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How Mississauga’s 10-tower, $1.5B condo complex could reshape the city’s future

The M City complex and Hurontario LRT are scheduled to open in 2021 and 2022, respectively

The start of construction for a $1.5 billion condo complex is being hailed as a major step in Mississauga’s ongoing evolution into a full-fledged urban centre.

Developers are set to host a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday at M City, a 10-tower, 15-acre development to be built on the west side of the city’s burgeoning downtown core, at 3980 Confederation Parkway.

“I think it’s going to transform Mississauga,” said Mark Reeve, a partner at Urban Capital Property Group, one of the developers behind the project.

The first two towers of the complex are scheduled to be completed in 2021, one year before the scheduled opening of the Hurontario LRT, which will include a stop just blocks from M City.

There are hopes that the combination of housing and transit will help Mississauga in its ongoing evolution from a sprawling bedroom community into a modern city where people live and work.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie said the complex will help the area achieve its goals of becoming a “vibrant, livable, walkable downtown.

‘The future of the GTA’

Urban planners say the complex and upcoming rapid transit projects have put Mississauga at the forefront of Toronto’s suburbs when it comes to planning and intensification.

“Mississauga really represents the future of the Greater Toronto Area,” said Graham Haines, a research manager at the Ryerson City Building Institute. “It’s a municipality that’s starting to figure out how to build up instead of build out.”

In March, Haines published a report that examined how Mississauga can best prepare itself for its expected population growth.

With the right planning and developments, he found the city could accommodate 160,000 new homes, and as much as 80 per cent of all projected growth in Peel Region until 2041.

The best way to accommodate that growth, he said, is through the construction of so-called “missing middle” housing — homes such as townhouses and mid-rises.

While researchers say the towers at M City are a good fit for downtown Mississauga, they warn it’s not a model that will work across the city.

“It doesn’t mean that we need to build towers everywhere,” said Cherise Burda, the institute’s executive director.

Jobs still needed

Burda said the city is on the right path to achieve it goals, and that among the GTA municipalities, Mississauga is “leading the region in thoughtful intensification planning.”

However, the city needs more than condos and transit if it is to achieve its full potential. That will take jobs too, researchers say.

“This M City condos project is an exciting one for sure, but it’s largely residential,” Haines said.

The next stage is to attract more jobs and office towers to downtown Mississauga.

That effort will be the “key inflection point,” he said, that will determine the city’s success in its transformation.

Crombie says those jobs are on the way, as part of Mississauga’s expected population boom of around 200,000 people over the next 25 years.

That growth will create more than 100,000 new jobs in the city, she said.

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City plan puts focus on two- and three-bedroom residential units

Nearly half of new residential developments in downtown Toronto could be made up of two- and three-bedroom units, a new plan for the core just approved by city council outlines.

The city’s sweeping TOcore plan for downtown growth considers many aspects of living, working and being in Toronto’s core, including expanding and improving parks; fostering walking, cycling and transit, and protecting open spaces from shadow.

The Official Plan Amendment and three infrastructure strategies was considered by council late Wednesday night.

The master plan requires new residential developments with more than 80 units to be made up of at least 40 per cent two- and three-bedroom units.

“It’s something that we’re … hoping for, because we’ve been seeing a steady decline since the 1990s in the size of condo units and in the number of bedrooms of condo units,” said Cherise Burda, executive director of the Ryerson City Building Institute.

“At the same time, we’re seeing an increase in the height of condo buildings. And, so, essentially, we’re building small and tall; we’re building small units in tall buildings.”

To create balanced mix of unit types and sizes, the policies approved lay out regulations for developments with more than 80 residential units:

    • At least 15 per cent of units would be two-bedrooms that are at least 87 square metres (936.5 square feet) in size.
    • At least 10 per cent of units would be three-bedrooms that are at least 100 square metres (1,076.4 square feet) in size.
    • An additional 15 per cent of units would be a combination of two- and three-bedroom units, without the same minimum size.
“Making sure that we build a livable downtown means ensuring that we have access to affordable housing, but also means that we have access to family housing, and that means family-sized units,” said Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20—Trinity-Spadina) before the vote.

