The first phase of a new waterfront development east of Yonge St., called Sugar Wharf, is expected to open within three years with a new LCBO headquarters and store.

But within seven or eight years, the 4.7-hectare Sugar Wharf community will include five condo towers ranging from 64 to 90 storeys, a public park, a midrise rental building, a grocery store and a new public elementary school, said Peter Menkes of Menkes Developments.

A new transit line and a connection to the downtown PATH system will be “absolutely critical” to linking Sugar Wharf’s anticipated 8,000 residents and 4,500 workers to the downtown, he said.

Menkes made the comments at the official groundbreaking Thursday for the 25-storey, 700,000-square-foot office building and liquor store that will replace the 64-year-old yellow brick LCBO headquarters.

“Less people are using cars — they’re walking and they’re taking public transit. We have a lot of people living here so (transit) is definitely a requirement for the entire neighbourhood,” said Menkes.

“When it’s all built out, there will be 40,000 people plus 40,000 jobs in the whole waterfront area,” he said.

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Menkes, which bought the property in 2016, is developing it with Greystone Managed Investments and Triovest Realty Advisors.

Peter Menkes said the PATH will connect above ground near the Air Canada Centre and continue through 1 Yonge St. (where the Toronto Star is located), which is also being redeveloped.

The lack of rapid transit on the waterfront east of Yonge St. has been a frustration for developers and residents in the early years of the lakefront construction boom, as the area is served by TTC buses.

The city has already secured a funding commitment from the federal government for waterfront transit, said Mayor John Tory, who kibitzed with Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa at Thursday’s event about the need for more provincial funds.

“Over $260 million have been garnered through this (Sugar Wharf) transaction, which has been put forward to enable us to invest in greater infrastructure, in more public transit, in more investments in the city of Toronto,” Sousa said.

After the event, the mayor acknowledged a new transit line will likely cost “beyond hundreds of millions of dollars.” A provincial funding commitment would allow the city to move ahead with big decisions on the kind of transit to build and how it would connect to Union Station, he said.

Tory said the transit expansion should be underway by the time the first phase of Sugar Wharf opens in three years.

“We just have to keep pushing on these things,” he said.

“The problem we had in previous times is we allowed all the development to go ahead and did postpone the transit 10 or 20 years,” said the mayor.

A few years ago, it would have been inconceivable to see the kind of mixed-use development envisioned in Sugar Wharf across from the Redpath sugar factory, and now families are returning to live and work in the area, necessitating a new school, said Tory.

The site is on the north side of Queens Quay East between Freeland St., just east of Yonge St., and a new street east of Cooper St.

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The existing LCBO store will continue to operate until a new 25,000-square-foot flagship retail location opens on the ground floor of the new commercial building at 100 Queens Quay E.

The LCBO will amalgamate staff from several locations around Toronto under one roof, occupying a third of the new office building. The developer says heritage elements of the old LCBO office building and warehouse will be incorporated into the revitalized site.

Harbour St., which currently ends at Yonge St., will be extended to the north of the new park.

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