Markham Re-Invents Itself
By Bob Strupat
It’s full speed back to the future for the city that calls itself a town, a place that has blossomed as a classic suburb yet now aspires to all things urban. And not a moment too soon, given the province’s determination to curb low-density sprawl.
The recent launch of Downtown Markham simultaneously signalled the beginning of an exciting 10-million sq. ft. mixed-use downtown that will flower over the next couple of decades, and the end of more than 15 years of civic and public angst over how to accommodate future growth.
Downtown Markham answers the need to accommodate growth without paving over more farmland, and in doing so, holds out the possibility of a sustainable future.
Ironically, it’s based on a decidedly old-fashioned development model – a compact and sufficiently dense community where there’s a spirited mix of homes, jobs, shops and entertainment options within walking distance or a transit stop.
By resurrecting an urban model that has stood the test of time in beloved cities around the world, Downtown Markham demonstrates that there can be more to life in the suburbs than mammoth malls, big box retail complexes, parking lots, and more parking lots.
What is Downtown Markham?
Downtown Markham is the pearl in the oyster that is Markham Centre, an expansive planning envelope that the town has designated for mixed uses and higher density development.
Markham Centre is on the province’s list of emerging urban centres – which is to say, a place where Queen’s Park is prepared to invest some of its current $30 billion infrastructure funding.
Downtown Markham is big (243 acres of condos, townhouses, office buildings, stores, restaurants and parks), bold (the search is on for global brand retailers) and brassy (check your suburban expectations at the door).
But it’s also compact and sufficiently intense to ignite the kind of public life and street activity that makes cities inviting, and suburbs… not so much.
Taking public transit, cycling and walking will replace the daily commute; lively neighbourhoods, beckoning parks and bustling squares will replace clogged expressways; stores at streetfront with their doors smack up to the sidewalk will replace enclosed malls surrounded by thousand-car parking lots.
Based on an urban model, incorporating ideas from the best cities and neighbourhoods around the world, its central idea is increased density. Not skyscrapers à la Bay Street, but Markham-style 8- to 16-storey buildings that are intimately close to each other and everything else.
When parking is accommodated in structures and public squares and parkettes take the place of surface lots, motorists will be transformed into engaged pedestrians. Sidewalks, enlivened by cafés and little plazas and squares where one can see and be seen, will create a people place.
What’s in it for the business community?
Downtown Markham is a long-term $3 billion investment that will create a vigorous living and working environment with the kind of synergies and economic opportunities that will attract entrepreneurs and retailers who might normally not consider the suburban GTA.
It will also attract the high-tech industry workforce that is in constant demand around the world. Attracting the best managers and employees will be a lot easier when prospects can imagine themselves walking to work, strolling to restaurants or shops at lunchtime or stopping in a café or nightclub after work.
Corporate tenants will also benefit from district energy. Even in the face of an ice storm or failed power grid, buildings in Downtown Markham will continue to be heated and cooled by three nearby natural gas power plants of Markham District Energy.
Corporate residents can defer capital costs and take advantage of space that would normally be occupied by boilers and chillers. Because capacity can quickly be increased, high-tech commercial tenants will be able to meet future needs for cooling that are difficult to predict today.
Retailers will no longer confined to strip plazas, enclosed malls and power centres.
Which is good, because these aren’t the things that distinguish Paris, London or Milan. Interestingly, they also aren’t the things top of mind with today’s most progressive retailers. The trend is for retailing to return to its roots – streetfront shops accessible by foot and surrounded by cafés and squares.
Downtown Markham includes about 460,000 sq. ft. of retail space, most of it clustered in a shopping and entertainment district at the core of the mixed-use development.
Even though stores stand individually at streetfront, building the downtown from scratch provides the opportunity to borrow at least one proven mall practice. The main shopping street and the large open square that it leads to will be established as private condominium space.
This will allow the developer to maintain the street and square to higher than usual municipal standards, such as more frequent cleaning, trash removal and snow clearing. It also provides the opportunity to establish and maintain a healthy and ever-changing tenant mix so that retailers thrive and shoppers are better served.
What’s wrong with business as usual?
The McGuinty government understands that curbing sprawl is good politics, and even better economics.
To accommodate 3.7 million new residents and 1.8 million new jobs in the so-called Greater Golden Horseshoe over the next 25 years, the province intends to channel future growth into more intense, compact, mixed-use and transit-supportive centres.
This will not only make the best use of limited infrastructure bucks but will boost the performance of the provincial economy.
Today, the GTA is having trouble attracting investment, leading-edge industries and the highly educated population that we need to advance in the global economy. International trade, Ontario’s lifeblood, is sluggish because of congested roads and social and physical infrastructure have noticeably fallen into decline.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan recently asked people to think about turning their garages into second homes, so that Canada’s housing stock could be doubled without adding to sprawl… extreme perhaps, but a sign of the times as civic leaders scramble for ways to accommodate the newcomers who are headed their way, ready or not.
With the launch of Downtown Markham and its plans for the remainder of Markham Centre, it appears that Markham is running well ahead of the pack in its response to today’s economic realities and tomorrow’s urban challenges.
2600 John Street, Unit 207, Markham, ON L3R 3W3 T: 905.475.5222 F: 905.475.6369
