Developers are turning 14 GTA malls into tiny cities, with Cloverdale leading the way -- is this the solution to Toronto’s housing crisis?

In Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto, close to 200 residential buildings are proposed on the sites of older, tired malls. The new 15-minute cities will include condos, parks, recreation centres and other amenities.

Thestar.com
July 12, 2023
Clarrie Feinstein

For more than 60 years, a beige and brown -- and bland, by today’s standards -- one-storey shopping centre has stood nestled at the corner of Highway 427 and Dundas Street West in Etobicoke. Set on 32 acres, the mall hosts flagship tenants like Winners, an abundance of mom-and-pop shops and a food court.

Cloverdale Mall has served the surrounding community well -- but it won’t be around much longer, not in its current form, anyway.

Over the next decade -- assuming the city of Toronto approves its development application -- the mall is slated to undergo a massive transformation, with the introduction of 10 residential towers ranging from 17 to 48 storeys, 185,000 square feet of retail space, some 23,500 square feet of community amenities (including a daycare and community centre) and 3.8 acres of parkland.

Cloverdale is just one of 14 GTA malls developers are planning to turn into mini villages. In Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto, close to 200 residential buildings are proposed around Bramalea City Centre, Centerpoint Mall, Dufferin Mall, Fairview Mall, Scarborough Town Centre, Sherway Gardens, Square One, Yorkdale, Agincourt Mall, Atrium on Bay, Dixie Outlet Mall, Malvern Town Centre and Galleria Shopping Centre beginning in the next decade.

Mall space offers the perfect redevelopment opportunity, experts say, as there’s ample land, existing retail services and accessible transit. With “restrictive” zoning laws in the GTA preventing densification in single-family home neighbourhoods, they say, malls offer a promising alternative to increasing housing stock along with shiny new amenities.

“It’s a very attractive development option,” said Carl Gomez, chief economist at CoStar Group Canada, a commercial real estate database. “Redeveloping malls is a trend that’s taking off in the GTA. Everyone is in on it. Densifying a tired mall is the way to go. Creating a pedestrian friendly, urban village with good transit, shopping, amenities and housing is what Toronto’s rapidly growing population needs.”

Ontario needs to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade to match the demand for housing, with a record 1.45 million newcomers expected to arrive in Canada by the end of 2025. Many will settle in the GTA, Canada’s economic hub. But land in the city is scarce, and Toronto’s zoning laws prevent highrise development in many neighbourhoods with single-family homes.

“Restrictive” zoning laws can limit the type of housing that is built in certain neighbourhoods, said Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins. Known colloquially as the “yellowbelt,” the term refers to around 70 per cent of Toronto’s residential areas zoned for detached or semi-detached housing.

“Zoning needs to change in the province, and the city, to accommodate more types of housing,” said Bartlett. “A task force by the province has been set up to try to move away from exclusionary zoning to inclusionary zoning.”

That would allow for multiple units to be built within a property, Bartlett said, as well as building low- to highrise buildings such as condo towers and affordable rental units in single-family-home neighbourhoods.

While the Ontario government has introduced policies to create more inclusionary zoning, it’s only a recent change. That’s why, for the past 10 years, developers have been eyeing malls.

“Developers realize malls are sitting on great land, full of parking lots and, in some retail centres, empty, unleased space,” Gomez said. “If you put more density around a mall, it creates a symbiotic relationship, because you’re creating a population of people who need stuff. It’s a captured audience.”

A rendering of the proposed development at Cloverdale.

Many of the second-tier malls, or regional malls such as Cloverdale and Centerpoint, need help attracting more visitors, with bigger retailers and more experiential offerings such as spas, beauty salons and entertainment centres, Gomez said. Malls that are past their prime, or no longer delivering much profit, need the surrounding densification to improve foot traffic, he added.

According to the Retail Council of Canada, despite a big rebound in mall foot traffic from the depths of the pandemic closures in 2020 and 2021, traffic is still down 28 per cent from pre-pandemic (2019) levels. Hybrid work is also having a significant impact on foot traffic in downtown malls, while suburban malls are again experiencing an influx of customers.

Super-regional malls (more than 800,000 square feet) such as Sherway, Square One and Yorkdale are booming, said Gomez, and don’t need an enhanced shopping experience. “You can’t replicate these shopping centres,” he said. “They’re giants. All the retailers want to have a spot in one of those malls because of the incredible foot traffic they receive.”

But second-tier malls need a “reimagining,” especially with anchor stores vacating post-pandemic, leaving empty retail space in their wake, Gomez added.

“After anchor tenants leave, it can be hard to fill in those retail spaces again,” he said. “But Cloverdale is in a good location and something can be done to reinvigorate it.”

In many ways, malls already have the foundational building blocks to create a new neighbourhood, said Rob Spanier, president of Spanier Group, a mixed-use development and advisory firm.

Developers take advantage of the key infrastructure, such as highways and transit connections like the GO, to create a “complete neighbourhood,” where grocery stores, pharmacies, community centres, parks and restaurants are erected to service the new residents.

