Mizrahi Developments plans to construct Toronto's tallest building, a 1M SF, 80-storey mixed-use mammoth at 1 Bloor W called “The One.” But as VP Mahdi Tajbakhsh tells us, the focal point of the $1B project is the nine-level luxury-retail complex at its base.
Although The One—designed by London’s Foster + Partners in conjunction with local firm Core Architects—will have 70 storeys of condos, “the main component for us is the retail,” says Mahdi, providing Bisnow a preview of the plans that Mizrahi Developments will present today at a second public meeting for the project at the Park Hyatt. Bloor Street is Toronto's “haven for high-end luxury retail,” he notes, so they designed The One's podium first, then the residential tower. “We wanted to make sure the retail doesn’t become an after-thought, which is so often the case with developments in Toronto.”
The retail will begin on The One’s P1 level, with an eight-storey podium above that situated around a 60-metre-tall living atrium that'll have water features, green walls and planters. There'll be high-end restaurants on the top three floors, and the bottom of the tower will have PATH connections to the Yonge-Bloor subway station, plus underground parking. The building, boasting a design that Mahdi promises will "put Toronto on the international map," will be wrapped from top to bottom in an exoskeleton of structural steel, so the retail podium will be left completely open, or “uncontaminated,” as he puts it.
This will be Mizrahi’s first tall tower; the highest it's gone before is the 11-storey 181 Davenport (under construction). The developer's goal is for The One to become the city’s top luxury shopping destination, à la Bal Harbour in Florida, Mahdi points out. And the eight “jewellery boxes” with 22-foot ceilings are luring high-end international retailers not yet in TO to establish Canadian flagships here. Mizrahi Developments, which started off building custom homes, is giving these retailers the chance to fully customize the design of their spaces. “They have a clear sheet and can draw whatever they want."
