Condominium development at Yonge Street and Millard Avenue in Newmarket is coming after more than a decade of development planning.
Kerbel Group received zoning approval for the project in 2021 to build a total of 331 units, including a 12-storey building at 17365 and 17395 Yonge St. The developer has done cleanup work on the property over the past few weeks and says it is nearing the end of a site plan application process that can lead to construction starting next year.
Kerbel vice-president of planning operations Joanne Barnett said the construction timeline will be tied to sales that will also start next year.
“We’re feeling optimistic that there may be a market for high-density in the area,” she said.
The project will include 303 condo units for purchase, with retail space on the ground floor. Along with that will be 28 townhouses on the eastern edge of the property, near existing residential homes.
The project dates back to 2009 and initially featured another tall 17-storey building, which was removed from the plan.
Barnett said the gap in time for the project to reach zoning approval came about due to partners Kerbel previously had on the project “behaving badly.”
“It took us another couple of years to buy out our partners,” she said. “Once we did that, we refreshed the application, had an additional community consultation and proceeded to get the zoning bylaw done.”
The project was able to get zoning approval in May 2021. Kerbel has also worked out a memorandum of understanding with an adjacent residents group to work out issues regarding height and density.
“This project was a long time coming, and they have adjusted the design in order to accommodate and work with the residents in the area to accommodate some of the concerns that they have,” area Councillor Bob Kwapis said at a May 2021 council meeting.
But the development is still awaiting site plan approval. In the meantime, Barnett said they got a site alteration permit to ensure they could ready a record of site conditions with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Any material on the site deemed not suitable was removed, she said. That work is now complete, and they await site plan approval to apply for building permits and start construction sometime next year.
Once it begins, the timeline for construction will be between 18 months and three years, depending on how well sales go, Barnett said.
“We’re enthusiastic about the project and we hope all the efforts we put in over the years will be fruitful,” she said. “It will be a very exceptional building for the area.”