“Not just two and three bedrooms where the three bedrooms are closets, but rather two and three proper-sized bedrooms. And that’s what’s key in TOcore; it provides a percentage that’s required for two and three bedrooms, but also the specific square footage that’s required.”

Douglas Young, an associate professor who teaches urban studies at York University, said the policy is a “very interesting” example of the government regulating the production of housing.

“I think, in this country, there’s always been something of a dance between government and the private sector around housing, with sometimes government getting very involved and other times stepping back,” Young said. “So I see this as a point in time where they’ve decided to step forward and get more involved.”

Young said the regulations are an attempt to reverse the trend of smaller condos being built in Toronto, which are more suitable for singles than families or groups. He added the 87- and 100-square-metre minimums for new units are “big” by today’s standards.

Burda said multi-bedroom units will create opportunities for families to remain downtown, but emphasized that affordability remains an issue.

“We need to get way more innovative and figure out how to create more affordable, family-friendly housing in our downtown, and it doesn’t necessarily require a million-dollar, three-bedroom unit,” Burda said.

The plan adds that, “where appropriate,” residential units would include storage space, operable windows, bedrooms with closets, bedrooms with an operable window on an exterior wall and balconies or terraces.

“They’re acknowledging the fact that the standard of accommodation that the private sector is producing is pretty low, where you can have a space without a window and without a closet and you can call it a bedroom,” Young said.

The downtown plan is a 25-year project that directs the scale and location of future growth in the city centre. It’s the first comprehensive update since the 1970s, when the 1976 Central Area Plan introduced policies to encourage residential growth downtown and avoid inner city deterioration.

“Fundamentally, TOcore is about designing a downtown that is livable,” Cressy said. “Another way of putting it: it’s about ensuring we build neighbourhoods, rather than simply building towers. And, so, central to building neighbourhoods is having a range of ages and families and people that live there.”

Cressy called the masterplan “long overdue and necessary.”

By the year 2041, the population of downtown Toronto is expected to double from 240,000 to 475,000.

Recognizing that growth was outpacing infrastructure, city council initiated the TOcore study in 2014.

The study area is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, Bathurst St. to the west, the mid-town rail corridor and Rosedale Valley Road to the north and the Don River to the east.

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New Condo Sales 2008 – 2018

maziar moini

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Syndicated mortgage investors still out tens of thousands, say Ontario’s new regulations won’t help

Amended regulations will set $60K a year investment cap on some of the risky investments

Margaret Wong, left, and Alexander Wong each invested more than a $100,000 in syndicated mortgages. They’ve never seen a penny of the money they were counting on for retirement. (Chris Dunseith/CBC)

Investors who have likely lost tens of thousands in syndicated mortgages say the Ontario government has “done nothing” for them, and that amended regulations touted in the province’s budget last week won’t do much to help.

The budget outlines changes that will come into effect July 1 to strengthen investor protections and make sure that “potential investors are aware of the risks” surrounding syndicated mortgages.

 

A syndicated mortgage is when a borrower finds more than one private lender to invest money in a property instead of going to the bank.

One big change coming for investors in Ontario is a $60,000 annual investment limit.

It will apply to individual investors in some syndicated mortgages, like the ones a CBC Toronto investigation revealed left 120 investors in the hole nearly $9 million after their money was handed over to a convicted fraudster.

Margaret Wong was one of those investors.

Nearly a year later, the retiree’s no closer to recouping the $200,000 she put into four syndicated mortgage projects with Black Bear Homes.

More than 120 people from the Greater Toronto Area’s Chinese community have likely lost nearly $9 million in syndicated mortgage investments solicited by someone they trusted and then loaned to a convicted fraudster, a CBC News investigation has found. 2:32

“At least we wouldn’t lose as much,” said Wong, about the changes. “But the main point is we would still lose the $60,000, because the government is not doing anything to protect the investor.”

Investment cap, more disclosure coming July 1

In addition to the $60,000 cap, new forms dealing with investor risk tolerance, property appraisals, and disclosure will be created by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), which currently regulates syndicated mortgages.

The province plans to transfer that power to the Ontario Securities Commission down the line.

Wong says the amendments to the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act are a “starting point” but don’t address some borrowers’ behaviour.

We need more accountability. The government should go after the borrower.– Margaret Wong

FSCO considers syndicated mortgages to be high-risk investments, but Wong and others who invested in them with Black Bear say they were told the investments were safe and secure.

