The Buzz Around Downtown

  • Storeys

    What Does the Future of GTA Living Look Like? To Start, 20,000 Neighbours…

    Large-scale mixed-use projects are springing up across the GTA and making enormous contributions to new urban centres in a single footprint. In some cases, they are the centre themselves, aiming to compete with some of Toronto’s oldest neighbourhoods for vibrant communities, cultural draws, and urban lifestyles.

    Read the Full Article about What Does the Future of GTA Living Look Like? To Start, 20,000 Neighbours…
  • City of Vaughan

    Developing Vaughan’s downtown core

    Now a decade into its evolution, Vaughan’s downtown core is rising with key city-building projects in the works, public engagement opportunities underway and community amenities opening for use. The goal for the VMC is to develop a world-class city that encompass good urban design and public spaces that foster community well-being.

    To help guide growth, communicate initiatives and ensure municipal policies and planning requirements are met, the City of Vaughan’s VMC Sub-Committee held a meeting earlier this week.

    Read the Full Article about Developing Vaughan’s downtown core
  • RENX

    Transit-oriented suburbs are a sweet spot for the post-pandemic office

    While hybrid work models gain traction as the preferred option post-pandemic, a new challenge is emerging. Employees who moved to the suburbs will be hesitant to make the long commute downtown, even if it’s only two or three times a week. In order to retain their talent, employers who aren’t able to offer fully remote work schedules may need to set up a satellite office or relocate to be closer to them. This imminent reckoning has led many to see the suburban office market in a new light.

    Read the Full Article about Transit-oriented suburbs are a sweet spot for the post-pandemic office
  • Bird's eye view of Transit Square

    Vaughan Citizen

    Survey open to Vaughan citizens on design for city’s future downtown parks

    Citizens are called to bring their perspective through a survey that’s open until June 30 as Vaughan formulates a master plan for its emerging downtown core’s parks and wayfinding.

    The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Parks and Wayfinding Master Plan is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. It will “guide the development of parks and open space, in addition to creating a signage strategy to make the area easier to navigate.”

    Read the Full Article about Survey open to Vaughan citizens on design for city’s future downtown parks
  • Storeys

    From ‘Rural’ to ‘All the Rage’: Vaughan’s Editorial-Worthy Evolution

    Indeed, in a place where not long ago, farmland, few residents, and (eventually) big-box stores reigned supreme, the city’s evolution is now in full swing. Towers — residential and commercial alike — are rising up in the city’s future central business district, bringing to the area transformation and, with it, an earnest sense of renewal.

    Read the Full Article about From ‘Rural’ to ‘All the Rage’: Vaughan’s Editorial-Worthy Evolution
  • Storeys

    Next Stop Vaughan: The VMC Delivers the Future of Urban Downtowns

    City building is in full-force in Vaughan’s emerging downtown core, with residential and commercial towers rapidly coming to life in the suburban city’s future central business district. The result will mark an extraordinary transformation for the area — one that moves well beyond a bedroom community of big-box stores, low density, and vacant land that characterized it for years.

    Read the Full Article about Next Stop Vaughan: The VMC Delivers the Future of Urban Downtowns
  • Two towers linked by a pedestrian bridge

    Storeys

    The Return of Fun: Vaughan Condo Project Promises an Ongoing Festival

    Some might even say that after a full year of COVID-related lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, the collective craving for a… festival, of sorts, has never been so strong.

    Perhaps it was, in-part, this desire — this innate longing for joy and connection — that saw Phase One of Menkes‘ and QuadReal‘s new condo development in Vaughan, aptly titled Festival, named Canada’s top-selling project last year.

    Read the Full Article about The Return of Fun: Vaughan Condo Project Promises an Ongoing Festival
  • Urban Toronto

    SmartVMC Community Continues Expansion With New Mixed-Use Development

    SmartCentres’ shift from large retail centres to mixed-use, high-density developments can be seen clearly in the redevelopment of a section of the block that formerly housed the Walmart at 101 Edgeley Boulevard into a new four-building complex being developed by SmartLiving, SmartCentres’ residential sub-brand.

    Read the Full Article about SmartVMC Community Continues Expansion With New Mixed-Use Development
  • Urban Toronto

    SmartCentres’ SmartVMC Continues with New Phase Announced

    Submitted to the City of Vaughan late last year, the plan seeks to build out the site at 175 Millway Avenue with a residential tower, a Class-A office tower, and a hotel.

