The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) located at Highway 7 and Jane Street is fast becoming the heart of the community, brimming with new talent, innovation and urban amenities.
The City of Vaughan, the northern gateway to Toronto, is creating a new downtown centered on enviable urban living, amplified job creation and making Vaughan the most well-connected community in the 905.
The vision is for a true live, work, play city featuring urban parks and green space, office and condo towers, pedestrian and bike links, hotel, retail and entertainment districts, recreational, leisure and nightlife amenities, and enhanced transit links.
The planned Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) will encompass 442 acres, roughly the size of downtown Toronto. Targets to be achieved by 2031 include: a minimum of 1.5 million square feet of office space (more than 40 per cent is planned or under construction); 11,500 jobs, including 5,000 new office jobs; 12,000 residential units housing 25,000 people (almost two-thirds are planned or under construction); and 750,000 square feet of retail space.
“The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre will be the city’s dynamic and vibrant core.It will be the place to be,which will provide memorable experiences for residents and visitors alike.A place where people can work, live and play.” said Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua.
“The VMC will be a reflection of our city’s modern approach to sustainability and avant-garde thinking. The subway, which will soon be opened, will add a vital transit dimension to life in our city.”
The urban community and its mix of new housing options will be a key driver in luring and retaining critical talent to companies choosing to invest in the VMC.
The VMC has already attracted both national and international corporations, including accounting giant KPMG, business law firm Miller Thomson, Harley Davidson Canada and GFL Environmental.
“Located in the heart of the GTA, Vaughan was a clear choice for us to set up a new office,” says Sebastian Distefano, GTA Regional Managing Partner at KPMG.“It allows us to best service our many clients situated in the area,today and tomorrow.”
None of this would be possible without extensive infrastructure investments that will catalyze both office and residential development.
At the heart of theVMC is the intermodal transit services operated by three public agencies, the Toronto Transit Commission, York Region Rapid Transit Corporation and Metrolinx.
TheVMC vision is closely tied to the $3.18-billion, 8.6-kilometre, six- station Toronto York-Spadina subway extension on Line 1Yonge University that has tunnelled its way north from Downsview station. It’s the first time
Toronto’s subway has reached past the city limits, making Vaughan the only 905 municipality with subway service. Commuters will have about a 45-minute ride to Union Station when service commences, scheduled for the end of 2017.
The subway will be closely tied to new VivaNext bus rapid transit lanes on Hwy.7 and a new, nine-bay SmartCentres Place BusTerminal that will open with the subway.The YorkViva BRT rapidway station on Highway 7, immediately above the VMC Subway Station,is scheduled to open in spring 2018.
Transit passengers will be fully connected east to west and north to south and will be able to walk to transit connections on either above-ground or underground pathways.
The VMC will also include a new mixed-useYMCA and library in the future PwC Tower at SmartCentres Place.
The City of Vaughan has implemented its first Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to facilitate major office
investments in the VMC.The CIP allows for planning tools and financial incentives for office development projects greater than 75,000 square feet.
The VMC will only intensify strong population and economic growth already underway in Vaughan. The city accounts for 38 per cent of employment in York Region, is home to 11,370 small, medium and large businesses, and achieved average annual employment growth of 3.5 percent in 2016.
Vaughan has frequently topped national growth population rates, booming from 111,000 people when it was incorporated in 1991 to more than 325,000 today.Vaughan’s population is expected to be 416,000 by 2031.
Vaughan has surpassed $1B in building construction permits eight out of last 10 years and was ranked in 2016 by Canadian Business and Profit magazines as No. 2 in Ontario among best places to do business.The city was also named among the top 20 best places to live in Canada by MoneySense in 2016.
Projects planned and underway in the VMC:
For more info visit MYVMC
