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A steady flow of residents is beginning to occupy the first completed condominium buildings at Mississauga's massive Brightwater development along the Lake Ontario shoreline, new retailers are in place and a Farm Boy grocery store has just opened its doors.
Virtually all aspects of the 72-acre, master-planned community in the city's Port Credit district are progressing well, according to the vice-president of the development partnership which is overseeing the property.
Brightwater’s residential, commercial and other elements are being developed by Port Credit West Village Partners (PCWVP), which involves Kilmer Group, DiamondCorp, Dream Unlimited and FRAM + Slokker. The development team broke ground on the project in 2021.
“The four partners have partnered on all aspects of the project so it's not split by individual developers,” PCWVP planning and development vice-president Christina Giannone told RENX. “We look at it as a community as a whole and the team launched the projects together. Each individual building and phase is launched together as a team.”
The multi-phased project will include: 300,000 square feet of new retail, commercial and office spaces; a range of new housing options for individuals and families at all stages of life; and more than 18 acres of new parks and green spaces along with walking and cycling trails.
Brightwater’s residences
Brightwater’s first two residential buildings, the five-storey Brightwater I and the 14-storey Brightwater II condominiums, will be registered and fully occupied imminently after sales launched in September 2020.
Brightwater Towns, 106 condominium townhouses that launched sales in the spring of 2021, will start welcoming residents this month.
“We're starting to design our next block of townhouses, which will serve as the second phase of Brightwater Towns,” said Giannone, who expects the homes to come to market next year. “We've seen that low-rise continues to be in demand and we want to respond to what the market is looking for, so that's why we put our attention on our townhouse products.”
The Mason — a nine-storey condo and townhouse development — is under construction and should begin occupancy late this year and into early 2025.
Units at Bridge House — comprised of 19-, 15- and six-storey buildings which combine for 468 units, more than 30,000 square feet of lifestyle amenity space, and connected by glass-enclosed pedestrian bridges — are now for sale.
“We are very close to our sales target to start construction,” Giannone said.
Retail and commercial space
A Farm Boy grocery store opened as an anchor and Brightwater’s largest retail tenant two weeks ago. The chain’s first Mississauga location, at 175 Lakeshore Rd. W., forms a new retail gateway into the Brightwater district.
Farm Boy builds on the recent openings of Rexall, Bone & Biscuit, Port Credit Village Dental and BMO, and the upcoming openings of COBS Bread Bakery, Pop On Nails, D Spot Dessert Café and an LCBO.
“We’ve got one stand-alone commercial space that’s our jewel on our square,” Giannone said. “It’s a mass timber structure that has a wave-shaped green roof.”
PCWVP is hoping to announce a restaurant tenant for that space in September.
“We have binding lease commitments or are actively negotiating deals on more than 75 per cent of the commercial space in our first phase,” Giannone said.
“We are accommodating office space on the second level of our largest commercial building within the first phase of development and are actively evaluating opportunities to incorporate employment uses in future development phases while recognizing current market conditions.”
The Brightwater electric shuttle vehicle is up and running for its residents, transporting them to and from the Port Credit GO Transit station to reduce traffic, carbon and reliance on personal vehicles.
“That's part of the whole making it a complete community,” Giannone said. “They don't need a car when they live at Brightwater.”
Still to come at Brightwater
There are six more blocks to follow in sequence as the partners move through the development, but Giannone said the current focus is on those projects already mentioned.
Giannone said the slumping market hasn’t changed PCWVP’s plans for office space at Brightwater, but it has changed the phasing strategy. That means a four-storey office building won’t be built as soon as originally envisioned.
“It’s a large site and we do have a lot of phases, so we’re just changing the sequence until we see how demand changes on the office side,” Giannone noted.
While the full extent of commercial uses will be confirmed as building design for future phases evolves, the partnership plans to introduce additional commercial space along the Lakeshore Road West frontage as well as on the waterfront.
The Peel District School Board also has an option to purchase property at Brightwater to build an elementary school, which Giannone hopes will commence in the next couple of years.
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