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Anyone familiar with the drive along the 400 north of Toronto will recognize the Colossus Centre, an impressively large entertainment and shopping complex that is particularly known for its iconic, flying saucer-topped movie-plex. Now, RioCan REIT has submitted an Official Plan Amendment application to the City of Vaughan for the 61.7 acre property, proposing to transform it into a mixed-use residential community, replete with new parkland, office, retail, and entertainment opportunities.
The redevelopment would be a phased, long-term intensification that would achieve city-building goals including that of increasing housing supply and affordability, providing a strengthened public realm, and a transformation into a compact and urban built form with strong connections to existing and planned transportation infrastructure.
Composed of 25 buildings ranging from 8 to 55 storeys, the Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed Master Plan proposes a total gross floor area (GFA) of 938,322m² that would include 58,131m² of non-residential GFA, 880,191m² of residential GFA, 97,766m² of parkland in the form of three large parks and a multi-use trail, and approximately 13,000 residential units.
Andrew Duncan, Chief Investment Officer at RioCan told UrbanToronto, "The housing will likely include a mix of condo and rental. As we go through the planning process, our plan is to react to what the needs of the market are, and what the best outcome is, for not only the community itself, but also our unit holders."
The Colossus site has a long history as an entertainment hub for the City of Vaughan. The current movie theatre was preceded by the 400 Drive-In, which opened up almost 70 years ago in 1954 with a single screen and was later expanded to three screens in 1978. At its peak, the drive-in theatre accommodated over 1,300 vehicles. In 1997, the 400 Drive-In theatre closed to make way for the Cineplex Cinemas that we all know today.
"We are in the early stages of planning this redevelopment, and Cineplex is a critical tenant of ours, and of the community," said Duncan. "There is a lot of density in this application, and it will take quite a while to work through all of it, and we will work directly with Cineplex. Currently the plan is to keep them on the site long-term by moving them around and phasing the development."
In addition to the movie theatre and the surrounding retail that currently exists on the site, a standalone Costco store is another factor in the redevelopment. "The Costco lands are not ones we own," said Duncan. "They own their own lands, and we have worked cooperatively with them on the application for this project to make sure both of our individual plans are integrated. They are in the process of exploring permissions for their property, but as of right now we believe their plan is to stay put."
The Petro-Canada gas station located at the northwest corner of the site is also not a RioCan-owned piece of land, but similarly, it has also been considered and included in the Master Plan design and is in. fact where the first phase of the project would proceed, just under one million square feet of space at the corner of Highway 7 and Weston Road.
The expansive site is surrounded by a collection of major roads, with Highway 7 to the north, Weston Road to the west, Highway 400 to the east, and Highway 407 and the adjacent Costco lands to the south. Across Highway 400 to the east is the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), the City of Vaughan’s new downtown. The VMC is well connected to key points throughout the Cities of Vaughan and Toronto through its TTC subway station. The VMC includes a growing number of residential, mixed-use, office, and transit-supportive developments and is separated from the Colossus site by 1.2 km, with the Colossus site approximately 1.6km from the VMC subway station itself.
As they would be separated by a major highway, potential residents would need a way to get over to the VMC.
"One of the things we did take into consideration is the work that the City and the Province are doing on a secondary overpass over the 400 that will link into the south part of the VMC," said Duncan. "So there will likely we a variety of options for residents on this side of the site to be able to make their way over to the VMC not only by vehicle, but also by bike or on foot." This would be in addition to increased service along the VIVA Highway 7 Rapidway route that currently services the subway station.
"Our goal in the development would be to provide opportunities for the residents to not have a car if they didn't need it," said Duncan, "but we also want to acknowledge that people in this area may also need a car for their work or leisure so we are also not dismissing that opportunity."
A street and block network would be created to support pedestrian movement and create a seamless experience of walking throughout the new community. This would be accomplished by adding all new public and private roads that would be designed with sidewalks on both sides.
Pedestrian mews would also be created to prioritize pedestrian activity along a 20 metre wide east-west spine in the northern area of the development. The mews would be primarily a non-auto area, encouraging outdoor activities, and further animated by lining it with retail.
Finally, the development is also proposed to include in excess of the 10% of land that is required by the City as park space. In fact, 20% of the land is proposed as park space, to be found within three separate parks across the property plus a multi-use trail. The trail would make up 12.5% of the parkland.
While two parks proposed for the southern portion of the property, the largest park – Colossus Park – would be located in the northern portion of the development, and would have an area of 12,135m². Colossus Park is proposed to support day-to-day recreation for the community, as well as accommodate larger programmatic events such as market events, or festivals. The remaining 7.5% of outdoor space is proposed within POPS that would include the mews, in addition to a promenade/linear urban park that is proposed along Famous Avenue.
Currently, RioCan is focussed on the Official Plan Amendment, following up with getting their phase one zoning approval, which Duncan hopes to submit an application for in the near future. He continued that RioCan hopes to work through Vaughan's official plan process and zoning process through the next two to three years, to be in a position to start on the site in 2024.
"We are excited about the application, and bringing the site to its highest and best use over a number of years," said Duncan. "We're working with the City through a process to one day make the Colossus site the home of a great retail-focussed, mixed-use development that offers more housing opportunities and beings great amenities to the community."
As time goes on, the redevelopment of the Colossus site will be further refined through subsequent Zoning By-law Amendment applications. In the meantime, you can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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| Related Companies: | Counterpoint Engineering, Hariri Pontarini Architects, RioCan REIT, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, Urban Strategies Inc. |
