Toronto’s new $128 million landmark is nearing completion after more than 25 years of waiting

After more than a quarter century of waiting, planning, building and even more waiting, Toronto’s new St Lawrence Market North building is finally reaching the finish line.

The new five-storey replacement building for the North Market building will provide permanent space for the Farmer’s Market (housed in a temporary tent since 2016) on its ground floor, while the upper floors will house new courtrooms and administrative offices for Toronto Court Services.

The City of Toronto first presented plans to replace the 1967-built North Market building on the northwest corner of Front and Jarvis in 1998.

More than a quarter of a century later, the project has weathered significant challenges, including delays, design changes, a growing budget and even the death of a key visionary.

The design at the time construction began changed slightly in subsequent years, including the removal of design elements such as colored vents. Image via City of Toronto.

But after all this time, the completion of the new milestone is in sight.

Even before the current construction and budget problems, the project took a dozen years to get off the ground, between the design phase in the late 1990s and the crowning of a winner in an international design competition in 2010.

The St. Lawrence Market North building features a design by Toronto-based Adamson Associate Architects and London-based Rogers Stirk Harbor + Partners – directed by legendary British-Italian architect Richard Rogers – although that design would be substantially altered in the years following 2010’s Revelation.

Demolition and archaeological excavation of the site began in 2016, but it wasn’t until 2019 that shovels finally hit the ground for the new building.

Unfortunately, architect Richard Rogers would pass away in 2021, as construction of the building progressed, without ever seeing his vision come to fruition.

A construction crane working on the project was dismantled in mid-2022 after the building was structurally completed, and more than two years later, the fences surrounding the building have been removed and the structure looks closer to being ready every day. .

The new building at night. Photo by Jack Landau.

Although the city has not yet announced an opening date for the new Mercado Norte, the project team reported that the building was 98 percent complete by June 2024.

At that time, crews were in the process of commissioning the building’s mechanical and electrical systems, installing the final sections of interior glazing, and nearing completion of the interior finishes, painting, and millwork installation of the building’s courts.

Outstanding work to be completed in June included final building inspections, cleaning and preparing tenant spaces for the rapidly approaching moves.

Although things appeared to be just a few months away at the time of the update, it was revealed during the same month that the city needed an additional $9.5 million in emergency spending to complete the nearly finished project, bringing the already inflated cost to $128. million.

blogTO has reached out to the City of Toronto seeking comment on the current construction status and an updated timeline on the opening of the new North Market building.