Kielburger-backed plan to tear down raccoon-ravaged Scarborough mansion gets the green light - Toronto Star

Scarborough committee approved plans to demolish the property to make way for two new homes.

A vacant mansion in Scarborough has been approved for demolition in a plan backed by the Kielburgers.

A plan to tear down a decrepit mansion near the Scarborough Bluffs and build two detached homes has been approved by the local committee of adjustment. 

“The raccoons have got in it. The windows have been smashed. It’s been so long sitting there,” Paul Wright, president of ACI Wright Architects Inc. and the agent for the owner, told the committee, which is tasked with settling neighbourhood property and building matters.

“We’re desperate to do something with it.”

The 12,900-square-foot two-storey mansion currently on the site fell into disrepair when the previous owner went bankrupt and it was seized by creditors, the Star reported in 2019. 

It was sold in as-is condition that year for $3.45 million, a reflection of the region’s red-hot real estate market at the time. 

The home is now owned by a numbered company, according to property documents. The committee of adjustment application lists the owner as Fred Kielburger, the late father of Craig and Marc Kielburger, co-founders of the WE Charity, which was at the centre of a controversy surrounding government contracts a few years ago.

Marc’s contact information is listed on the city application form. Fred died in 2025. 

In October, Wright responded to questions from the Star on the family’s behalf, confirming the owner is the estate of Fred Kielburger, along with his nephew, who is listed as the director of the numbered company.

A look into the vacant mansion at 4 Birchmount Rd.

The new plan calls for a two-storey home and a three-storey home on the site. 

Drawings show details including a library and games room in one house, and space for saunas. 

Wright told the Star last month that the mansion was already in very bad shape when his clients purchased it and that they’d been working for years to get something else built there.

There were four letters of objection to the new plans submitted to the committee and two in support.

Three neighbours spoke at the meeting about their concerns.

Neighbour Randy Cooper said he and his wife don’t object to a new house on the lot.

“We’re opposed to this house at this size in this spot,” he said. “I just think how much house do you need?”