Another tower could be coming to Bay and Lake Shore

An early rendering for a new office tower near the Air Canada Centre is providing a hint at the future of Bay St. south of the railway tracks. Planned by Oxford Properties for the parking lot surrounding the heritage-protected Toronto Harbour Commission Building, the designs show a 45-storey, 944,000 sq. ft. building with an unusual point at its northeast corner. An outdoor space appears about a third of the way up the west side of the building.

A time of writing no development application has been filed with the city's planning department and it's not clear how the building will affect the 98-year-old Harbour Commission Building, which has been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act since 1973. Before the area around the building became a parking lot, it was the location of two steamship passenger terminals.

Big changes are in the works on this stretch of Bay. Last year, a proposal for a new GO bus terminal and two-tower office complex was proposed kitty-corner to 30 Bay St. As part of that proposal, developers proposed an elevated "sky park" directly over the Union Station rail corridor.

Oxford Properties is also currently building the new RBC headquarters at 85 Harbour Street and the new tower under construction at 100 Adelaide West.

What do you think of the proposed tower?

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

by Chris Bateman via blogTO