Balancing growth: Office development wanted downtown

NRU
Oct. 26, 2016
By Leah Wong

Mississauga’s official plan sets a goal of achieving a one-toone ratio of people and jobs in the downtown core. While residential development has surged in the last decade, there has been no major office developments in the core in the last 20 years. To balance out the growth, staff is recommending incentives to encourage office developers to invest downtown.

On Monday planning and development committee held a public meeting on a draft downtown community improvement plan that includes incentives to attract new office development.

“The downtown has achieved a number of successes that make it an attractive place for people to live, work, gather and play,” Mississauga policy planner Shahada Khan told committee. She added that for the core to become a complete community, its needs new jobs. Given the pace of residential development, she said it is unlikely office development will catch up if there is no intervention from the city.

Khan said the cost of building the parking needed for office tenants has been a deterrent for office developers. There continues to be high parking demand for office tenants in Mississauga, which has made business parks attractive to tenants.

“The incentives are to off set the high costs associated with constructing parking in our downtown because [the high costs] translate to rental costs that are too high for our office tenants,” said Khan.

The draft plan proposes four financial incentives - tax increment equivalent grants, a development processing fees rebate, a municipally-funded parking program and a municipal property acquisition and disposition program - that could be used to attract office development. The CIP has been developed as an enabling tool, which will allow council to make decisions about whether or not development applications qualify for the incentives.

Khan said the municipally-funded parking program will allow the city to construct a municipally-owned parking structure that could be used by office workers during business hours. She noted the city could also share in funding a developer’s parking structure so that the city owned a specific portion that could be rented out during the day.

Oxford Properties Group development vice-president John Filipetti told committee that having the city own a portion of a parking structure would allow developers to build parking in close proximity to office buildings while reducing the cost of parking for developers.

“Parking cost is probably the single biggest issue holding back office development in the downtown area,” said Filipetti. Morguard Investments development senior vice-president Margaret Knowles told committee that parking is also a barrier for the office landlords in downtown Mississauga who are trying to compete with office buildings across the GTA.

Knowles raised concern with the fact that the CIP does not acknowledge the parking challenge facing existing landlords.

She said she would like consideration given to existing developments if the city decides to build its own parking lots.

“The municipally-funded parking program contemplates that the city will build a municipally-owned parking facility. However, the draft CIP does not address the important issue of where [this] parking would be located,” said Knowles. “It is important in planning for office development that preference is not given to new development at the detriment of existing office locations.”

In June council approved a by-law to expand the existing CIP boundaries that had been approved in 2013. Khan said the expanded boundary was proposed so that the city could increase opportunities for office development in the core. She also noted that it would allow the city to capitalize on the LRT and transit stations in the core.

While the city is striving to get more people on transit and out of their cars with the construction of the LRT, demand for parking in the core will continue. Khan said that the city’s goal is to attract new office development to the downtown so that people can move easily and efficiently into the core for work when the LRT is finished.

Policy planning director Andrew Whittmore told committee that the CIP is designed to be a five-year pilot, which will allow council to evaluate whether it has been a good investment once the LRT has been completed.

Staff will review submissions made by the public and report back to committee with any modifications to the proposed CIP.