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No longer just commuter land
Western GTA doesn't have to play second fiddle to Toronto anymore
The city of Mississauga has struggled for years to shake off its reputation as merely a bedroom community, and it seems the label may finally be put to rest. But the path over the last few years has been rocky.
By the end of the 1990s it appeared as if Mississauga was coming into its own as a mature, self-sustaining city. It was the sixth largest urban area in Canada and home to a growing number of white-collar industries fleeing the high costs of Toronto.
What Mississauga lacked and dearly coveted was a city core. There was no single zone where you could easily find residents, shops and public spaces combined within a well-planned and walkable corridor.
Luckily, the area around the gargantuan Square One shopping centre at Burnhamthorpe Road and Hurontario Street was ripe to be moulded into a city centre. Various levels of government did their part by establishing a cultural hub encompassing the Living Arts Centre, the Civic Centre and the Mississauga Art Gallery, and providing the incentives for convention-ready hotels and a sleek new YMCA. It's also situated right between Highway 401 and the Cooksville GO station.
By 2001, it was up to the condominium developers to establish attractive high-density suites to bring in the last piece of the puzzle: residents.
In September of that year, Tridel Corp. and Dorsay Development were preparing to launch a two-tower, 31-storey, 880-suite joint venture called Ovation, and the first of its kind to riff off of a vibrant Mississauga city centre as an attraction. The sales pace was going to indicate if the city centre concept had legs, or if it was going to be another in a long line of hard sells for 905 condominiums.
Days later, on the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks in the United States seemed to bring an abrupt end to the optimism that was behind such grand growth schemes as the city centre, or so the economists and analysts predicted.
But three weeks after the terrorist attacks, over 200 suites were sold in Ovation, establishing a sales record that still stands in Mississauga, and setting the stage for an avalanche of new projects to populate the city centre.
The success of the city centre area indicates that Mississauga has matured as a residential market to the point where it can support large high-density developments, according to Mimi Ng, a senior market analyst for N. Barry Lyon Consultants, which provides market research to the condominium development industry.
"There have been a lot of younger first-time buyers buying into that area, and they probably work in Mississauga and west Toronto too because there is a large amount of office employment in that area," Ms. Ng said.
Mississauga's urban planners have targeted the city centre to absorb an enormous rate of population growth over the next 20 years. According to the 2001 census, the area had a population of 6,940, but the city expects that number to grow to 16,700 by 2011 and then to 21,300 by 2021, a 209-per-cent increase over 20 years.
Since 2001, over 15 projects have been launched in the city centre adding up to nearly 5,000 units. The key difference between this condo building spree and the one in downtown Toronto is that most of the city centre suites have been sold.
"A lot of this population growth will be through high-density condominium development," Ms. Ng said. "They're really pushing the city centre node because they realize they are running out of greenfield supply," alluding to the term for vacant land out of which subdivisions are carved.
Ms. Ng said 10 years ago, you'd be hard pressed to give away land in this area. "Mississauga is the first area in the 905 that's matured to the point where it could sustain the demand for high-density housing and become a distinct submarket."
Mississauga city centre is also seen as a more attractive building site for many developers because planners have been quite permissive when it comes to building heights, Ms. Ng added. This has led not only to taller buildings, but also more multi-phased projects, where buildings can share recreational facilities, outdoor spaces and fitness centres.
January 24, 2005 in Location, Location ... | Permalink
