Real estate developer and owner
RioCan has a vision to transform Shoppers World Brampton into a sustainable, transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly community and revitalize the retail offerings to create a model mixed-used community for the 21st century.
John Ballantyne, Chief Operating Officer at RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, said the project is a 20-year development.
“We’re contemplating the first step of it right now. We’ve got approvals to build quite a lot but it’s going to depend on how each respective phase performs,” he said.
“RioCan’s model is we’ve always been a retail landlord. We’ve always owned unenclosed centres located across Canada. About five years ago we made a concerted effort to be more in the primary markets of Canada. So we sold most of our secondary market assets because we know the growth is in the primary markets.
“This site is a great example of that where there’s an LRT coming to this site. It’s going to be the terminus station of the LRT. It’s going to end at the shopping centre and we understand there’s a need for new homes in Canada. This is an ideal opportunity to combine the two – our retail prowess along with our residential banner RioCan Living to add residential intensification to the site.”
Ballantyne said the site has been planned and the owner has rights to build four million square feet of mixed-use density. That could be up to 4,500 residential units – both rental and condominium. It would also mean about 860,000 square feet of commercial with retail a strong component but it would include office space and perhaps educational, medical, and a wide gamut of uses.
The site is 53 acres and the shopping centre is currently about 690,000 square feet – a combination of a mall which is grocery anchored but including box stores around the site. RioCan has owned the property for more than 20 years.
“Brampton is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada,” said Ballantyne.
“This one will be phased over the next 20 some odd years. The first component of the development that we’re considering is building a couple of towers on Steeles Avenue. There’s actually an old bus station . . . The former bus station is now in a vacant corner in the southwest portion of the site. We’re considering putting two towers up on that. They would be in the range of about 30 storeys each. We could do that without touching the existing mall. So Shoppers World Brampton would remain as is while we build out those two multi-family buildings.”
