Weston Road development stalls as $31.5M land sale triggers mortgage default

Two abandoned parcels of land in Weston-Mount Dennis are being sold for $31.5 million through a power-of-sale process — a rare window into the financing troubles of a major Toronto development that stalled in the planning approval process.

The properties at 971 and 975 Weston Road, together comprising roughly 1.5 acres, are vacant and have been abandoned since the early 2000s. They form part of a larger redevelopment site that has been working through Toronto's planning process for years.

Development plans for the 955 to 975 Weston Road corridor date back over two decades. In 2005, an initial application proposed 71 stacked townhouses. By 2021, developer Haven Developments submitted a more ambitious plan: two 11-storey residential buildings containing 617 units.

That proposal changed dramatically in January 2023. With Mount Dennis designated as a Major Transit Station Area — the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, GO Transit and UP Express all converging nearby — Haven Developments redesigned the project substantially. The revised plan swapped the two mid-rise buildings for towers reaching 24 and 34 storeys, rising from a shared eight-storey podium, proposing 1,003 condo units, roughly 60 per cent more than the original. The redesign also freed up space for a proposed public park and reduced parking from 436 spaces to 368 while increasing bike parking to 1,004.

A power of sale occurs when a mortgage lender sells a property after the borrower defaults on their debt. The source does not identify the lender or the outstanding debt amount. The current stage of Haven Developments' revised proposal in the Toronto planning approval process and its timeline remain unclear.