CentreCourt has officially broken ground on the first two residential towers at Pickering City Centre, the initial steps in a long-term, mixed-use master-planned community about 40 kilometres east of downtown Toronto.

The first two condominium towers, standing 45 and 40 storeys on individual podiums, will have a combined 974 units. There will be a mix of one-bedroom, one-bedroom-plus-den, two-bedroom and two-bedroom-plus-den units.

“There are still units left that are available, and we have a sales centre set up in the mall to sell them, but we're sold past the point of where it feels comfortable to start,” CentreCourt partner and senior vice-president of development Mitch Gascoyne told RENX.

“The reality is that the market is not what it was previously, but this project launched almost two years ago so it's been a couple of years of selling and the value proposition here is a good one.” 

Amenities, services and location

The buildings will also offer approximately 20,000 square feet of fitness and wellness space, a rooftop swimming pool and retail at grade. 

Each tower will also have a Cleveland Clinic virtual medical clinic that will enable all residents to connect with a clinician to receive a diagnosis, referral or prescription without needing to leave their building.

Figure3 is the interior designer and STUDIOtla is the landscape architect for the first development block.

Site servicing is also underway, including the construction of new roads and essential utilities that will support future phases of the community.

CentreCourt has conveyed land to the City of Pickering for the development of City Centre Park, a public amenity to be located on the west side of Glenanna Road across from Pickering City Hall.

Pickering City Centre will be directly integrated with Pickering City Hall and the Pickering GO Transit station in addition to existing retail and office structures.

Salthill, Cowie partners at Pickering Town Centre

The City of Pickering and the Region of Durham helped enable the groundbreaking through their development charge deferral policy. CentreCourt will pay development charges at first occupancy, rather than at the time of building permit issuance, to reduce upfront capital costs.

“The City of Pickering and Region of Durham are kind of ahead of the curve,” Gascoyne said. “It's something that the province has since put out in their Bill 17 legislation. It's not enforced yet, but the province is going to be doing it across the board whenever those regs come out.”

Salthill Capital and Cowie Capital Partners Inc. are also investors in Pickering City Centre and will oversee the maintenance and revitalization of the existing approximately 700,000-square-foot The Shops at Pickering City Centre mall and an approximately 130,000-square-foot office building.

“Our plan has always been to keep the mall and put time and attention into improving the mall,” Gascoyne explained. “The mall will continue to operate the entire way through construction and our intention is that it will continue to operate as part of the long-term plan of the project.”

The Shops at Pickering City Centre included a Hudson's Bay Company store before the retail chain went bankrupt earlier this year. Gascoyne said plans are being contemplated for what to do with the now-empty space. 

Future development at Pickering City Centre

According to the Pickering City Centre website, the first development block will also include a third tower standing 50 storeys with 550 units and a fourth with 55 storeys and 600 units. The 55-storey building will be the tallest in the city.

“We always knew that it was going to take time to build out and it would be dependent on market conditions,” Gascoyne said. “We're going to own this for a long enough time that I'm sure it won't be the only time the market modulates.

“Sales have an impact on when you're able to start. If the market stays the way it is it's going to take a lot longer and, if it changes, then we're going to respond accordingly.”

CentreCourt could also make the third and fourth towers purpose-built rental apartments, according to Gascoyne, but no decision has yet been made.

Once complete, Pickering City Centre will be a 55-acre mixed-use community with 6,000 new homes across more than 10 towers. 

Architecture firm Diamond Schmitt’s master plan vision features a connected network of wide streets, green spaces and urban plazas tying everything together. 

Other CentreCourt projects

CentreCourt is also advancing several other major developments which are at various stages in the cycle.

The 50-storey, 552-unit Kipling Station Condos at 5251 Dundas St. W. in Toronto offers direct access to the Kipling public transit hub. It’s under construction and scheduled for completion in early 2027.

CentreCourt and Dream Unlimited Corp. announced in August they'll co-develop a 49- and 45-storey shared podium purpose-built rental apartment building with 1,226 units at 49 Ontario St. in Toronto. Construction is expected to begin before the end of the year.

“That's a lot of projects that are going to be under construction relative to what's going on in the market,” Gascoyne said. “We're staying busy responding to what's out there and we're excited about what we have going.”

Other Toronto multi-family projects are in the pipeline but no launches have been announced. Those sites include: 

• a proposed 60-storey building at 119 Church St.;
• a proposed 60-storey building at 295 Jarvis St.;
• a proposed 68-storey building at 543 Yonge St.;
• a proposed 50-storey building at 5359 Dundas St. W.;
• a proposed 39-storey building at 5-9 Jopling Ave. S.;
• and a joint development with Dream Office REIT for 48- and 32-storey towers at 2200 Eglinton Ave. E.