Retail Insider
SmartVMC, the massive 100-acre development at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre located at Highways 7 and 400 near Toronto, is the crown jewel of SmartCentres REIT’s evolution ‘from shopping centres to city centres’.
Urban Toronto
Residents of the former Village of Edgeley—established in the early 1800s at the intersection of Jane Street and Highway 7 in present-day Vaughan—would be awestruck at what their quaint village has become. Vaughan officially transitioned from Town to City status almost 30 years ago, and a tidal wave of change has followed.
RENX
Sales launched in September and are going well for the Festival condominium by QuadReal and Menkes, the second component of their ambitious plan for the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC).
City of Vaughan
The City of Vaughan, in collaboration with Menkes Developments Ltd. and QuadReal Property Group, has unveiled a temporary public art installation prominently situated along Highway 7, leading into the heart of what will soon become Vaughan’s cultural and entertainment hub – the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC).
Urban Toronto
South VMC’s first project will add four towers to Vaughan’s burgeoning skyline. The mixed-use Festival Condominiums complex from Menkes Developments and QuadReal Property Group will boast fraternal quadruplet towers designed IBI Group, the first two of which are set to reach heights of 48 and 59 storeys, with 1,300 units total.
Toronto Sun
Pandemic or not, the area is growing faster than expected.
The creation of a vibrant downtown core from scratch is not an easy feat. It takes imagination, good planning principles and in the case of Vaughan, the opening of the first subway line to cross the 416-905 threshold three years ago.
Toronto Star
The people are coming. Just north of the Vaughan IKEA store near Highway 407 and Highway 400, the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) is finally being prepared for widescale human occupation.
Daily Hive
Menkes Developments is currently selling Festival, which is on the south side of Highway 7 and directly across from the new transit hub that includes a TTC subway station. This new development is part of a 75-acre site that will eventually include 25 condo towers plus townhomes and “all the ingredients to establish this as a cultural destination in Vaughan.”
The first phase of the project — two of the four towers — will be complete in 2024.
YorkRegion.com
Balzac’s Coffee Roasters, a boutique coffee chain, announced on Oct. 1 the opening of not only one joint in Kleinburg but also another at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), with soaring ceilings and an airy modern esthetic.
The opening of this boutique Canadian coffee shop is the first in York Region, bringing the total number of Balzac’s locations in Ontario to 16.
City of Vaughan
Vaughan’s emerging downtown core continues to attract significant investment opportunities – in fact, a recent submission was received for development of two additional residential towers in the VMC. To date, close to 36,400 residents in almost 18,384 residential units are moving into the VMC.
In total, staff are working on 38 development files – including six that are in the pre-application consultation phase and represent an additional 13,524 units.
Business in Focus
The VMC area is in high demand, says Mayor Bevilacqua, and that kind of focus will distinguish it from other downtowns. The Vaughan advantage is something truly unique, beginning with it’s location, situated within a 10- to 15-minute drive from Canada’s busiest airport, Lester B. Pearson, and within a day’s reach to a market in excess of 150 million people.
Urban Toronto
The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre area now forming around the TTC subway terminus of the same name is growing denser every year, and now another multi-tower complex has been proposed which could add to the new skyline developing around the Highway 7 and Jane Street area. The proposal seeks an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment from the City of Vaughan to permit a pair of residential towers at 216 Doughton Road, a five-minute walk southeast of the subway station.
Canadian Architect
As a developer, SmartCentres is best known for outlet stores at the perimeter of cities—less so for urbanism. Paula Bustard, an executive for the company, recounted how she was in a meeting with the TTC when the transit officials disclosed, without forewarning, that they intended to build a subway station on SmartCentres property in the city of Vaughan. Such an unlikely event is as valuable as it is rare. For SmartCentres, it led to rethinking their entire approach.
Urban Toronto
A recent proposal from developers Aspen Ridge Homes and Metrus Properties would bring three towers with residential and office uses to 7800 Jane Street.
