The Lakeview DXE Club condos, to be built in Mississauga by Vandyk Properties. (Courtesy Vandyk Properties)

Vandyk Properties will launch sales of its latest mixed-use condominium, Lakeview DXE Club, in a burgeoning development hub along the Etobicoke-Mississauga border in early March.

Vandyk acquired the former Ford auto dealership site at 1345 Lakeshore Rd. E. at Dixie Road in 2017, but president and chief executive officer John Vandyk had been interested in acquiring the property for several years.

“He really believes in the area because that’s where our legacy projects are,” Vandyk marketing vice-president Andrea Wong told RENX.

Vandyk’s $500-million-plus in completed value creation in the area includes The Craftsman in Clarkson Village and Windows on the Green in Sawmill Valley.

The area around Vandyk’s latest site has also become a hotbed of residential and mixed-use development activity, with projects including Lakeview Village to the south, Brightwater to the west in Port Credit, the redevelopment of the Dixie Outlet Mall to the north, and Minto Longbranch and the CF Sherway Gardens redevelopment to the east.

Lakeview DXE Club will be a 10-minute walk to the Long Branch GO Transit station and have easy access to the MiWay transit system and the Queen Elizabeth Way, Highway 427 and Gardiner Expressway.

It will also be located very close to a new express transit platform as part of the City of Mississauga’s Lakeshore Connecting Communities Transportation Master Plan. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to take advantage of the nearby Waterfront Trail.

The Lakeview DXE Club development

The Kohn Partnership Architects-designed Lakeview DXE Club will feature two mid-rise buildings of 12 and eight storeys as well as six two-storey townhomes.

There will be 289,000 square feet dedicated to residential purposes, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, public spaces and areas designated for public art.

The 478 units will range in size from 426 to 1,336 square feet and prices will start in the low $500,000s.

Eighty per cent of the units will be studios, one-bedroom or one-bedroom-plus-den, while 16 per cent will have two bedrooms or two bedrooms plus a den and four per cent will have three bedrooms or three bedrooms plus a den.

There will be almost 80 unique floor plans, according to Wong.

“A lot of buildings have scaled down on the amount of amenities they have in their buildings, but these buildings have over 50,000 square feet of amenities that cater to a wide variety of demographics and people,” said Wong. “It’s a resort-like lifestyle.”

Lakeview DXE Club’s amenities will include: a wellness centre with sauna rooms; a golf simulator and putting room; a bicycle maintenance and tune-up area; an outdoor roof lounge with city and Lake Ontario views; a movie screening lounge; a social club; a games room; a raised central courtyard with multi-purpose outdoor workout structures that can double as play facilities for older children; path systems and routes for walking and running; and a parkette with seating.

Other Vandyk developments

Privately owned Vandyk, an investment management company with offices in Mississauga and Sarasota, Fla., has a real estate portfolio representing $1 billion in completed value creation and $1 billion in owned assets.

In addition to Lakeview DXE Club, it has a number of other developments at various stages.

Grand Central Mimico in Etobicoke is an ambitious three-phase project spanning four city blocks that could eventually encompass 2.5 million square feet of development.

The first phase will include: 765 condo units; approximately 20,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store and restaurants; and approximately 30,000 square feet of office space.

The second and third phases will also be mixed-use, though primarily residential, with 2,500 condo units and a new Mimico GO Transit station.

The first phase of construction is anticipated to begin in the third quarter of this year.

The sold-out Backyard Neighbourhood Condos project is a mixed-use development in south Etobicoke, just north of The Queensway.

It’s a four-phase project with more than 500 residential units, retail and a one-acre park. The last two 10-storey condos, The Queensview and The King’s Mill, are under construction.

UPTowns is a collection of 331 two- and three-bedroom townhomes overlooking the Turnberry Golf Club and near the Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton. Its first phase is under construction.

In Florida, sales launched for SIX88, a 10-suite mid-rise waterfront luxury condo on Sarasota’s Golden Gate Point peninsula, late last year. That process is continuing.

New investment mandate

Vandyk has also just unveiled a new investment mandate focused on opportunities arising with infill low-rise properties in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The firm is looking to use its capital, experience and expertise to transform underperforming projects and take advantage of pandemic-induced market disruptions, such as delays, inflation and stagnation.

“As informed investors, Vandyk has identified a resurfacing theme to provide transitional financing, strategy and operational repositioning to this GTA real estate submarket through a blend of strategic credit, structured equity and ‘hands-on’ construction capability,” John Vandyk said in a media release.

“Our platform of lender relationships and operational expertise positions the firm to address this need.”