Markham Buttonville Airport Redevelopment | ?m | 1s | Cadillac Fairview | Glenn Piotrowski Architect

It's isolated in terms of transportation connections for high-density development though. Transit here is awful and not likely to improve significantly with no higher order transit planned in the area.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
One of the main things isolating the site is the lack of a mid-block connection across the 404, the cost of which (IIRC) was one of the things that was contentious in the negotiations between the city and developers when the intiial proposal was made. I guess an industrial development can work better than mixed-use without it, but it would still help a lot.
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Norman Bethune Ave south of here crosses the 404 and there's another crossing under construction just north of 16th Ave
 
I like that this updated development proposal matches the region's plan for the 16th Ave interchange reconfiguration.

Requiring a turn coming from Allstate Pkwy (same with Renfrew Dr but to a lesser degree) to get to 16th Ave feel like a disadvantage to the street network, but if that reroute to closer to Hwy 404 allows a larger tenant then might be worth it.

I find it unfortunate that the development at Millbrood Gt and Woodbine Ave prevents a connection to Renfrew Dr, but that would require a bridge over Rouge River so that would have been unlikely given the delays to the north of 16th Ave crossing due to it.
kthing said:
Norman Bethune Ave south of here crosses the 404 and there's another crossing under construction just north of 16th Ave
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The City of Markham's 2014 Official Plan showed a midblock crossing more central (reroute Valleywood Dr north to connect with East Wilmot St) between 16th Ave and Hwy 7, but that is not York Region's 2010 or 2022 plan.
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innsertnamehere said:
It's isolated in terms of transportation connections for high-density development though. Transit here is awful and not likely to improve significantly with no higher order transit planned in the area.
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I agree in terms of the location being bad for residential, but I'm finding myself frustrated by the monotony of how industrial land is being developed across the region (especially with how high demand is).

I'm not actually aware, so I'd appreciate some insight on why there is nothing else other than large spec box warehouses are being built (money I suppose?).

For example, these large warehouses aren't useful to smaller operations, yet there is nothing new being built/zoned to encourage the more compact style of light industry that requires you see in Etobicoke, or in this dense example in New Zealand.

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And on the extreme end, what happened to multi level flexible light manufacturing/office type warehouse buildings? Most old ones are residential lofts now since the demand dropped.

Are buildings like T3 Sterling allowing for uses like garment manufacturing, or strictly office? I wouldn't image them everywhere as only certain industry could actually make being on a fourth floor work, but centrally in Toronto would be a great asset to bring more lucrative employment back close to the city core besides office/retail employment.

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emphurent said:
I agree in terms of the location being bad for residential, but I'm finding myself frustrated by the monotony of how industrial land is being developed across the region (especially with how high demand is).

I'm not actually aware, so I'd appreciate some insight on why there is nothing else other than large spec box warehouses are being built (money I suppose?).

For example, these large warehouses aren't useful to smaller operations, yet there is nothing new being built/zoned to encourage the more compact style of light industry that requires you see in Etobicoke, or in this dense example in New Zealand.

View attachment 494790

And on the extreme end, what happened to multi level flexible light manufacturing/office type warehouse buildings? Most old ones are residential lofts now since the demand dropped.

Are buildings like T3 Sterling allowing for uses like garment manufacturing, or strictly office? I wouldn't image them everywhere as only certain industry could actually make being on a fourth floor work, but centrally in Toronto would be a great asset to bring more lucrative employment back close to the city core besides office/retail employment.

View attachment 494791
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Modern warehouse demands are very very different than they were back then.

The type of industrial product tenants are looking for now is 40+ft clear heights, large loading dock ratios for shipping, and trailer staging areas.

Unfortunately those needs are also quite land intensive.

If it’s any consolation, modern warehouse buildings being 40+ft ceilings means they pack way more product in than it may first appear. Technically single level, but functionally much higher due to how modern warehouse systems are designed (albeit depending on tenant fit out).

Walmarts new warehouse in Vaughan is 70ft tall - 7 storeys! And they don’t do that just because they like tall ceilings..
 
innsertnamehere said:
Walmarts new warehouse in Vaughan is 70ft tall - 7 storeys! And they don’t do that just because they like tall ceilings..
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Huh; this thing:

1690370950844.png


Granted, I'm a bit biased, as I rather despise Walmart; but I preferred this site as it was in 2011:

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A reminder to me why i favour laws limiting chain/formula retail, and capping store size; and also favour breaking up near-monopolies like Amazon.
 
I haven't been following that closely. Where will the general aviation go? I suppose for private owners it becomes a matter of convenience to go further out to Oshawa, Peterborough, Brampton, Lake Simcoe, etc. but for those in business of air taxi, freight, corporate, etc., being pushed further out of the GTA seems it is would be a problem.
 
lenaitch said:
I haven't been following that closely. Where will the general aviation go? I suppose for private owners it becomes a matter of convenience to go further out to Oshawa, Peterborough, Brampton, Lake Simcoe, etc. but for those in business of air taxi, freight, corporate, etc., being pushed further out of the GTA seems it is would be a problem.
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Aren't the news and YRP helicopters based out of Buttonville?
 
I forgot about YRP. Bit of a problem for them. I think I heard the news article saying they were still looking for a new home. It's not like this came as a surprise.
 
lenaitch said:
I forgot about YRP. Bit of a problem for them. I think I heard the news article saying they were still looking for a new home. It's not like this came as a surprise.
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There really isn't anywhere for them to go in York Region.

The best they could hope for is perhaps building a helipad on the YRP Headquarters
 
lenaitch said:
I forgot about YRP. Bit of a problem for them. I think I heard the news article saying they were still looking for a new home. It's not like this came as a surprise.
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Isn't Canada Helicopters operating it for them? I know they moved to the island so perhaps the YRP chopper did too. I did a search for C-GYRP on FR24 but it appears to be blocked.
 
Tim MacDonald said:
Isn't Canada Helicopters operating it for them? I know they moved to the island so perhaps the YRP chopper did too. I did a search for C-GYRP on FR24 but it appears to be blocked.
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Yes, Canadian Helicopters (CHL) was my employer and we moved the EMS helicopter operation to the Island around 1992, but left when Ornge took it over in 2012.

CHL has the contract to operate the YRP helicopter. They moved the YRP operation to Oshawa.
 
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