Townhouse rebuild could quadruple units

Proposal for condemned west-end complex may add as many as 700 units

- VICTORIA GIBSON

Swansea Mews, the west-end Toronto townhouse complex condemned after a 2022 ceiling collapse, could quadruple in size over the coming years.

A new vision for the subsidized rental community beside High Park which has been vacant for two years was revealed in a document prepared for a Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC) committee meeting Monday.

The document proposes to replace what is currently a 175,000-square-foot community made up of about 150 townhouses with a brand-new complex of up to 695,000 square feet that would see the existing rent-geared-to-income homes replaced while adding between 550 and 700 new units.

The fate of Swansea Mews has been unclear since May 2022, when a concrete ceiling collapsed onto a tenant and sent them to hospital. Engineers then discovered faults in other townhome ceilings, and the entire community was forced out. Tenants have since been scattered to different housing complexes across the city.