“What has the government done for us, other than checking our background and limiting our investment?” Wong told CBC Toronto. “We need more accountability. The government should go after the borrower.”

Gary Fraser and Dominic Ha took investors on a tour of properties under development in Crystal Beach, Ont.

In Wong’s case the borrower was Black Bear Homes, a developer in Fort Erie, Ont., which was represented by Gary Fraser, a convicted fraudster.

Most of the projects involved renovating or building houses or townhomes in the Crystal Beach community on Lake Erie.

After examining Black Bear’s syndicated mortgage contracts, ledgers and the investors stories a year ago, a certified fraud examiner told CBC Toronto, in his opinion, “this is open fraud.”

Police close Black Bear investigation

But in the end police disagreed.

York Regional Police closed their investigation into Black Bear syndicated mortgages in October of last year.

“I was pretty disappointed,” said Alexander Wong, who invested $160,000. “We never had any interview. No one that we know was interviewed.”

“By doing so, how can they draw the conclusion this is not fraud?”

In a letter to another investor, police said “it was determined the this matter may fall under civil or regulatory law but not criminal law” and that investigators “provided material” to FSCO to help in their investigation of the Black Bear investments.

A month after CBC Toronto published its investigation last year, FSCO suspended the licence of the mortgage agent who solicited $9 million from Black Bear investors, Dominic Ha.

According to the contracts that investors signed, Ha received 10 per cent of the funds for each syndicated mortgage he solicited for “mortgage orientation, referral, management and consulting fees.”

FSCO hearing cancelled for mortgage agent

After his licence was suspended, Ha requested a hearing to try and restore it. That hearing was supposed to start Monday, but last week Ha withdrew his request, according to FSCO’s website.

“FSCO just dropped the hearing,” said Margaret Wong. “He just doesn’t renew his licence and that’s it? And the whole case is closed? Come on.”

In a statement FSCO told CBC Toronto the licensing hearing was cancelled because Ha withdrew his request. As a result the regulator revoked Ha’s mortgage agent licence last week.

Wong says she knows she and the others aren’t going to get all their money back, but she still wants agents who defraud investors like her to face some consequences.

“Penalize them with a fine … with a big fine,” Wong told CBC Toronto.

Percy Chan says she’s lucky she still has time to work to earn back the money she lost in syndicated mortgages, unlike seniors who were counting on the money in retirement. (Chris Dunseith/CBC)

And she’s not the only one waiting for some action, Percy Chan says this whole experience has felt like a basketball game.

“We are the basketball being passed around,” said Chan. “Nobody wants to help us.”

She says while the the government changes are “better than nothing,” she doesn’t think they they’ll prevent more people from losing money like she did in Black Bear syndicated mortgages.

We are the basketball being passed around. Nobody wants to help us.– Percy Chan

“They might help a little bit,” Chan told CBC Toronto.

“But in the long run I don’t think so because the people who are looking for the bait, for the victim, they will look for the grey area.”

Still Chan counts herself lucky, because she and her husband have time to work and earn back the money they’ve lost. Unlike many retired seniors who invested their savings with Black Bear.

“They won’t see their money before they pass away,” said Chan.

“I can see the hopelessness from their eyes. It really drowns me; it really tears me down.”

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Relief Line: Preferred Alignment Now Includes Unilever Stop

Step by step, the scope of Toronto’s Downtown Relief Line is taking shape. This week, a new round of transit consultations is revealing an evolved alignment for the future subway, with a Queen corridor that includes a station at the Unilever Site near Broadview and Eastern Avenues, preferred by both City Planning and the TTC. Today, the Province also pledged $150 million towards the Relief Line’s planning, following the federal government’s $840 million state-of-good-repair pledge to Toronto transit last month. Though the Relief Line planning process is still in its early stages, the latest plan is an important step forward in setting out a more finalized corridor and precise station locations. Notably, the new plan also presents meaningful revisions to the preferred corridor identified earlier this year.

