Adedokun Waliyu 
A significant transformation is now on the horizon for Scarborough’s Warden and Highway 401 area. Plans have been filed with city planners to redevelop a site at 22 Metropolitan Road, currently home to the Knights Inn Toronto East motel and an adjacent vacant lot, with a mixed-use development proposing five towers and a mid-rise.
The application was filed on behalf of developer Sunray Group, a hospitality brand that owns and operates 45 hotels. Sunray intends to tear down the current motel and redevelop the site with six buildings ranging from 12 to 48 storeys, containing a new hotel, office space, condos, rental units, and a seniors’ residence.
Plans for this site have been brewing since 2012 when a much smaller vision was proposed seeking approval for a 13-storey hotel tower and a trio of 20-storey residential buildings.
The current plan calls for a complex designed by ZO1 Architects, placing the residential building in a cluster at the northeast end of the site against Highway 401, and a mixed-use office and hotel tower at its south end against Metropolitan Road.
The south tower is proposed to contain approximately 20,000 square metres of commercial office space, and a hotel offering 204 suites.
No hotel operator is mentioned in the submission, and the tower containing the new hotel is depicted in renderings bearing the branding of developer Sunray Group, likely as a placeholder.
For now, one can only speculate as to which brand would operate the hotel. However, Sunray’s current roster of partnerships may offer some insight, with potential hotel chains including Marriott, Starwood, Radisson, Best Western, and Choice Hotels.
In addition to the hotel suites, a total of 2,048 residential units are proposed across the four additional blocks to the northeast, consisting of a mix of seniors’ residence units, rental apartments, and condominiums.
Block 2 of the community will house 384 seniors’ units, consisting of 120 assisted living, 24 memory care, and 240 independent living units.
Block 3 is to house the community’s rental component, consisting of 210 units in a breakdown of 134 one-bedrooms, 44 two-bedrooms, and 32 three-bedroom units.
Three condominium buildings will be spread across Blocks 4 and 5, containing a combined 1,454 condos in a mix of 926 one-bedrooms, 275 two-bedrooms, and 153 three-bedroom units.
22 metropolitan road torontoAll of this new density would be supported by a proposed public park occupying 3,300 square metres, or 9.5 per cent of the gross site area.
Filed in late March, the proposal was received by city planners in April, and circulated to city divisions for feedback in early May.