Currently home to a gas station and low-rise commercial and retail building, the site’s prominent location is poised for a major boost in density, with the Quadrangle-designed project proposing 50 and 60-storey residential towers with heights of 163 and 193 metres, along with a 17-storey office building rising 81.5 metres.
Urban Toronto
Over the last several years—both while Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway station was under construction and since its opening in late 2017—a flurry of construction has taken place surrounding this new transit hub.
One of the largest developments is Transit City at SmartCentres Place. Transit City Condos 4 and 5 began constriction in late 2019. In addition to those two most recent condo towers—to rise 50 and 45-stories respectively—the new phase also includes a 36-storey purpose-built rental building, which officially broke ground last week.
Urban Toronto
The development of SmartCentres and CentreCourt’s 100-acre master-planned community, known as Transit City at SmartCentres Place, is one of the single largest elements in the long-term build-out of Vaughan’s new Downtown. The initial phase of the Diamond Schmitt Architects-designed community is bringing three 55-storey condominium towers to the blocks north of the new Line 1 subway terminus at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.
BNN Bloomberg
New projects in some of the city’s oldest suburbs are being pitched with walkable neighborhoods, condo towers, cafes, shops and a hip city feel. The phenomenon has been dubbed “hipsturbia.”
“It’s a huge trend in the U.S. and it’s exactly what we’ve been planning for the last few years up in Vaughan,” said Jared Menkes, executive vice president of high-rise residential for the family-owned firm. “We’re bringing what we know downtown and bringing it to the suburbs.”
RENX
“The suburban story, in many ways, is going to be one of the biggest surprise stories for people who aren’t realizing what’s happening with Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Markham, Brampton and Mississauga. Those things aren’t happening in U.S. city regions the way they’re happening here.
“No one is coming expecting to see that, but I think they’re going to be very surprised when they do.”
Niagara University
Niagara University has taken another step toward becoming the premier binational university within the Province of Ontario with the addition of three new programs. Starting now, students can enroll in Niagara’s Master of Business Administration program, while master’s degree programs in information security and digital forensics and in finance are slated to start in the fall.
Niagara University’s Ontario Campus is located in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre’s Expo City complex.
Condo Life
This year will continue to be a year of low supply and high demand, which will keep housing prices high, especially in prime locations. Overall, the 905 has experienced the largest growth, and will continue to grow, however the largest demand continues to be for housing along mass transit. Vaughan, in particular, will continue to be a very desirable location.
Real Estate News Exchange
SmartCentres is buying a 50 per cent interest in an almost 16-acre parcel of land owned by Penguin, abutting the VMC property, for $109.2 million. The land is currently the site of a WalMart store, but the store will be relocated on the site and redeveloped to create a new prototype Walmart including a large dedicated picking facility, enhanced customer pickup experience and parking area.
The remainder of the site will be redeveloped by the partners to create at least six new residential towers, as well as portions of the existing VMC development plan.
YorkRegion.com
Vaughan’s downtown area attracted more than $9 billion in economic investment from 2015 to 2020, said Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua.
In the final Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) sub-committee meeting of 2019, Bevilacqua said the investment is “rooted in momentous construction projects that contribute to a growing skyline with new business and residential developments.”
“In fact, Vaughan Council has approved more than 10,817 new residential units,” he added.
Globe & Mail
Steps from her office in Vaughan, Ont., just north of Toronto, Manisha Chen can travel any-where she needs to go, and by just about any mode of transit. With three public transit stations accessible through an underground passage, she could hop on the TTC subway to visit clients in downtown Toronto, catch the City of Vaughan’s VivaNext rapid way transit line or grab a York Regional Transit bus to visit clients further north.
Urban Toronto
An application submitted to the City of Vaughan proposes a three-tower redevelopment of 3300 Highway 7 in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre area, the suburban Toronto city’s downtown now forming around the 2017-opened subway station of the same name.
The proposal from Ripple Developments and designed by Quadrangle calls for two residential towers and an office building all rising from a shared podium, on the current site of a mid-rise office building and its associated surface parking lot.