In March, a preferred alignment connecting Downtown to Pape Station via Queen Street was announced. The City’s initial preferred corridor terminated at ‘City Hall’ station on Queen, bypassing the Unilever site. However, the proposed station at Nathan Phillips Square would not provide direct transfers to either side of Line 1 at Queen or Osgoode stations, requiring transit users to walk long hallways in order to change trains. Meanwhile, although the Unilever station would boost ridership and be a major socio-economic boost to the formerly industrial area, the added cost was cited as a prohibitive factor. The new plan presents a different approach to both issues.

Although the general Queen-Pape alignment is maintained, the “emerging” preferred corridor jettisons the City Hall station in favour of direct connections to Line 1 at Queen and Osgoode. In lieu of the placemaking benefits of a station at—referred to as “the psychological heart of Toronto” by City Planning—direct transit connections are now preferred. Likewise, the plan now includes a station at the Unilever site, facilitating a more complete multi-modal hub, and helping advance one of the country’s largest developments. (A closer look at First Gulf’s plans will be provided in an upcoming story).

As outlined in this week’s consultations, stations are also being proposed at the intersections of Queen and Sherbourne, King and Sumach, Queen and Pape, and Gerrard and Pape. The Relief Line—which may eventually be extended north and west—is set to add five stations to the network, while connecting three existing TTC stops at Osgoode, Queen, and Pape. For each of the planned stations, including the transfer points to Lines 1 and 2, the City and TTC also provide individualized overviews of potential station configurations.

Thanks to photos taken at Tuesday night’s consultation by UT Forum contributor Alex Glista, a full selection of images is available in our dedicated Relief Line thread. While the benefits of transfer stations at Pape, Osgoode and Queen are self-evident, the station at Queen and Sherbourne is presented within the context of the “new street pattern and area redevelopment” in years to come. A future secondary entrance could also be integrated with the proposed 245 Queen East development immediately to the south.

The Queen and Sherbourne station, photo by Alex Glista

At King and Sumach, the planned station “could help stitch two sides of the off-ramp together,” allowing pedestrians connections from both sides of the Richmond/Adelaide/Eastern overpasses. North entrances “would support 514 Cherry and 504 King streetcar transfers,” while the secondary entrance to the southeast beside Underpass Park could provide a direct connection to the growing West Don Lands.

King and Sumach station, photo by Alex Glista

For Queen and Pape, the challenge is in accommodating high population densities in Leslieville to the west without interrupting EMS service located by the station, nor disrupting the neighbourhood.

Queen and Pape, photo by Alex Glista

At Pape and Gerrard, the station would serve an area that’s showing signs of becoming a development hub, with a large proposal currently in the works for Gerrard Square. Here, the station entrances would need to be designed to allow easy transfer to GO services should a GO RER station be built here too.

Gerrard and Pape, photo by Alex Glista

Source : UrbanToronto.ca

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Young Canadians want to own a home but aren’t planning for it

The dream of owning a home is still very much alive among Canadian millennials, but when it comes to saving for it they are lagging.

A new poll of 18-37 year-olds by CIBC has found that 46% intend to buy a home in the next five years but 76% have yet to start saving or have saved less than a quarter of their down payment.

“Our survey reveals that few millennials are taking the necessary steps to make the move to homeownership,” says Grant Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Advice, CIBC. “You can’t buy a home with intent and desire alone. It’s important to have a financial plan to make the most of your income and set yourself up with the right savings plan to achieve your goals now and in the years ahead.”

Four in 10 Canadian millennials currently rent and almost a quarter live with their parents with 94% of those intending to become homebuyers. However, 45% say they don’t believe it is realistic or desirable anymore.

More than a third are already homebuyers but 58% are concerned that rising interest rates will impact their ability to manage current household expenses.

“While most still dream of owning a home one day, higher house prices, the prospect of higher rates, and new qualifying rules are prompting some millennials to pause and question whether being a homeowner is realistic or even desirable for them,” says Mr. Rasmussen. “The key is to understand your total housing costs and start planning early so you can consider your rent versus buy options in the context of your overall financial plan and desired lifestyle.”

Although many respondents to the poll say that renting can be as expensive as homeownership, they are concerned about the costs of ownership.

But millennial homeowners manage to save more each month ($566 on average) than renters ($368) or live-at-homers ($360), and homeowners have amassed an average nest-egg of just over $60,600 – more than double that of their peers who rent or live at home.

Are you looking to invest in property? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can afford to borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage

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