The new south Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC)

I’ve been a big fan of Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) for years now.

Many people in the Greater Toronto Area are familiar with Vaughan and how the area surrounding Jane and Highway 7 have been transforming over the past few years. Given the rapid pace of change, I think it is time for an update post.

The VMC is rapidly becoming the new downtown for the city of Vaughan, combining class A office space, new high rise and low rise residential, retail shopping, and cultural centres.

The plan for creating a new downtown core for the city of Vaughan has been around for decades. The targeted location of Hwy 7 and Hwy 400 was chosen because of it’s strategic position near major highways and the vast amount of usable land with the potential for rapid transit expansion. The plan started becoming real when every level of government committed to the funding necessary to move the project forward. The Government of Canada contributed close to $700 million to the project, and the Province of Ontario provided $974 million through the Move Ontario Trust. In addition, the City of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York contributed $904 million and $604 million in funding, respectively ($3.182 Billion!).

The vision is for the VMC to be a transit oriented hub with mixed use developments with the following targets by 2031:

• 12,000 residential condominium units
• 1.5 million square feet of commercial office space
• 750,000 square feet of new retail space

All of this is supposed to be according to a master plan that is walk-able, accessible, diverse (include affordable housing), vibrant (include civic, cultural, community spaces and public institutions), green, and beautiful.

Transit

We are starting to see the emergence of the decades of planning come to fruition. The TTC Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station opened in 2017, granting riders with easy access to the Spadina subway line. The VMC is a 5 minute subway ride to York University Station and a 45 minute ride to Union Station.

The Smartcentres Place Bus Terminal opened in November 2019. The 9 bay YRT bus terminal is a key transit hub for people traveling within and outside York Region. Viva (York Region) and Zum (Brampton) are both currently operating in the VMC and the bus terminal allows convenient and heated underground/heated connections for transit riders going between the subway and the bus terminal.

The Hwy 407 Bus Terminal is one subway station south of the VMC stop. The Hwy 407 Bus Terminal has 18 bus bays with 13 for GO Transit and 5 for YRT/VIVA and is connected to the subway via elevators and escalators making it fully accessible. The station also includes 600 paid parking spaces and a pick up and drop off area for commuters.

Upcoming Residential Developments

We are excited to continue working on the new developments in the area. Menkes and QuadReal are releasing their next community in South VMC, Festival Condos.

Festival Condos is a part of a proposed development consisting of four towers (40, 45, 55, & 60 storeys) atop podiums ranging between 4 and 5 storeys with a significant amount of ground related and amenity space.

Menkes has a long history of creating smart and well designed communities on transit like Festival Condos. I am a past customer of Menkes and also have sold a number of their previous communities and can say that myself and my clients have been more than satisfied with their end product.

If you are someone you know might be interested in this community, feel free to contact me direct at 647-296-5489.