Plans for a pair of high-rise apartment buildings in downtown Oshawa found their way to the Economic and Development Services Committee Monday, with the two projects poised to transform the look of the city’s urban core.

New on the docket is a 22-storey building at 88 King St. W, a 220-unit condo building that will tower above what used to be a roller rink. The building will utilize an automated parking system on three above-ground levels and features a rooftop garden on the fifth floor and another on the actual roof of the building.

Tito-Dante Marimpietri, who chairs the committee, said the designs for the building look “gorgeous” and the future high-rise is located on an “under used” property, “where we need to focus our high-rise development.”

88 King St. W

The other building is a revised plan for a 21-storey building at 10 Mary St. N on the other side of downtown, with the mixed-use, 198-unit development to be built directly behind 70 King St. E (the former Genosh Hotel), which was re-vitalized and re-imagined by the same developer in 2018.

The new vision for the building is more in character with the nearly 100 year-old 70 King, a change that pleased Oshawa Councillor Rosemary McConkey, who described the new design as a “smart new look,” and one that better frames the historic Genosh.

“I said previously I was not keen at all on (what was) previously proposed but now this seems a much more promising project, one to bring new vibrancy to the downtown streetscape.”

As part of the project, two new floors will be added to the City-owned parking garage across Mary Street (at the developer’s expense) and a pedestrian walkway will be built to connect the buildings.

It’s all part of a grand plan to recharge Oshawa’s downtown, said Marimpietri.

“A number of attractive new towers are being advanced which will help with the revitalization of the city’s downtown core, and this will compliment the City’s vision,” he said. “Downtown Oshawa is a much more suitable and appropriate place to locate projects of this nature. We are excited by the potential these new developments proposals will collectively have on our vision to further animate the downtown area.”

70 King (foreground) and 88 King

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