Corp Comm Connects

New project in Vaughan joins resistance to urban sprawl

Globeandmail.com
December 3, 2019
Beth Marlin

Steps from her office in Vaughan, Ont., just north of Toronto, Manisha Chen can travel anywhere 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.

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 under-ground 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.

A half-hour’s drive west will take her to the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Ease of transportation is only one of the many reasons Mrs. Chen was keen to move into PricewaterhouseCooper’s new nine-storey office tower in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) in November.

The VMC is the hub around which Canada’s largest mixed-use development is set to unfold across 100,000 acres of land over the next several years, based on a Master Plan to become “a city within a city.”

“I’m really excited about being able to work in such a vibrant and growing new part of Vaughan,” says Mrs. Chen, a director of assurance at PwC, who appreciates the bounty of natural light, open-concept collaboration hubs and direct access to an out-door 4th-floor terrace. “There’s been a lot of buzz about it.”

The wisdom of locating PwC’s new Vaughan office, which is Class-A LEED Gold-certified and will soon include its cybersecrity practice, at the epicenre of Vaughan’s intermodal transportation infrastructure, is con-firmed by the consulting firm’s own Emerging Trends in Real Estate report.

“When transit goes to a spot, it creates a place where people can work, live and play in that area,” says PwC managing partner Frank Magliocco. “We knew if transit went there, it would attract good amenities for people to live, work and play. It all made sense to us.”

In many respects, the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is poised to become the poster child for the development trend toward creating integrated community hubs, which resist the urban sprawl created through more isolated and separated commercial and residential developments that are easily accessed only by car.

The vision revealed in the site’s Master Plan, undertaken in 2011 by developers SmartCentres REIT in collaboration with Diamond Schmitt Architects, will eventually encompass 16 million square feet of office buildings, five 55-storey condominium towers, including rental units, as well as public open spaces, schools and retail, all to be developed over a 15-year period.

The VMC will also include a glass-walled pedestrian corridor with a terraced courtyard, the Vaughan Public Library, a dance studio and upscale retail tenants.

“This is going to be all of the things we love about European urban life with a European sensibility where outdoor spaces are valued,” says Mitch Goldhar, executive chairman of the board of SmartCentres REIT., who amassed the 100,000 acres of land to make it all possible in the mid-1990s. “It’s really going to be a city within a city.”

The jewel in the crown is the 100,000-square-foot YMCA, resplendent in wood-clad ceilings and glass walls with anodized gold fins, a design compatible with the elliptically shaped transit stations.

Set to open in 2020, it will offer a full-size gymnasium, a multipurpose fitness studio, conditioning and weight rooms with recreational sports and group fitness programs, two swimming pools, a whirlpool and saunas, as well as a non-profit licensed child-care centre.

In exchange for naming rights, SmartCentres paid the $5-million cost of an underground pas-sage to the subway, the City of Vaughan’s required condition to locate its new bus terminal there.

“The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is really an outstanding example of what happens when all levels of government significantly invest in transit infrastructure and the appropriate planning policies are in place,” says Sandra Kaiser, vice-president of corporate affairs for SmartCentres REIT.

Yet, the gold standard of mixed-use urban development has been achieved through luck, as well as good planning, says Mr. Goldhar, adding that he could never have foreseen that $8- to $10-billion would be invested in transportation infrastructure in the area over the 15 years of the project.

The VMC’s transportation hub includes subway, city and regional bus stations.

If any of several of his past development plans, some of which he now calls “laughable,” had proceeded, the better-use opportunity presented by the 2017 positioning of the subway line and the more recent YRT bus terminal might never have been possible.

It’s really going to be a city within a city.

“We were able to wait until the best possible use came along,” says Mr. Goldhar. “This could well be the most singularly import-ant property I’ve developed. It certainly is the jewel in the crown for the [SmartCentres] company and, personally, it is probably the most satisfying project I’ve ever worked on.”

As for Mrs. Chen, she has her own self-development project to consider: whether to join the YMCA, just steps away from her 6th-floor office, or simply wait until the nine-acre central park planned just outside is finished. Or both.

“I will look into it. I haven’t decided yet,” she says. “In the spring, it will be nice to walk out-side and see all the greenery.”

The VMC At a glance: