It can be tough to maintain a work/life balance that includes living healthy and exercising. Luckily Yonge + St. Clair offers a wide variety of traditional and contemporary workout options for the energetic nine to fiver.

Whether you prefer a gym-based workout or something less traditional, the Yonge + St. Clair fitness community offers plenty of options to help you strike the right balance between workout and play.

Balance Fitness – 52 St. Clair Ave E – (416) 225 2623

A Yonge + St. Clair staple since 2001, Balance Fitness combines “health and fitness in a soul-soothing, spa-like atmosphere.” Balance seeks to get their clientele into a state of healthy wellbeing through a unique four-part approach. Along with personal training, Balance’s schedule also offers after work programs like kickboxing; power pilates, and foundation training to help stabilize your back. They consider all aspects of their clients’ lifestyle when developing training and rehabilitation programs. It’s “no ifs, and a better butt.”

Ultimate Athletics – 1216 Yonge St – (416) 922 8181

Ultimate Athletics is a fitness club that aspires to be a more intimate affair in comparison to the chain gyms throughout the city. Club owners Paula Ryff and Vlad Radanovic have decades of experience and pride themselves in challenging workouts with a warm and friendly atmosphere. “We hope to have the opportunity to earn your trust,” Paula and Vlad proclaim on their site. “As our clients will attest, we’re quite serious about helping people achieve their true potential.” They offer a wide range of classes that last between 45 minutes and an hour, and are available to all skills and abilities.

Ferris 360 – 1910 Yonge St – (647) 347 7707

Ferris 360 is a gym that is focuses on providing carefully crafted, 60-minute full body workouts with their FULL360 classes. They pride themselves in offering their programing during ‘convenient hours’ for the working professional. Their programming is designed for all skill levels, 3-6 times a week.

Moksha Yoga Uptown – 1498 Yonge St – (416) 868 9642

If you prefer your exercise slow, steady, and a little steamy, Moksha Yoga Uptown is the place for you. Offering yoga, hot yoga, pilates, and a bustling wellness centre with registered massage therapy, Moksha has something for everyone to zen out to. With an extensive class schedule starting at 6:30AM, Moksha offers drop in, 5-classes, or 10-class options, or if you’re a newbie they have a $60 Intro Month Pass!

Studio³ – 1228 Yonge St – (416) 964 3939

If you’re looking to focus solely on wellness through Pilates and yoga, Studio³ is “how Pilates was intended to be.” Studio³‘s instructors are all fully STOTT Pilates certified and provide a varied portfolio of yoga and Pilates disciplines under one roof. New four-week programs are launched throughout each month, with many available in the evenings.

Striation 6 – 33 Davisville Ave – (416) 972 0599

A little north of Yonge + St. Clair near Davisville Station, Striation 6 offers an extremely flexible, pay-as-you-go approach to fitness. They also offer a slate of evening fitness classes, personal training, yoga, boot camps, and boasts an extensive collection of exercise equipment for self-directed workouts. Striation 6 also provides instruction on ‘Muscle Activation Techniques’ that aim to produce more efficient muscle contractions for injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Goodlife Fitness St. Clair – 12 St. Clair Ave E – (416) 927 8042

One of the larger, well known gyms in the Toronto fitness scene is Goodlife. The Goodlife Fitness at 12 St. Clair E is a fully equipped co-ed location and offers individual machine workouts as well as group exercise classes focusing on strength and conditioning, and cardio.

Yonge + St. Clair’s Extensive Ravine System

Toronto is home to a network of deep ravines and trails that run throughout the city, and Yonge + St. Clair is lucky to be within walking distance of many. David Balfour Park, the Rosehill Reservoir, and Mount Pleasant Cemetery frequently make top 10 lists for runners and cyclists, and link to the much larger trail network of Toronto.

National Post’s Chris Selley said he ‘was downright astonished at the state of the joint.’ City Councillor Josh Matlow said it’s now just ‘a place between Yonge and Eglinton and Bloor.’ Vice President of the Deer Park Residents Association David Cameronsmith told the paper ‘it’s just gone to hell in a handcart.’

Yonge + St. Clair has been overlooked for decades, but it wasn’t always that way. It was once regarded as a vibrant and bustling place – it was a scene. It was the home of Glenn Gould; it was a fashion centre; it was fur coats and martini drinking. It has always been the gateway to some of Toronto’s most prominent neighbourhoods. It sits on top of an important transit hub. It is historically important. All of the ingredients are there to create a neighbourhood that is again a destination in and of itself.

As reported by Bisnow, Slate Asset Management has acquired 8 office towers in the heart of the neighbourhood, including those that occupy the 4 corners of its namesake intersection.

‘We have an opportunity’, Lucas Manuel of Slate Asset Management, told the National Post, ‘to make some big and fast and consolidated changes to the neighbourhood, which is our goal.’

And the changes are indeed coming fast.

The first phase of development at 2 St. Clair East has begun under the direction of award-winning, San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler. An 8-storey mural by Sheffield’s renowned Phlegm now adorns the western wall of 1 St. Clair West. Vancouver-based independent coffee roasters JJ Bean are set to open one of their first Toronto retail outposts in a custom-built house in the lobby of 2 St. Clair West. And this is just the beginning.

Future plans include renovations to building lobbies and exteriors, modernizing every elevator in the neighbourhood, and bringing sweeping changes to the public realm and streetscape pedestrian experience. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life at Yonge + St. Clair. In attracting ‘the types of tenants who can support an improved retail base’ Slate hopes to breathe new life into the neighbourhood’s 9-to-5 rhythm and take the energy up to 24-7.

‘My wife and I live in the area’, David Hopkins of restaurant consultants The Fifteen Group tells National Post, ‘and we certainly don’t go to Yonge and St. Clair if we’re looking for somewhere to eat.’ This echoes a familiar sentiment. But through the reinvention of the 4 corners Slate is confident they can change that tune. And the newly proposed patio and restaurant space at 2 St. Clair West is a leap in the right direction.

Countless neighbourhoods across the city have successfully reinvented themselves with much more than a tired public sentiment working against them. Yonge + St. Clair is in a unique position to capitalize. Lucas is adamant that ‘[t]his is not a flipping strategy… It’s an own forever strategy.’ And with enough property to effectively act as their own business improvement area Slate not only has the passion but the means to make good on their promise.

Slate Asset Management is in a unique position of owning all four corners of the Yonge + St. Clair intersection. This is an unprecedented opportunity to bring a coordinated, holistic approach to transforming a major city intersection. Reimagining the various facades that frame the intersection is a natural starting point, the first of which is already well underway.

Hoarding currently surrounds the intersection’s northeast corner. Soon the hoarding will break away to unveil a brand new facade and streetscape. As it stands, 2 St. Clair East is a fifteen-storey commercial office building with two levels of retail and a connection to the St. Clair subway station. The Property shares the area’s only enclosed retail space with the neighbouring property, the Weston Centre. The building was originally constructed in 1976.

Below is a rendering of the future look of the building, with an updated exterior facade imagined by architectural firm Gensler. The sparkling new design will house an expanded and fully renovated TD Bank branch on the main level, and a new Rexall will be located on the concourse level. Greenhouse Juice Co. and Starbucks will be serving drinks at street level, and some old favourites will be returning with new looks downstairs. Slate also redesigned the public corridors to improve navigation and streamline TTC access and modernized the building’s elevators (so people can move up and down as well as sideways). When speaking with Bisnow, Slate Managing Director, Lucas Manuel, said he views this property as “the gateway to the neighbourhood, so it’s important to start [improvement] there.”

Completion of the new 2 St. Clair East is slated for December 2016.