Canadian developer Pinnacle International is holding off on plans to demolish the Toronto Star’s old office building at 1 Yonge St. in fresh hopes of converting the existing building into a luxury hotel.
The developer had sought a demolition permit for the office building in December 2024, but the structure could now form part of the Pinnacle One Yonge development, a “master-planned community” across two blocks that includes the construction of a 106-storey Sky Tower, set to be Canada’s tallest skyscraper, along Yonge Street and Lake Shore Boulevard East.
The Star moved to The Well at Spadina Avenue and Front Street in 2022 after 51 years at 1 Yonge. Torstar Corp. had sold the property for $47 million in 2000 while continuing to lease space, and in 2012, Pinnacle purchased the waterfront site for $250 million, property records show.
The mixed-use development planned for 1-7 Yonge St., which includes the Star’s old headquarters, is set to include housing, retail, a community centre, and hotel space. The north block will have three towers — of 106, 95, and 65 storeys — but the future of the south block hasn’t been determined.
Whether the hotel conversion would be a long-term fixture at the site isn’t clear.
According to the zoning application Pinnacle submitted to the City of Toronto Thursday, the conversion would be part of an “interim plan” to “extend the lifespan” of the Star building — since 87 per cent of the office space is vacant and maintaining it this way isn’t financially feasible — while Pinnacle works on approvals, designs and sales of their “ultimate development.”
Anson Kwok, Pinnacle’s vice-president of sales and marketing, explained that the “ultimate plan” refers to an application Pinnacle submitted in October at the same site for two residential towers, but the city hasn’t approved it yet.
Earlier plans for the site would have created 1 million square feet of office space, Kwon said, but the company pivoted to building more residences, due to the pandemic’s impact on the commercial market.
“We’re just trying to keep our options open on the site,” he added.
The hotel plans seek to retrofit the 25-storey building to have 468 suites, as well as a ballroom, a restaurant and bar, meeting rooms and more.
It would also include 160 “extended stay suites” for people who may need to stay in the city longer for business purposes,” the zoning application says.
The company hopes to repurpose the old Star building’s “bones” and keep its facade, while updating and adding to its mechanical systems.
“We’re kind of at a tricky stage of the building, as well, because it’s from the early ‘70s, so we’re kind of at the end of life of a lot of the mechanical systems,” Kwok said. “But, for us, it’s a building with good bones.”
The Star building would be the second hotel in Pinnacle’s development. The first — the Marriott’s Le Meridien — is set to open in the Sky Tower next spring or summer with some 225 rooms, Kwok said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about bringing a hotel to the waterfront,” said Kwok, who is also the vice-chair of the Waterfront BIA. “I think there’s a collective vision, from all different parties that are on the waterfront, trying to make this a world-class waterfront city, and obviously, in order to bring the tourism here, the hotel component is a big driver.”
Pinnacle’s portfolio of hotel developments includes properties in British Columbia, such as Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel and Pinnacle Hotel Whistler Village, and it plans to open more next year in San Diego and Melbourne.
“As the city keeps on growing, hotel demand is definitely there to service both the tourism side of it, and obviously the corporate sector that is quite strong in Toronto,” he added.
While there’s nothing to announce yet regarding a designer or operator for the 1 Yonge hotel, the company is going “full steam ahead” on drawings to make the hotel a reality, Kwok said.
Kwok said the company hopes to complete the hotel in two or three years.
The zoning application said the developer would spend at least five years working on its “ultimate development” — with approvals, design work, marketing and sales — but Kwok said he “highly” doubts that, given the investment going into retrofitting the building, that its lifespan would be so short.
“Obviously, once we run a hotel, we’re going to be running it,” he said. “It’s not an easy start-stop situation.”
