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For more evidence of the astounding pace of growth in Toronto, one need look no further than the past two days of city council, which approved 18 new buildings in the downtown, including three office towers.

The development bonanza works out to 755 additional storeys, or 6,887 units — more fuel for the “Manhattanization” of Canada’s largest city.

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Chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat called the amount of work her department has processed “mind blowing” and “astronomical,” noting that it comes in addition to the 70,000 units already approved and in the pipeline to be constructed across the city.

Downtown Toronto, she noted, is growing four times faster than the rest of the city and has a quarter of all of the office development in Canada. The three office towers on Front Street and King Street West come after a concerted effort by the city to speed up approvals for commercial projects.

“Quite frankly, the development industry is just waiting for cranes to become available, they’re waiting to be able to get the construction workers available to actually build their projects,” said Ms. Keesmaat.