drawn together
Beltline Yards is a revitalized neighbourhood between the Beltline Trail and the new Eglinton LRT and Caledonia GO interchange. These new high-density, mixed-use spaces champion community, car-free transport and public spaces.
A closer look
Beltline Yards is a rare example of a mixed-use neighbourhood built around light industry. With flexible public space and a new park, the site will create new spaces for living and making that feel seamlessly stitched together with the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Getting There
Getting around will be a breeze. Beltline Yards sits right next to two brand new transit stations, benefitting from the Eglinton LRT and GO Transit.
In conversation with Jeff Hull and Charles Arbez
Over the last twenty years, Toronto has experienced an unprecedented building boom. But as more and more towers reached for the sky, there’s one thing that, according to Hullmark CEO Jeff Hull, hasn’t happened yet. The world hasn’t taken note.
“During this incredible run we’ve had, I don’t know that there’s been an internationally recognized, successful, masterplanned development,” he says, trying to remember a Toronto project that set an international precedent. That’s something that he and his team are looking to change with Beltline Yards.
The area surrounding the site has been on Hull’s radar for a long time. “There’s always been this sense that this place is almost at the cusp of being more than it is,” he continues, and that’s where the masterplan for Beltline Yards comes in. Flanked between the up-and-coming Castlefield Design District, the Beltline Trail and two planned public transport connections, the conditions are all there to create something truly world-class.
But the ambition for Beltline Yards isn’t just about how it’s felt internationally, but what it can do locally. “We think we can use our development as a catalyst for broader positive change in the neighbourhood,” says Hull. His vision: a Beltline Trail that’s been revitalized into a connected loop through the city, with other mixed-use developments connected to a thriving green corridor. To Hull’s colleague Charles Arbez, Hullmark’s director of development, Beltline Yards is about instilling confidence in City officials and other developers to push the envelope in future urban projects. “The real opportunity is to show people what’s possible when it comes to thinking things through, having good design and looking at the end goal from a long-term sense instead of just plunking towers down ad hoc,” he says.
“Our philosophy is that eventually the right idea will win out. It might take a little bit longer, but it’s the right thing to do.”
– Hullmark CEO Jeff Hull
Understanding a place’s potential, however, is only one part of the task. The reality is that this needs to be implemented, which invites the question: how? “A lot of real estate developers will take the path of least resistance,” says Hull. “Our philosophy is that eventually the right idea will win out. It might take a little bit longer, but it’s the right thing to do. The neighbourhood will end up with a better project in the end.”
That philosophy is already being put into practice with Beltline Yards, where the mix of residential and industrial use is already a major curveball for the City. Opening up the public realm into a series of flexible pockets of activity is another. That juxtaposition of uses has, according to Arbez, blown a lot of minds. “They don’t know how to react to us. Which means to me, we're asking the right questions.”
Although Beltline Yards is still in its early days, it’s been in the works for much longer than that. To Hull, it’s the result of years and years of building relationships with the City of Toronto, architects, consultants, partners and politicians. “Beltline Yards is the culmination of 15 years of work for Hullmark,” he says. “It’s all built up to this point.”
The Long-term view
Our long-term ambition for Beltline Yards is to set a new standard for Toronto. A catalyst for change along the Beltline that inspires new communities to take shape along a fully connected, city-wide loop.
A project of this scale creates opportunities to support the continued development of the local community in a positive way. As a company dedicated to investing in the communities within which it operates, Hullmark is keen to hear what types of activities might best support local priorities and best meets the needs of local residents.
Our aim will be to further examine how these priorities might be incorporated into the Beltline Yards development, where possible. So far we’ve received feedback from stakeholders related to the following areas of interest.
Team
Hullmark is a real estate investment and development team that is committed to shaping a vibrant and transforming urban Toronto.
BGO is a globally recognized provider of real estate services. Working out of 27 cities worldwide with more than 750 partners, BGO is about helping investors and stakeholders make the most of the built environment.
bgo.com ↗
Allies & Morrison is a London-based urbanism and architecture practice with an extensive track record of masterplanning communities in historic places. For Beltline Yards, the team brought their global perspective to bring a forward-looking masterplan to Toronto.
SvN is an architecture, landscape and planning practice operating out of Toronto, Vancouver and Mexico City. Their projects focus on two key themes: transit and housing. Both come into play at Beltline Yards, where SvN designed the expansive green spaces linking the site to the Beltline Trail.
NEWS & HAPPENINGS
The best things come from exploring. That’s why in the early days of Beltline Yards, the Hullmark team hopped across the Atlantic for a quick research trip to London. They discovered the revitalized King’s Cross, Keybridge and a new favourite, the patios, breweries and cultural spaces of Hackney Wick.
“We saw some former industrial yards in London. They were ad hoc, not masterplanned, but they really, really work. They’re all mixed together with retail and patios, breweries, people having a pint on a sunny patio, but they’re also rolling barrels for distilling nearby." Said Hullmark's Charles Arbez of their architectural walks with the Allies & Morrison team.
“We saw some former industrial yards in London. They were ad hoc, not masterplanned, but they really, really work.
– Charles Arbez, Hullmark
On July 27, 2023, Hullmark invited the community to get to know the plans for Beltline Yards. This followed a Meet the Neighbours event from the previous May, where locals had an opportunity to weigh in on what they’d like to see in the masterplan. This time, London-based architects Allies & Morrison were there in person, along with VR headsets for a virtual tour of the future neighbourhood.
“I took the residents through the site with VR goggles, it was really nice to see that everyone left happy.”
— Dinka Beglerbegovic, Allies & Morrison
