The One is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When completed, it will be the tallest building in Canada. At 328.4 metres (1,077 feet) and 91 storeys, it will be taller than First Canadian Place, which has been Canada's tallest building since 1975. It will also be Canada's first supertall (> 300 m) skyscraper, as defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Construction of the building is estimated to be completed by March 2025.
Located in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor, The One is across the street from the One Bloor condominium building. It will also stand next to Two Bloor West, an existing skyscraper completed in 1972. The site of The One involved land assembly that includes properties at 768 Yonge Street, in addition to those at 1 and 11 Bloor Street West.
Developer Sam Mizrahi acquired the land in October 2014 for million. Mizrahi received approval from the city to build on September 12, 2016. The total cost for the project was estimated to be $1 billion during planning stages, but that figured had ballooned to $2 billion at the time of the receivership filing in October 2023.
Design
Mizrahi hired the London-based Foster and Partners as the design architect, and Core Architects as the local architect. He travelled to London to design the building using an exoskeleton structure. The design of the building was revised based on recommendations from RWDI and the organization's wind tunnel testing. The final design no longer features a structural exoskeleton; however, it retains diagonal hangers which maintain a triangulated appearance. The structural engineer of record for the project is RJC Engineers. The extra height of the building has been determined to not have increased shadowing impacts on nearby parks.
Retail and hotel
The first 18 storeys of The One will include restaurants, event spaces, two major retailers and a luxury Hyatt hotel created under its boutique Andaz brand. The 160-room Andaz Toronto will occupy the fourth to sixteenth floors of the building, with the lobby on the fourth floor and an outdoor pool deck on the sixth floor.
Set to replace Stollerys as the podium tenant was Toronto’s new Apple Store with approximately 19,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, superseding Apple’s current store at the Eaton Centre. In March 2022, Apple launched a lawsuit to terminate its lease agreement with Mizrahi Developments, and claimed $6.9 million in delay damages, expressing "profound disappointment" with The One's developers in regards to missed deadlines; Mizrahi has countersued, arguing that it has not missed deadlines and Apple does not have the option to get out and that the delays were caused by factors outside of the developer's control, such as a provincewide plumber and pipefitter strike in 2019, and COVID-19. The One’s designer Foster and Partners also designed Apple’s stores in Chicago, Miami, Hong Kong and Macau. According to photographer Pedro Marques, the store was to feature a three story vaulted ceiling with a cantilevered mezzanine over the main floor, a build which was complicated by Apple’s requirements that there be no interior columns, and was to be fronted by three-story glass panels. Manufactured in Gersthofen, Germany, each glass panel measures over wide, high and thick, with eight sheets of laminated glass. The retail portion of the tower was scheduled to open in 2021, though it has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Residential
Above the retail outlet, the tower's residential section will have a total of 416 units. The One will include four penthouse units. Four storeys of parking will exist underground, and the building will connect to the Bloor–Yonge station and nearby buildings via an underground walkway system similar to (but separate from) the city's PATH system.
Acquiring the property
For 114 years, One Bloor West, where The One will be built, was the location of Stollerys, a men's and women's fine clothing store founded by president Ed Whaley and owned by his family. Other developers had interest in buying and developing One Bloor West. However, Mizrahi met with Whaley regularly and the two developed a friendship around shared values. Whaley called Mizrahi a "gentleman" and someone who "builds a quality building". After Mizrahi purchased the properties for The One, Mizrahi provided a written promise to Whaley that a monument, built from the stones of Stollerys, would be developed at the site of The One.