Walmart to relocate to make room for condos in downtown Vaughan

The new Walmart is expected to open in August 2020

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 13, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

A lease for an existing Walmart will be terminated to open up land for new condos in downtown Vaughan.

Following a joint venture between SmartCentres and Penguin, signed in mid-December, the two decided to relocate the old Walmart near downtown -- or what’s called Vaughan Metropolitan Centre -- to pave the way for “at least six additional residential condos and/or purpose-built rental towers.”

The joint venture between the Mitchell Goldhar-owned companies will start transforming the roughly 15.48 acre site -- dubbed “the JV ite.”

In an online statement, the JV site is described as “immediately abutting the VMC lands and proximate to the SmartVMC lands” or where the old Walmart store -- owned in a 50/50 partnership between SmartCentres and Penguin -- is located.

At the JV site, the two companies will develop about 10.76 acres for a new Walmart prototype store also known as “New Walmart Store.”

“With the relocation of the existing Walmart store to the new location at 700 Applewood Crescent, the 15.48 acres includes lands for Transit City; Mixed Use, including the future townhomes; and the completion of Buttermill Road,” said Sandra Kaiser, vice president of corporate affairs at SmartCentres.

“SmartCentres is currently in the planning stages for this block, so the timing for development has not been determined,” she added.

Meanwhile, the new Walmart store will be about 140,000 square feet and is expected to open in August 2020. It will replace the old Walmart store, which sat on 15.7 acres -- for a lease lasting until 2097.

It will be “the latest new prototype store in Canada, including a large dedicated picking facility, enhanced customer pick-up experience, and a dedicated parking lot for family parking.”

In the coming years, the companies plan to “develop an additional 1.7 million square feet of residential condominium and/or purpose-built residential rental density, on that portion of the JV Site not subject to the lease for the New Walmart Store.”

So far, the total mixed-use density available from the old Walmart store lands is also expected to exceed 4.5 million square feet.

“Once the Old Walmart Store is relocated in 2020, this land will be redeveloped by SmartCentres on behalf of the partnership for significant mixed-use density, comprising of at least 6 additional, not previously announced, residential condominium and/or purpose-built rental towers,” SmartCentres said on its website.