Mississauga bucks trend with new digs
Parkside Village; 'People were standing out in the rain for them'

Brianna Goldberg, National Post
Published: Thursday, July 03, 2008

There may be rumours of a condo slowdown in urban Toronto, but just west of the city a new demand for urban-style projects is changing the skyline and the landscape.

Last week, Amacon developers released both of its new buildings as part of the Parkside Village project in what it says is an "unprecedented move" to sate the appetite for urban living in Mississauga.

"Amacon saw overwhelming response from VIP registrants and so they released both buildings at the same time," said Debbie Cosic, sales broker for Parkside Village at In2ition Realty.

"People were standing out in the rain waiting for them," she said of the 36-storey Residences at Parkside Village and the 45-storey Grand Residences that became available last week. "Amacon didn't want them to come in just to see a sea of red dots, and think that everything had been sold."

These two sought-after buildings are only a small part of the 11-block "urban village" Ms. Cosic said is part of the changing scope of Mississauga's City Centre.

In recent years, properties in the western GTA have attracted prestigious condo developers: The Daniels corporation made headlines with its gargoyle-topped One Park Tower a few years ago, and has just opened "Chicago."

The condos are earning accolades, too: The 50-storey Absolute World condo won an international competition and the nickname "Marilyn Monroe" for its curvaceous design.

It is no surprise condos are popping up. The city's recent Engagement and Directions Report acknowledged that Mississauga is ageing, with its over-65 population estimated to grow to 25% from 8% in the next 30 years, and few young families to replace the under-44 population.

Condominiums are great for such an older demographic. "Residential subdivisions [in Mississauga] have few, if any, amenities within walking distance and are not well served by transit," reads the report. Often, a condo lifestyle can be a quick fix to those problems.

But the report also highlights a need to attract and retain young people by providing new opportunities for work and for recreation.

Enter such urban-style projects as Parkside Village.

It is taking 12 hectares of prime Mississauga real estate next to Square One and carving the city into smaller blocks with wide sidewalks (to make them more pedestrian-friendly), building stores and restaurants, a recreation centre with a music stage, a wine cellar, a film screening room, patios, and a hectare of parkland with a green arcade down the middle of the development.

Suddenly, industrial and suburban Mississauga starts to sound a lot like any successful city's downtown ... except it might possibly be a bit greener.

This feel is inspired by such integrated communities as Old Montreal, Ms. Cosic said, where living and working are mixed up with one another, rather than thinking of home as something at the end of a commute.

"It's such a cliche, but people want to live there because they really can live, work and play," she said.

With environmental concerns in mind, and ever-rising gas prices, a long ride to work is becoming even less attractive, she said.

A study by the Mississaugabased Sustainable Urban Development Association released last week shows the number of people polled in the GTA who demand life in a single or semi-detached home is on the decline, and more than half of those polled are willing to live -- even with their families --in a condo.

Add that to the claim on Smart Commute Mississauga's site that more people actually commute into Mississauga now, and the people lining up in the rain for a chance to live in Parkside Village sometime in 2011 seem less crazy.

"They're the only ones providing an urban village lifestyle in Mississauga," Ms. Cosic said.

"It's just the start of an urban renaissance."

The success of Parkside Village came as the city of Mississauga launched its draft Strategic Plan last week, which commits to providing a variety of housing, employment and recreation opportunities, and developing a "vibrant City Centre" as part of a vision of Mississauga's future.