“Essential services are key if you want the place to feel really livable,” Spanier said. “It can’t just be retail and condos -- it needs to have community services and uses.”

Not just housing, but a community
Imagine that what used to be a massive parking lot is now home to Cloverdale Square, essentially a village centre boasting cafes, restaurants, clothing stores and bike lanes. You can hop on a bike and head toward the corner of Dundas Street West and The East Mall to visit the community centre, where a selection of fitness classes as well as arts and culture programs for youth are on offer. After, you can walk five minutes to multiple parks and picnic areas. Most of the residents are walking, cycling or rollerblading to get from place to place, but there’s ample underground parking for those with cars.

It’s a fully functioning city ecosystem that prioritizes walkability, bikeability, green space and quick access to neighbourhood necessities, said Aaron Knight, vice-president of development at QuadReal Property Group, which will oversee the mall’s development.

Over time, the mall “won’t exist in its current form,” he said, and will follow a phased approach of building new retail space existing retailers can move into while slowly transforming Cloverdale Mall.

“It’s around 30 acres of land, so where do you start?” Knight said. “We began by thinking about creating biking networks and lots of canopy coverage of trees on the streets, as well as multiple parks, to create public space that is fully accessible.”

It’s vital developers consult with the community members who rely on the existing mall infrastructure, said Knight, as these shopping centres have been around for decades and provide integral meeting spots and services for locals.

“We’ve done extensive consultation and have changed the design of Cloverdale to meet the needs of the community,” he said. “Whether that’s ensuring some of the mom-and-pop shops are able to move into the new retail space, or making the space accessible for seniors who rely on Cloverdale to socialize.”

Knight’s development approach is similar to the 13 other malls in the GTA set to undergo significant transformations.

An extensive, multi-stage plan is in the works for Scarborough Town Centre, with four main areas: a retail core that consists of the current mall, a high-density condo complex of 45- to 65-storey highrises focused around the future transit hub, a high-density parkside neighbourhood, and a residential village located along Brimley Road.

In total, 36 highrise towers are expected to be built and the Scarborough Subway Extension currently underway will also better connect the area to the city’s main transit system.

A rendering of the proposed development at Malvern Town Centre.

Just a 10-minute drive northeast of Scarborough Town Centre, another large-scale development is pending approval in Malvern Town Centre. Built in the late 1980s, the mall is home to a supermarket, gym, restaurants and office space for the TAIBU Community Health Centre, an organization serving Black communities in the GTA.

The proposed mixed-use community will be built over 10 phases consisting of 15 towers as well as the construction of new parkland, which may include sports facilities, play structures and seating areas.

It’s unclear if the health centre will be in the master plan, but for now, it will remain in place during the initial redevelopment stages, according to the developer, Davpart.

While sections of Scarborough undergo substantial change in the decades to come, some big developments are also taking place in downtown Toronto.

Galleria Shopping Centre at Dufferin and Dupont streets is being dubbed “a new Dupont city park community.” The development will host eight new residential buildings, including a new tower in a “flatiron building style” that will act as the gateway to Galleria in the Park -- an eight-acre park and 95,000-square-foot community centre. Construction is already underway on the towers and the community centre.

A rendering of the proposed development at Galleria shopping centre.

The main focus of the development is the green space and the concept of a “wellness” community where being in nature, access to fitness amenities and socializing with neighbours is prioritized.

In some ways, many of these mall redevelopments follow the model of a 15-minute city, where residents are roughly a 15-minute walk, bike or transit ride away from daily necessities.

“It gives people access to the new attractions in their neighbourhood, offering public space that can be enjoyed by a diverse group of people,” said David Roberts, director of the urban studies program at the University of Toronto. “And for people who live in the surrounding area, they can use the amenities and park space, and just enjoy being outdoors for an afternoon.”

Worth the wait
While dozens of new residential towers will be erected in these mall redevelopments in the coming decades, offering housing supply to the city’s growing population, it’s no quick-fix solution. Due to the large-scale nature of the developments, the construction is done over multiple phases, and there’s a complicated zoning process.

“Unlike a single building site, which is fairly straightforward,” said Knight, “with projects like these where you are building roads, services, sewage systems, public space and transit hubs, it takes many years of review due to the highly technical nature of the development.”

The zoning application for Cloverdale, already underway, will take around three to five years for the city to approve.

“All of this is a process and our design team has had, and will continue to have, many workshops with the city to ensure we’re meeting our goals,” Knight said. “It has to be a collaborative process.”

Due to the lengthy time lines, mall redevelopments aren’t the answer to the housing crisis, experts say. But such development is one of many approaches that can offer a strong supply of housing stock across the city, alleviating pressure from the concentrated development taking place in Toronto’s core.

“Time is of the essence when it comes to building more housing, and these projects have a complicated approval process that takes time to deliver,” said Spanier. “But we can’t deny the great impact they’ll have.”