Farm Boy, Marshalls, HomeSense, car dealerships coming to Hwy. 404 in Aurora?

'I'm almost speechless,' councillor opposed to proposed development says

Yorkregion.com
June 11, 2020
Lisa Queen

Developer SmartCentres is hoping to build a Farm Boy grocery store, HomeSense and Marshalls shops, two car dealerships, three office buildings and a storage facility on the southwest side of Hwy. 404 and Wellington Street.

But some councillors are wondering if that is the right kind of development as a gateway into town.

If approved by council, the proposal calls for the site to be split in two by the extension of Goulding Avenue, Nik Papapetrou, SmartCentres senior development manager, told councillors at an online planning meeting June 9.

On the east side at Hwy. 404 and Wellington Street would be two car dealerships expected to create 120 to 150 jobs, three office buildings ranging in heights from four to seven storeys and containing 260,000 square feet of space with the possibility of future expansion to 340,000 square feet and a four-storey SmartStop Self Storage facility.

To the west of Goulding would be the Farm Boy, Marshalls and HomeSense stores.

No decision was made about the proposed development, with a report coming back to a future meeting.

Eight years ago, the council of the day said it wanted prestige office development on the site.

It’s a vision Coun. Wendy Gaertner wants the town to stick with rather than allowing retail and commercial development.

“To me, this proposal is completely contrary to the intent” of the original concept for the area, she said.

“To allow this is to dilute everything we were trying to do. With respect to SmartCentres, I really shopping SmartCentres, they really provide high quality stores, but that’s not what we’re looking for here. We’re not looking for -- we were never looking for  -- commercial and retail. We wanted this to be office. We wanted to draw businesses to Aurora. This is so contrary that I’m almost speechless.”

Originally, the stretch of Wellington from the highway to Leslie Street was supposed to be office and business development, but councils over the last decade ended up permitting several retail stores along the route, which could make this proposal in keeping with what the area has evolved into, town planning director David Waters said.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 restrictions resulting in many employees working from home could change the future of the workplace as businesses decide having staff continuing to work from home after the pandemic ends is cheaper, Coun. Sandra Humfryes said.

“The work is getting done and businesses are saving a lot of money. It’s the reality of the future,” she said, adding she is struggling over whether the proposed development should be approved.

Coun. Harold Kim said he can accept the proposal other than the storage facility.

“I consider storage businesses as a get out of jail free card. You can have a storage facility anywhere,” he said.

“People don’t need a prestige location to store their products. They can go to Industrial Parkway, they can go to any other part of town where there is empty space.”