PORT CREDIT REDEVELOPMENT: WATERFRONT TRANSFORMATION

NRU
May 3, 2017
Andrew Cohrs

A long awaited proposal to redevelop over 29 ha of former industrial lands along the Port Credit waterfront has been announced. Developers, city staff and politicians all agree—this site offers a major opportunity to create a complete community and transform the waterfront.

“In a lot of ways, this is history making for the City of Mississauga. ... We have the opportunity to create a leading edge, human scale, livable, walkable, mixed-use community. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity.” Ward 1 councillor Jim Tovey.

West Village Partners, a joint venture among Kilmer Group, Dream Unlimited, Diamond Corp and FRAM + Slokker, has unveiled plans to redevelop the former Imperial Oil site at 70 Mississauga Road South. The site has a long industrial history. It was home to a brick factory until 1927, then an oil refinery between 1932 and 1985, which was decommissioned in 1988.

Policy planning director Andrew Whittemore told NRU that the site presents a major opportunity to revitalize the area.

“These are transformational lands. They can just entirely recreate Mississauga’s waterfront... The best scenario could be a collaborative [development partnership] and that’s what we have.”

FRAM + Slokker president Frank Giannone agrees. He told NRU that the proposal seeks to revitalize the site into a mixeduse community with three towers—two 22-storey and one 26-storey—450 townhouses and mid-rises. Additionally, a portion of the site is planned to be given to the city to construct affordable rental housing, although the size, number of units and builder have not yet been determined.

In addition to the mix of housing, Giannone said the redevelopment will include expanding the lakefront park, and creating a public square and building a community centre.

“[The development includes] just under 2,500 units of housing, [about] 200,000 ft2 of retail and commercial [uses], [and] it includes a YMCA, which underlies the importance of a community centre. We don’t have a community centre in Port Credit,” he said.

While the proposal incorporates higher building heights than the predominately midrise buildings envisioned in the Inspiration Port Credit Master Plan Framework, the taller buildings are located closer to the lake and away from the surrounding low-rise neighborhoods.

The increased tower heights are the result of a trade-off between including more townhouses, and fewer midrises, as requested by the public, Giannone said.

“A couple of the buildings got higher than what is suggested in the [master] plan [framework] but the tradeoff was a lot of townhouses versus a whole bunch of midrise buildings. It is actually significantly lower in total unit count than what that plan has. ... Both the eastern and the western side are fairly well protected by low-rise townhouses.”

Whittemore says that while a master plan framework has been created, the site does not yet have official plan policy to guide its redevelopment. As a result, the West Village Partners has been asked to include a draft master plan with its proposal.

West Village Partners expects to submit its application for an official plan amendment and a draft master plan by the end of the summer, with hopes that it will be approved and construction can begin within an 18-month period.