Anticipated for many years, the mall's owner Oxford Properties, along with Alberta pension fund AIMCo called a press conference to announce The Square One District, a multi-decade project that will develop the sea of parking and open lots surrounding the 1972-built mall. The developer, who has recently built EY Tower, New York's Hudson Yards, and has plans for a $3.5 billion mixed-use complex next to Toronto’s Rogers Centre, is going all-in on Downtown Missisauga with a 37-tower mixed-use development set to define the area for decades to come.

The Square One District will see 18 million square feet of space built on 130 acres of currently under-utilized land. A true mixed-use centre, the project will house the first new office buildings to be constructed in Missisuaga’s City Centre in ‘a generation’, 18,000 residential units, and thousands of square feet of new retail and entertainment spaces; all anchored by the existing Square One complex.

At the centre of The Square One District is a space called ‘The Strand’, located on Rathburn Road, just west of Hurontario, the street is envisioned as the anchor of pedestrian activity within the city. The space would feature street level retail, walkable parks, public art, and a transit hub that would connect to the future Hurontario LRT and local MiWay bus service.

Oxford has already received approval for phase one of the project, a pair of IBI Architects-designed residential towers at the south-east corner of Rathburn Road and Confederation parkway; the north-west corner of the Square One District. Brought to market in partnership with The Daniels Corporation, the towers will rise 36 and 48-storeys, connected by a shared podium. Known as The Condominiums and Rental residences at Square One District, the buildings will house a collective 977 units; with 575 condominiums located in the 48-storey tower and 402 purpose-built rentals located in the 36-storey building.

5,000 additional residential units are scheduled to launch in the next five to seven years. Notably, the entire district will see over half of its residential units configured with a purpose-built rental tenure, hoping to ease the stringent 1.5% rental vacancy rate.

Also currently proposed is Block 22, a subsequent phase of the project. Located towards the southern end of the district at the south-west corner of City Centre Drive and Kariya Gate, the building would be located directly south of the mall’s Hudson’s Bay wing and directly east of the 72-storey tower at Exchange District. Submitted for Rezoning as a pair of Hariri Pontarini-designed condominium towers rising 55 and 65-storeys, the towers would house 1216 residential units.