LOCATION:
South of Queen Street to the Distillery District and west of the Don River.
EPICENTRE:
King Street West and Sumach St.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:
trendy, award winning park, mostly condos, cottage-style homes.
DID YOU KNOW?:
Two predominant theories exist when it comes to the Corktown name. One has to do with the origins of its early inhabitants in the 1800s largely consisting of Irish immigrants from County Cork in Ireland. The second has to do with then number of nearby breweries, and the corks needed to plug the bottles.
Corktown was once a rather empty place not too long ago. There were some cute, cottage-like homes along King Street East and Queen Street East and a few new townhome developments. There were always a collection of cool brunch places, restaurant and bars, but just south of King was an empty wasteland of unused land.
There was the chance that developers could have swooped in here and put up giant, ugly condos with no green space and no sense of community, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, we found one of the best-planned new neighbourhoods this city has even seen.
The River City project where several condos went up all at once was planned perfectly. There is a good mix of midrise condos here so you don’t feel like the extreme height of the buildings block most of your daylight. You’re still centrally located south of King Street East just west of the Don River. So, it’s easy to get around.
You have one of the best green spaces in the city called the Corktown Common. Believe or not, Waterfront Toronto can do something well besides not make decisions. I am amazed at how well the park was designed. It is overflowing with local plants and wildlife with extended boardwalks throughout. The large marsh also has a practical function as part of the stormwater management system. But it’s also a place to play – playgrounds, splashpads, an athletic field and open lawn for informal gatherings.
Best of all, the design behind this neighbourhood was not a hodge podge of different developers squeezing every last spec of green space out of a neighbourhood. Keep in mind, however, that there is much more development to come, but most of it seems very compelling to me. There are big changes under way to add more green space and re-work the mouth of the Don River. There are plans to add a transit hub that will be second only to Union Station in busyness at the old Unilever Factory site.
You are investing in a vision, but this one has been well planned.