Toronto announces developers for third Housing Now site
The City of Toronto and its CreateTO real-estate agency are pushing forward with development of a third affordable-housing and market-rental development site in the city.
The organizations made the announcement on November 22. It sees the contract for the development of the Phase One Housing Now site at 777 Victoria Park Avenue awarded to Alterra Group of Companies and Mahogany Management.
In October, the city and CreateTO announced development partners for the Housing Now Phase One sites at 50 Wilson Heights Boulevard and 705 Warden Avenue.
“Housing Now is helping to create thousands of transit-oriented, new affordable rental homes and I’m pleased this new mixed-income, mixed-use development at 777 Victoria Park Avenue will deliver more than 250 new affordable rental homes in Scarborough,” said Mayor John Tory.
Across all three sites, the development partners will build almost 2,600 new homes, including more than 2,100 rental homes, of which more than 1,000 will be affordable rental homes.
The two-acre site at Victoria Park Avenue will deliver a minimum of 508 residential homes, including 254 affordable rental homes and 254 market rental homes. The development will also deliver a new child-care centre, retail and community space, and new publicly accessible open space and improvements to the public realm. The site will also include a minimum of 20 percent accessible affordable rental homes and 15 per cent accessible market rental homes.
“These developments will deliver much-needed affordable and market rental housing in addition to bringing new amenities to the local community,” said Councillor Gary Crawford. “I look forward to introducing the development partners to the community to engage ongoing consultations, as this project moves forward.”
The site is one of 21 city-owned sites included in the Housing Now initiative. It is estimated that the sites will deliver more than 14,600 new residential homes across the city, including more than 10,000 rental homes, of which approximately 5,500 will be affordable rental homes.
The city says the developments will be funded by the selected for-profit and not-for-profit developer proponents. The City is supporting the delivery of affordable housing on Housing Now sites by leveraging an estimated $925 million in land value, and by offering financial incentives through the Open Door program, including waiving development charges, planning and building fees, and parkland dedication fees, and providing relief from property taxes, for the affordable component of each project. Those incentives are valued at more than $433 million across the Housing Now portfolio.
In total, the city is contributing more than $1.3 billion to the delivery of affordable homes through the initiative.
Construction at 777 Victoria Park Ave. is slated to begin in the second quarter of next year.
Featured image: 777 Victoria Park Avenue. (City of Toronto)