The Drake Hotel has a deep and ongoing commitment to our West Queen West neighbourhood, and now after 14 years since opening our doors, we are excited to be adding a thoughtful 32-room expansion. Our expansion reflects our deep commitment to growing alongside our neighbourhood, respecting our roots, and creating timeless spaces that act as a cultural bellwether for locals and visitors alike.

Over the past 2+ years, we have diligently followed the city approval process and received continued and essential support from our Councillor Ana Bailao. We have worked extensively with our team of architects including Diamond Schmitt Architects, ERA Architects, tongtong and the Design Agency, consultants and the local community to not only design a beautiful expansion to the Hotel but also a construction process intended to minimize neighbourhood and local business impact or disruption.

“The expanded Drake presents a welcoming and engaging new face on the vibrant WQW cultural scene, inviting closer inspection of an expanded destination that remains firmly rooted in history”, says Don Schmitt principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects practice. The expansion is a contemporary design that respects the storied history of The Drake Hotel while meeting Toronto Green Standard Tier 2 requirements for sustainable design.

The Drake Hotel will remain fully operational during construction.

As we head into winter, we are getting closer to the finish line of construction. We’re headed towards completion of the exterior work and moving into the interior development phase, including finalizing our beautiful new rooms and spectacular new lobby. Like almost everyone else, we felt the impact of COVID-19, on both our construction project and our operations – including the extended closure of the laneway. We can confirm that the closure of the west end of the laneway will be ending in mid-November. 

 Our revised target for construction completion is this coming March. Until that time there will be construction vehicles using the laneway during daytime hours and hopefully with only occasional intermittent disruption to the use of the laneway.  

We’ve worked closely with the community, some of Toronto’s top designers and the City throughout the process to create our design.

• The long-awaited expansion will add a new lobby and 32 hotel rooms to The Drake Hotel
• We are anticipating an opening in Spring 2021
• Our construction management team SkyGrid will ensure noise and dust are kept to a minimum during construction between the hours of:
  • Monday-Friday: 7am to 7pm
  • Saturday: 9am to 7pm
  • No construction on Sundays and statutory holidays
    
    

• For more information about the project email us at hello@thedrake.ca

• For construction site related feedback, please email info@skygrid.ca or contact the 24 Hour Construction Hotline at 905 761 9602 ext. 225