Toronto’s One Bloor West is moving forward after years of development turmoil and has already reached a significant milestone that signals a new chapter for high-rise development in Canada.
It became Canada’s first supertall tower in June when it surpassed 300 metres, the benchmark for achieving “supertall” building status.
Jim Richie, president and CEO of the building’s developer Tridel, has said One Bloor West marks “a pivotal moment not just for Toronto, but all of Canada.”
“We are moving into a new era of development, marked by a level of ambition and engineering excellence not previously seen before,” he said in a statement.
A difficult past
Initially dubbed The One, the 85-storey tower was first launched in 2015 with a budget of $1.3 billion and a goal to be completed by Dec. 31, 2022.
It was originally slated to have 416 condo units, a 175-room Hyatt hotel, and Apple was set to be the anchor tenant on the ground floor.
A lot has changed since then.
One of the first signs of trouble was in 2022, when Apple sued the original developer Mizrahi Developments to terminate its contract, claiming millions of dollars in damages owed due to missed deadlines.
“From the get-go it was an ambitious project that had a lot of people questioning if it would be built,” Sage Real Estate agent Mark Savel told Real Estate Magazine. “There was a lot of overspending and just mismanagement of how the project was run.”
Builder Sam Mizrahi first purchased the southeast corner at Bloor Street and Yonge Street in late 2014 for around $300 million, which Savel said was a “crazy high price” that caused some to scratch their heads.
Ground broke in 2017, but when COVID-19 hit in 2020 and impacted supply chains, the project soon faced delays, and its 2022 finish date was in doubt, according to Savel.
Project goes underwater
In October 2023, seniors lenders to the project requested the appointment of a receiver due to significant cost overruns, delays in construction and a large amount of debt.
The project was reported to be over budget by about $600 million, had about $1.7 billion in debt and was about two years behind schedule.
Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. agent David Elliott told REM this was an unusual situation in real estate, given the huge amount of money. In this case, Mizrahi’s ambition to create the tallest tower in Canada “caught up to” him, he said.
Elliott said that with construction delays, workers still need to be paid and costs still accumulate. There is also pressure to have funds for future expenses, he said, such as materials that may be continuously rising in price.
“The major delays they ran into and the cost overruns were just too much,” Elliott said. “They just escalated pretty quickly… it’s a perfect negative storm.”
A new chapter
One Bloor West is now in the hands of developer Tridel as of May 2025, with an estimated completion date of early 2028. Both Elliott and Savel say they’re confident Tridel is the right developer to get the job done, given its impressive track record, which includes The Well in Toronto.
Greater Yorkville Residents’ Association President Alan Baker told REM that there are construction management meetings every month, which have been very informative. He said Tridel is scheduled to do its last concrete work in early 2026, with occupancy to start mid to late 2027.
“You can see they’re under construction and moving ahead,” he said. “Everybody would like to see the construction over.”
While concrete machinery is taking over a lane, which Baker said residents are eager to have gone, he said that residents overall have been alright with the pause in construction, given how much other work is going on in the area – it has felt like a break for them.
‘It’ll be bragging rights for the owners there’
If anything, One Bloor West provides lessons for developers looking to add supertall towers to Toronto’s skyline.
Elliott said Toronto is ready for these kinds of towers, but that they present their own challenges. For one, they require the developer to dig very far down for their base, which he said is expensive and translates to supertalls often having a higher price tag for their units than standard condo towers.
Elliott said that could make them a tough sell in the future, given the economic hazy times ahead. One Bloor West also has the advantage of being in a very desirable neighbourhood, Yorkville, right at the intersection of two major streets and on two transit lines.
“I think a city like Toronto is ready for these types of towers,” Elliott said. “It’ll be bragging rights for some of the owners there.”
Tridel did not provide a comment by deadline.
Eric Stober has over 10 years experience as a journalist and writer at publications big and small, including Global News, Toronto Life, Post City Magazine, Greencamp.com, the Toronto Star and The Grid.