    Paula Bustard, SmartCentres’ EVP of Development, describes the mixed uses on the block as “a microcosm of what we’re trying to achieve across our entire 100-acre SmartVMC community.”

    Read the Full Article about SmartCentres’ SmartVMC Continues with New Phase Announced
  • Press Release

    Festival becomes Canada’s top selling condo project for 2020

    Festival, Menkes Developments’ latest joint venture with QuadReal Property Group was the best-selling new condominium project in Canada for 2020.

    Menkes and QuadReal launched the first two towers of Festival, with 1325 units, in fall 2020 and sold out the buildings in less than four months. Construction on the towers is anticipated to commence in the first half of 2021 and the sales launch for Phase 2 of Festival (Towers 3 and 4) is also targeted for Spring 2021.

    Read the Full Article about Festival becomes Canada’s top selling condo project for 2020
  • Toronto Star

    For the first time ever, there were more pre-construction condos sold in the 905 area than Toronto last year

    Vaughan, Oakville, Mississauga and Thornhill all saw substantial sales from both investors and buyers who plan to occupy their units. Those submarkets offer “a significant discount relative to downtown Toronto,” he said. Transit such as the Vaughan subway and the coming Hurontario LRT are adding to the appeal.

    Read the Full Article about For the first time ever, there were more pre-construction condos sold in the 905 area than Toronto last year
  • YorkRegion.com

    Vaughan outpaces rest of York Region in condo, single-home sales in 2020 — once again

    Vaughan saw the sales of 3,160 condo units and 1,003 single-homes for 2020, the year when the whole world scrambled to fight off COVID-19 and continued pushing for more vaccine production, the Building Industry and Land Development Association figures showed Jan. 27

    Vaughan by far outperformed its figures for 2019 where it also took the lead in selling the most condominiums and single-family homes in York Region.

    Read the Full Article about Vaughan outpaces rest of York Region in condo, single-home sales in 2020 — once again
  • PwC logo on PwC-YMCA Tower in Vaughan

    Press Release

    PwC Canada opens its first Digital Resilience Centre in the VMC

    The Centre provides an end-to-end digital trust framework to help organizations innovate, experience, and operate across the threat management lifecycle.

    Within the Centre is the Digital Resilience Sandbox, an immersive lab where clients can see, touch and experience the latest technologies, such as industrial systems, robotics, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and mixed reality, and simulate offensive and defensive tactics on them.

    Read the Full Article about PwC Canada opens its first Digital Resilience Centre in the VMC
  • Urban Toronto

    Unprecedented Growth Reshaping Vaughan Metropolitan Centre’s Guiding Principles

    Residents of the former Village of Edgeley—established in the early 1800s at the intersection of Jane Street and Highway 7 in present-day Vaughan—would be awestruck at what their quaint village has become. Vaughan officially transitioned from Town to City status almost 30 years ago, and a tidal wave of change has followed.

    Read the Full Article about Unprecedented Growth Reshaping Vaughan Metropolitan Centre’s Guiding Principles
  • City of Vaughan

    ‘Metropolis in Motion’: City unveils its first public art piece in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

    The City of Vaughan, in collaboration with Menkes Developments Ltd. and QuadReal Property Group, has unveiled a temporary public art installation prominently situated along Highway 7, leading into the heart of what will soon become Vaughan’s cultural and entertainment hub – the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC).

    Read the Full Article about ‘Metropolis in Motion’: City unveils its first public art piece in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre
  • Urban Toronto

    Festival Condominiums Promising More Growth for VMC Skyline

    South VMC’s first project will add four towers to Vaughan’s burgeoning skyline. The mixed-use Festival Condominiums complex from Menkes Developments and QuadReal Property Group will boast fraternal quadruplet towers designed IBI Group, the first two of which are set to reach heights of 48 and 59 storeys, with 1,300 units total.

    Read the Full Article about Festival Condominiums Promising More Growth for VMC Skyline
  • Toronto Sun

    Vaughan’s VMC: The building of a downtown core

    Pandemic or not, the area is growing faster than expected.

    The creation of a vibrant downtown core from scratch is not an easy feat. It takes imagination, good planning principles and in the case of Vaughan, the opening of the first subway line to cross the 416-905 threshold three years ago.

    Read the Full Article about Vaughan’s VMC: The building of a downtown core