An ambitious proposal has resurfaced with a new, taller design more than three years since first tabled with Toronto city planners.

The updated proposal for 372-378 Yonge Street, just south of Gerrard, seeks approval to bring a massive condo tower to the site, currently occupied by a row of businesses with a two-storey frontage.

Several major changes have been introduced in the October 2023 plans that greatly increase the stature of the proposal and heavily alter its design from architects Dialog.

The updated plan would rise 85 storeys to a height of 278 metres, a substantial increase over the 74-storey, 255-metre scheme proposed back in 2020.

If completed today, the tower would stand as Toronto's second-tallest building. However, a handful of towers with even greater heights will keep 372 Yonge out of the running.

It's just one of many high-flying proposals in the Yonge and Gerrard area that could see the intersection become the epicentre of Toronto's skyline in the coming years.

Updated 2023 plan for 372 Yonge Street.

Along with the substantially increased height, the updated plan calls for added floor space, rising from 35,871 to 42,545 square metres. In a departure from the previous plan, most of the commercial space has been axed, dropping from almost 2,600 square metres down to just 850 square metres.

A total of 628 condominium units are proposed, another vast increase from the 2020 plan, which included 406 units. All of these units would be served by just four elevators, a configuration that has plagued other recent condominium developments in the city.

While the current proposal retains some elements of the 2020 plan, like a mirror-finish facade contrasted by bronze vertical piers, the daring curvilinear massing debuted in that earlier vision has disappeared in favour of a simplified design.

Another glaring omission from the 2023 plan is the performance venue that had been promised with that bold vision three and a half years earlier. The previous version of this proposal included a plan to reinstate the lost Club Bluenote, creating a venue named for the rhythm and blues club that once existed on the property in the 1960s.

The original 2020 vision, while not as tall, proposed an arguably more daring design than the 2023 plan now in play.

Changes to the proposal come after the initial 74-storey plan was not addressed by the City in the prescribed 120-day window, which allowed the developers to appeal the proposal at the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Considering the challenging path the proposal has taken since first tabled, the updated plan seeking even more height and density is bold, to say the least.