Province to sell Lakeview site as part of Mississauga waterfront redevelopment
Developer who buys the 177 acres will have to clean up the industrial land.

thestar.com
By TESS KALINOWSKI
June 6, 2017

A 177-acre piece of Mississauga waterfront land owned by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has officially hit the market.

The province announced on Tuesday that it is selling the old Lakeview generating station site east of Cawthra Rd., south of Lakeshore Rd. East.

The developer or consortium that buys the property will have to remediate the industrial lands before transforming the area into a mixed-use community expected to house up to 20,000 residents and 9,000 jobs.

“The province is relinquishing some value for the benefit of the community,” said Finance Minister Charles Sousa, MPP for Mississauga South.

The Lakeview site will become a new community of about 8,000 residential units, with generous green spaces, boardwalks, canals lined with restaurants and boutiques, wetland trails and a cultural event space.

“It will be connected to the rest of the waterfront in a way that will give residents a lot of comfort,” said Sousa.

He said a successful buyer should be identified by the fall. Commercial real estate company Jones Lang Lasalle is the agent for the deal.

Sixty-seven acres of the property have already been promised to the city and the buyer will be required to remediate that land as well.

Sousa said there is already plenty of interest, from developers but he wouldn’t speculate on how much the property is worth.

The nearby 72-acre Imperial Oil site to the west in Port Credit is expected to attract about $2 billion in residential and commercial development. It was bought by a consortium called West Village Partners, which includes the Kilmer Group, Dream Unlimited, Diamond Corp. and FRAM + Slokker.

Price will play a role in the successful bid for Lakeview, but the developer’s reputation will also be taken into account, said Sousa.

“We want to promote talent and experience in the local community, too,” he said.

Lakeview, which operated for 43 years before being decommissioned in 2005, “was a powerhouse in our economy,” said Sousa, who moved to the area when he was 7. But while he lived near the lake, Sousa said he never saw the water because the OPG station blocked the view.

But it was also responsible for some smog days, he said, remembering the white coal ash that would cover the cars in the neighbourhood.

Lakeview’s four smoke stacks known as the Four Sisters, were demolished in 2006.