It has taken several years of planning as well as changes to the project's name and the original plans, but The Gupta Group has launched sales for its newest Toronto development at 4050 Yonge St. in North York.

Yonge City Square, at the corner of Yonge and Wilson Avenue, will include residential condominium towers of 28 and 14 storeys with a combined 704 suites, ranging from approximately 350 to 1,000 square feet. The community will also feature retail on the ground floor below commercial office space. 

Yonge City Square is just south of Hwy. 401 and will provide direct access to the York Mills subway station, which puts leisure, shopping, dining, entertainment and hospital options within easy reach.

The site also backs on to the Don Valley Golf Course, so no new development can take place on the north or west sides of the property.

The IBI Group-designed project, featuring interiors by Studio Munge, will feature oversized balconies and about 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities that include:

• a ninth-floor terrace with an outdoor pool, lounge chairs, private cabanas, barbecue stations, an outdoor prep kitchen, a fire pit and a dining lounge;
• entertainment lounges with a golf simulator and bar;
• a fitness centre featuring a yoga studio, a dance studio, private training, an infrared sauna and a salt treatment room;
• a business centre with private office spaces and boardrooms;
• a library and lounge with a fireplace;
• a curated art gallery;
• a private movie theatre;
• an all-ages games room;
• a children’s playground; and
• 24-hour concierge service.

The site’s evolution

The Gupta Group acquired the 4050 Yonge St. site eight years ago from the City of Toronto’s Build Toronto corporation, which develops underutilized city-owned real estate assets to unlock their value, attract targeted industries, stimulate employment and regenerate neighbourhoods.

The Markham-based company originally planned to develop Yonge Park Plaza — a mixed-use complex that would have included hotel, office, restaurant and retail components — on the site. 

“It didn't work out because the market wasn't right for office in this area,” The Gupta Group founder and executive chairman Steve Gupta told RENX.

The North York office market has deteriorated even more since the decision to pull the plug on Yonge Park Plaza was made, he added. 

The company took the property through the rezoning process three years ago and received approval in May 2022 for the new concept.

The city still wanted some employment to be created for the site, however, so Yonge City Square will include 42,000 square feet of office and 17,000 square feet of retail space. 

The Gupta Group will move its offices there and Gupta is hopeful other tenants will follow, but he concedes it could be challenging. 

The retail element is expected to include an upscale restaurant as well as shops and services to add convenience for residents and employees of the complex as well as others in the surrounding Hoggs Hollow neighbourhood — where no new condo has been built for 20 years.

Anticipating strong sales

A sales office for Yonge City Square has been opened at the Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Northeast/Markham at 7095 Woodbine Ave. in Markham. Prices range from approximately $600,000 to $2 million per unit and people looking for larger suites can combine multiple units.

While Gupta admitted to having concerns with launching a large new condo now, when some developers are putting projects on hold due to economic uncertainty and high interest rates and costs, he remains optimistic and said early interest in Yonge City Square has been strong.

Gupta believes two per cent interest rates were artificially low and that a five or six per cent rate is healthy. It’s just a matter of people getting used to the new reality, he said, noting mortgage rates hit 18 and 19 per cent in the early 1980s.

Gupta is hopeful sales will be sufficient by the end of April that The Gupta Group can obtain financing and then begin construction. Occupancy for Yonge City Square is slated for the summer or fall of 2027.

The Gupta Group will donate $1,000 per unit sold at Yonge City Square to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation and will top off funds for a total donation of $1 million upon the final closing of condo units.

The Gupta Group chairwoman and ambassadress, Reetu Gupta, is on the foundation’s board of directors.

The Gupta Group’s other developments

The Gupta Group’s portfolio spans hotels, event venues and residential development.

Approval is being sought to develop a mixed-use complex with three residential towers of 65, 55 and 46 storeys at 7028 Yonge St. at Steeles Avenue in Thornhill.

The proposal includes 1,902 residential units, a 200-room hotel, 50,000 square feet of office and 35,000 square feet of retail space as well as a direct entrance to a new subway stop.

There’s a two-building condo project at 906 Yonge St. and 25 McMurrich St., immediately north of Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood, which Gupta is hoping to get approved and move forward with by the end of this year.

Approval is also being sought to build a 25-storey, 288-unit condo at 1837-1845 Bayview Ave., on the corner of Broadway Avenue just north of Eglinton Avenue East in Toronto.

The Gupta Group is awaiting approval for a proposed 33-storey, 190-unit condo at 175-185 King St. E. in downtown Toronto.

Its affiliated Easton’s Group of Hotels will start construction this year on Canada’s first Curio by Hilton in the last remaining heritage building to be repurposed in Toronto’s The Distillery Historic District.

The 31-storey, 288,000-square-foot, 392-guest-room hotel at 60 Mill St. will preserve the 133-year-old building’s exteriors as the base three floors.

Construction has started on a Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton Inn with a combined 204 rooms that will share the same seven-storey building at 616 Applewood Cres., east of Hwy. 400 and north of Hwy. 7, north of Toronto in Vaughan.