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UrbanToronto is celebrating 20 YEARS throughout October with stories and images looking back over the last two decades. Today's article is one of several looking at change in Toronto over the the period.
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“I think what gets everybody out of bed every morning is that we are really looking to build the city that we love,” Vic Gupta, CEO of CreateTO told UrbanToronto in a recent interview. Over the past two decades, Toronto has witnessed tremendous growth, and a recent addition to the slate of players in this transformation has been CreateTO, an arm of the City of Toronto established in 2018 to oversee its real estate portfolio. Gupta noted the significant growth of the real estate market, with "the per square foot price of real estate having probably quadrupled in the city" and stressed the increasing need for "more and more housing, and affordable housing."
ModernTO: A Vision for the Future
Tasked with optimizing the City's landholdings, ModernTO is a CreateTO program adopted by the Toronto City Council in October 2019 that aims to generate savings through consolidating the city's vast office space, and reducing the number of locations to just 15. This will be achieved by modernizing office space that is being kept, making more efficient use of it by establishing office hubs in key civic buildings such as City Hall, Metro Hall, and the Civic Centres in Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke, and then ending leases at other privately-owned sites, while some City-owned sites can be declared surplus to City needs and be made available for other uses, especially new residential.
Unlocking the Potential of City Real Estate
Gupta emphasized the organization's mission to "shape the future of the city with bold and impactful real estate solutions. At the top of that list is affordable housing. We have identified through our Housing Now program 21 sites that we are taking through the rezoning process. Those sites will generate over 15,000 residential homes, of which almost 6,000 would be affordable."
As the City of Toronto continues to grapple with the housing crisis, its Housing Now initiative has been progressing slower than expected. Gupta notes that Toronto has had "So much development in the city, and now it's a little bit challenged with the interest rate environment, and the cost of construction. So, I think we're going to be really interested to see how the market evolves, I think we're all in a bit of uncharted territory."
However, despite the current economic conditions that did not exist when the initiative was first announced, the first of the Housing Now projects are moving ahead, for example the CreateTO partnership with Tricon Residential and Kilmer Group for a new 725-unit, mixed-use development at Dundas and Kipling where work is underway, with Block 1 having broke ground in August.
Inclusive Growth and Housing Solutions
Gupta particularly highlighted the city's commitment to inclusive growth, covering the vast spectrum of Toronto demographics. "The need to build out affordable housing is a generational issue. It's not a five or even a 10-year issue." He elaborates that the issue must be "a focus for everybody in the real estate space, including all the development community, UrbanToronto readers, the three levels of government. Everyone has to come together to focus on this issue. And quite frankly, it's going to take a lot of investment of capital dollars." The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), Canada's largest social housing provider, has played a crucial role in addressing housing needs in Toronto, working alongside CreateTO.
Diverse Development Projects
CreateTO is in fact actively involved in many development projects and leasing opportunities in Toronto, encompassing a wide range of sectors, including mixed use and placemaking. High profile projects include plans for new residential high-rise at 260 Adelaide Street West along with a new park across the street at 229 Richmond Street West.
Culture can also fall into CreateTO's hands, and recently included a design competition in partnership with TOLive to replace the St Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Revitalizing Toronto's Waterfront
Gupta also noted progress made on the city's waterfront. The Integrated Annual Report for 2021-2022 by Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government partnership that is rejuvenating the city’s lakeside districts, provides a comprehensive overview of the organization's efforts in revitalizing the area, including projects both completed and ongoing that contribute to the city's economic growth and foster community engagement.
"We’re really proud of the contribution that we've made towards environmental sustainability and climate positive action," Gupta says. Looking ahead, he's particularly excited about the redevelopment of the Port Lands, "an 800-acre piece of land that is probably the largest undeveloped, underdeveloped, waterfront land anywhere in North America, if not the world."
Sustainability and Environmental Initiatives
CreateTO is also making strides in environmental sustainability. Gupta notes a district energy project which "will be coming to fruition in the Etobicoke Civic Centre precinct where we're building out a new Civic Centre, which is another tremendous project that we're really proud of."
Gupta further expresses CreateTO's work on environmental sustainability. He shares that CreateTO "also launched a pilot project on the use of mass timber as a as a building typology with the view to try to encourage the private sector to use this. And we were really successful in terms of demonstrating that we can not only achieve our climate goals, but we can also bring projects to market faster. And because the cost of traditional construction has gone so high, we can actually do it in an economical way." He further added, "We are really proud of the contribution that we've made towards environmental sustainability and climate positive action."
CreateTO, in its commitment to sustainability, has been actively involved in several projects that emphasize environmental responsibility, innovative design, and community engagement. Besides the Etobicoke Civic Centre Design Competition, notable initiatives of this nature include the redevelopment of the 1930s-built quarry at 411 Victoria Park, and another planned redevelopment of a more recent big box retail site at 75 Billy Bishop Way across from Downsview Airport.
Honouring Indigenous Roots
Toronto's history is also deeply intertwined with its Indigenous roots, and CreateTO is committed to honouring that legacy. “Indigenous reconciliation for us is becoming more table stakes,” Gupta stressed, “and we are really trying to signal that this has to be at the heart of everything that we do.”
The organization has dedicated a site at the Leslie Slip Lookout Park for placemaking for the Indigenous community. Indigenous artist Dani Kastelein-Longlade of design firm Brook McIlroy was hired to develop a piece of art mural that is on the hoarding that tells the story of the migration of the indigenous peoples through these lands.
Last year, then Mayor John Tory and Chief Jason Gauthier of the Missanabie Cree First Nation announced a partnership for the development of new housing at 140 Merton Street. This site will be the first non-profit developed Housing Now site led by an Indigenous organization, dedicated to providing housing options for Indigenous elders and other seniors. The development will offer 294 new rental homes, with about half being affordable. The building will also feature ceremonial space, a smudging room, and indoor and outdoor amenities for residents.
Looking Ahead
Despite the ecominic challenges and concerns, Gupta is optimistic about Toronto's future, predicting that it will "be an interesting and exciting time over the next 20 years." He envisions a city that will "continue to invest in transit, to create the opportunity to develop these mixed-use communities in and around transit hubs."
Looking forward, CreateTO's multi-year Strategic Plan seeks to solidify its vision. It focuses on applying a city-wide lens to Toronto’s real estate holdings, identifying underutilized sites for development, and establishing partnerships to create new possibilities in the city's most underserved neighbourhoods.
The strategic plan also emphasizes the values that guide CreateTO's work: improving lives, focusing on the future, pushing boundaries, creating change together, and being there for each other. These values reflect the agency's commitment to inclusive, sustainable, and innovative city-building.
With this spirit and vision, Gupta believes that the best days for Toronto are yet to come.
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UrbanToronto will return tomorrow with another story celebrating 20 YEARS. In the meantime, check back often to our front page and Forum to keep an eye on all the current and emerging trends, and you can always leave your comments in the space below.
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Thank you to the companies joining UrbanToronto to celebrate our 20 years in business.
