The City of Mississauga is growing, and the need for more housing to suit the city’s current (and future) population is plain.
Mississauga is Ontario’s third-largest city by population, after all, and it’s projected to grow from ~717,961 people (per the latest census, in 2021) to 852,060 by 2031.
But it’s undoubtedly a tough time to make a housing project pencil out, no matter where you are in Ontario or even in Canada; high rates and high costs are working against development sector stakeholders at a time when, you could argue, their potential contributions to housing couldn’t be needed more.
In short, the building landscape has its challenges, but we’re still seeing ambitious developers lay their claim.
Making a big mark is Camrost Felcorp. The Toronto-based real estate developer filed plans for its Exchange District Condos project — an ambitious master plan slated for 135, 151 and 181 City Centre Drive, in the heart of Mississauga's downtown core — in the spring of 2019, after acquiring the site in 2016. In 2020, we saw the project break ground, and now, it’s in the throes of active construction.
So we thought we'd pop out to the site to sit down with Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish to get a sense of how a development like this fits into the future of Mississauga – both from a built standpoint, and from one of attracting further development.
Parrish On: The Future Of Mississauga
The project is set to span across an over-three-acre lot, and comprise of four residential towers of 60, 31, 42, and 72 storeys, according to planning materials filed with the City.
In addition to 773,355 sq. ft of residential gross floor area, the site is poised to accommodate 37,437 sq. ft of indoor amenity, 21,119 sq. ft of outdoor amenity, 22,529 sq. ft of hotel space, 54,810 sq. ft of office space, and 54,422 sq. ft of retail space, not to mention new parks, a public piazza, high-end projects, and uniquely, a museum.
The development is set to be delivered in phases, with the 60- and 31-storey towers and 855 units to be built out in the first phase, the 42-storey tower and 440 units in the second phase, and the 72-storey tower and 672 units in the third and final phase. It's a fairly design-forward venture, as well. According to Camrost's website, the towers are planned to be "metal and glass" and will be "constructed with rotating offset symmetrical blocks and jewel-box beacon tops in fuchsia, yellow, and blue."
Parrish On: The New Downtown, And How The Province Can Help Build Cities
What we also know (for a fact) is that newly minted Mayor Elect Carolyn Parrish, who has been in office since June, is throwing her support behind the project. It’s more housing that’s she’s after — in fact, she ran her platform on that promise, and has already set up a task force to make sure it gets done (and quickly).
“We set the pace with the new ‘Strong Mayor Powers.’ [...] I have a task force right now with the top builders, not only in Mississauga, but in the GTA," Parrish tells STOREYS. “We're delighted to have [Camrost] here, and we're coming up with all kinds of streamlining ideas for our staff, and new ways of setting up the [Official Plan] so they don't have to fight with Committee of Adjustment, they don't have to fight with Planning.”
"We have developers who have told us it takes three years to get a plan through. We're going to make sure that doesn't continue,” Parrish goes on to say. To expedite things, the City will now be observing a “three and done” model, where builders will file their plans with the City three times. “We're not going to get a million returns on plans that go in,” she adds.
Parrish On: Rental Housing
Parrish’s “pro-development” approach takes something of a page from former Mayor Hazel McCallion’s book.
"She declared the downtown area no height limits, no density limits, no GFA limits," Parrish explains. "A lot of developers came in, and you could see the towers went up really quickly. [...] Things sort of stagnated, partially because of the conditions of funding, all the rest of it [because of] COVID, but now we're starting to boom again; we're trying to push it as hard as we can, and we're going to make it easier for people to build."
Parrish On: Being Pro-Development
In the coming years, Mississauga is set to welcome a new Hurontario Light Rail Transit — the downtown loop, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford has thrown his support behind — and that’s anticipated to be development-favourable. As well, the City is set to declare 11 “high concentration areas” that will automatically be approved for 35 storeys. “We're also doing that around all our transit pods,” says Parrish. Further, she shares that her staff will be meeting with Housing Minister Paul Calendra to get him and Province on board with their forthcoming Official Plan.
For his part, Joseph Feldman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Camrost, expresses that his goals as a developer, and the City of Mississauga’s goals under Mayor Parrish, are very much aligned. He recalls a conversation he had with Mayor Parrish and in the Exchange District's earliest days, when she advised him — amidst then-Mayor McCallion’s push for unlimited height and unlimited density — to “go for height, and go for density.”
It’s a bit of a full circle moment that the project is coming together now, with Parrish’s full support as mayor, and her strong desire to work closely with development sector stakeholders.
"For the first time in a long time, I feel as though we're not the bad guy. We've been invited in," says Feldman. “In the development community, we don't have always have the right answers, but there's a platform for us to discuss and debate. So we've had a couple meetings to date, and it's been been going really well. It's been a very collaborative forum for us to discuss what it's going to take for us to put shovels in the ground.”
“It [has] also set a tone,” Feldman adds. “I mean, the City of Mississauga has some amazing staff. They've been amazing for as long as we've been developing here, but when the mayor is saying, listen and work with [developers], it's changed the attitude across the board.”
There’s, of course, still much more work that needs to be done. But on Camrost's end, things are already well on their way.
