The Orchard District at 189 Dundas St. W., in Mississauga is a three-tower condo project proposed by TGA Group’s new development arm GALA Developments. (Courtesy GALA)

TGA Group has launched GALA Developments, which has a condominium under construction and plans for several residential and industrial projects over the next few years.

TGA is a family-owned and operated provider of leasing and construction services that owns, operates and manages approximately 1.2 million square feet of industrial space. TGA’s Access Restoration Services (ARS) arm is a leading disaster mitigation and property restoration company.

Now GALA has been created to oversee development for the property portfolio TGA has accumulated over the years. TGA’s construction team will build the new projects and the parent company will also manage the industrial buildings developed by GALA.

GALA — headed by president John Gagliano, who is also TGA’s chief operating officer — will develop industrial, commercial and low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise residential buildings.

Danny Danforth Condominiums

GALA’s first project is Danny Danforth Condominiums, a 10-storey building on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue just east of Woodbine Avenue, which will have 140 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units ranging in size from approximately 400 square feet to just under 1,000 square feet.

Unit prices ranged from the high $400,000s to just under $1 million and they’ve all been sold. GALA vice-president of real estate development Vito Valela told RENX the location has easy access to retail and restaurants and is a four-minute walk from the Woodbine Toronto Transit Commission subway stop and eight minutes from the Danforth GO Transit station.

Nearly 90 per cent of the units will have balconies or terraces. Danny Danforth’s amenities will include a gym, co-working/lounge flex space, a green roof, patios with barbecues and fireplaces, a pet wash and a concierge.

It will also utilize the 1VALET smart building operating system which combines hardware, software and services to handle items including smart entry systems, parcel and delivery management, resident engagement, access control, security cameras, parking management and remote property management.

Danny Danforth will also have 4,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space. While leasing hasn’t started yet, Valela expects the retail component to be convenience-based and perhaps include a coffee shop.

Construction is up to the seventh floor and first occupancy at Danny Danforth is slated for January 2023.

“TGA’s construction team is pushing the project full steam ahead, avoiding any possible delays,” GALA planning and development manager Madeleine Nelson told RENX. “They’ve been very good at keeping the project on track given all of the delays during COVID.”

GALA’s high- and mid-rise residential projects

None of GALA’s other projects are nearly as far along as Danny Danforth, but it has a dozen major projects it hopes to bring to the market within the next three years.

The first public consultation for 438 Avenue Road Condos, a high-end building proposed to have 24 storeys and 223 suites just south of St. Clair Avenue West, is scheduled for Nov. 23.

“We want to integrate the building into the community as much as we can,” said Nelson. “We really want to hear the feedback for how this building will be received, because we’re developers but we also want to make sure that we’re building something that the market actually wants.”

GALA is proposing to build 18-, 20- and 32-storey condos as part of a mixed-use development called The Orchard District at 189 Dundas St. W., just west of Confederation Parkway, in Mississauga.

“We want to focus it more on sustainable and attainable development, and a project geared toward place-making and community-making,” said Nelson.

Other Toronto mid-rise and high-rise developments are in the assembly and early planning stages, so Valela said it’s too soon to provide details. Locations include Liberty Village, Bloorcourt, the Fashion District and along Yonge Street in North York.

GALA will also be the majority owner of a joint-venture development in Barrie, where a 19-storey residential building is proposed. The city is about 45 minutes north of Toronto on Highway 400.

“We’re considering it as a rental building because Barrie has such a demand for rentals and there’s a shortage,” said Valela. “The building is ideally situated in front of Royal Victoria Hospital and Georgian College.

“In that district, you have a lot of activity and a lot of growth, and our site could meet that need for rentals.”

Low-rise residential and industrial projects

GALA just submitted what it hopes will its final submission to be part of a low-rise housing development called Bondhead in Bradford West Gwillimbury, northwest of Newmarket. It is part of a master-planned community at which Aspen Ridge, Regal Crest Homes, CountryWide Homes and Sundance Homes have just launched sales, Valela said.

GALA also has four industrial developments planned for Brampton, Vaughan, North York and the Airport Corporate Centre in Mississauga. It’s hoped construction could start as soon as this coming spring at some of those sites.

“The thought process behind those is maximizing the asset and maximizing the land use to give our tenants the absolute best value for their money,” said Nelson. “We plan on retaining those assets and are designing them to be high-quality and to withstand the test of time.”

GALA will pace its growth

In addition to Gagliano, Valela and Nelson, GALA also employs two coordinators — one responsible for planning and development and the other for customer service.

“We’re pacing our growth,” said Valela. “As we bring projects on stream we’ll bring in the human resources to pair up with those projects.”

All of the companies associated with TGA work out of the same North York offices.

“Antonio Gagliano is the patriarch and still active,” said Valela. “Joseph Gagliano runs the ARS restoration company, which is a significant outfit with offices across Canada and now expanding into the Southwest U.S.A.

“All of the siblings are participants in the business in different capacities. We feel like we’re the little family business that grew and is still growing.”