A Kazakhstan company is set to give the corner of Yonge and Bloor a facelift with a sleek 80-storey tower combining condominiums, a hotel and high-end stores.

A conceptual drawing of the 80-storey tower.
(Bazi International)

Bazis International unveiled its design Thursday for the $450-million project, 1 Bloor, that is being touted as a long-awaited redevelopment of one of Toronto's busiest corners.

The company, which has completed projects overseas, joked about its roots at a news conference Thursday.

"I did phone Borat, but he was busy today. He couldn't make it," said the company's director of acquisitions and finance, Michael Gold.

Borat is the character played by Sacha Baron Cohen that put Kazakhstan in international headlines with his movie released last year, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Gold said he hopes his company's tower, the latest in a string of luxury highrises under construction across the city, will stand out.

"1 Bloor is going to be an icon for Toronto for many years to come," said Gold.

The Yonge-Bloor intersection's southeast corner currently has a two-storey brick building housing a Harvey's restaurant with a large billboard on top of it.

Demolition of the old building is set to begin later this year, with the estimated year of completion for the tower set for 2011. When completed, it would be among Toronto's tallest skyscrapers. At 72 storeys, and 298 metres, First Canadian Place currently holds that distinction.

The Trump International Hotel, scheduled to be completed in 2010, will be 70 storeys.

According to the Bazis International design, the bottom three levels at Yonge and Bloor will be a podium encompassing the entire one-acre site and reserved for high-end stores.

Jutting from the centre of that podium will be an angling tower, which will be home to 120 rooms for a boutique hotel and 500 luxury condominiums.

Bazis International has completed projects in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia, and is developing another condominium building called Crystal Blu around the corner from its Yonge-Bloor project.