Construction starts on 8,000 homes as part of huge new lakefront Mississauga community

Construction can begin on more than 8,000 homes in a huge new waterfront community in Mississauga that will eventually hold some 16,000 homes after the city and developer reached a deal that’s expected to quickly get shovels in the ground.

City of Mississauga officials said in a news release Wednesday afternoon they and Lakeview Community Partners Limited have signed new agreements that will allow construction of the 177-acre Lakeview Village and its surrounding community to begin on several fronts.

Mississauga officials said work can now get started on new homes, affordable housing, parkland, community benefit projects such as a landmark public pier that will stretch 600 metres out into Lake Ontario and other initiatives planned as part of the waterfront community in the city’s southeast corner.

Both city officials and the builder have said they expect the “reimagined pier” will quickly become an “iconic destination” that will be “admired as a distinguishable landmark on Lake Ontario.”

As part of a set of agreements with the city, Lakeview Community Partners Limited said it will contribute $14 million to the cost of the pier and “other cultural amenities.”

While no official cost estimates have been provided by the city for the landmark pier, former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie said earlier she’d expect it would cost in the neighbourhood of $100 million.

Rendering of the new pier. (Image: Lakeview Community Partners Limited)

City officials said the agreements related to Lakeview Village represent “a significant step towards realizing Mississauga’s housing targets” in the eyes of the Ontario government, which funds municipalities based on achieving specified home-building targets.

Among components of the agreements between the city and developer are commitments to parkland, traffic improvement, a new public school and that five per cent of the housing built will be affordable.

“This is a significant milestone. The city has been working … for almost a year to ensure the increased density assigned for Lakeview Village will be built in an appropriate way,” Acting Mayor Matt Mahoney said in the news release. “We remain committed to attracting a new generation to live and work in Mississauga by doing what we can to support the transformation of this area into a livable, walkable, waterfront community connected by parks, open spaces, cultural facilities and an innovative employment hub.”

Lakeview Village is a mixed-use development of some 16,000 new homes (up, controversially, from an initial 8,050 units) that’s expected to also bring about 9,000 long-term jobs to Mississauga.

The new community will be built out over the next 15-20 years and will also include a state-of-the-art innovation district that aims to become “the largest hub for technology, innovation and research in Canada,” according to the developer.

It will rise up on the land where the Lakeview Generating Station and its four stacks once stood.

Aerial image shows layout of the new Lakeview Village community and pier. (Image: Lakeview Community Partners Limited)

LCPL said earlier the ambitious project will serve as a model for sustainable mixed-use developments across the country.

Shari Lichterman, Mississauga’s city manager and CAO, described Lakeview Village as “one of Mississauga’s most important waterfront sites” and said officials are happy to be moving forward with its development.

Key to the massive development, she added, are the commitments made “to ensuring the area has the schools, transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, parks and cultural facilities the community needs to thrive.”

City officials said they’ll continue to work with the developer and a provincial facilitator to finalize by October remaining agreements related to the building of the other 8,000 or so housing units.

Pier will put Mississauga “on the international map”

The new pier, once completed, will be the longest such Canadian attraction on the Great Lakes and the city’s most-recent former mayor predicted it will go a long way toward putting Mississauga on the international tourist map.

LCPL, meanwhile, said in an earlier online project update the former industrial marker along Mississauga’s waterfront will be “transformed into an iconic destination to celebrate local food and culture and will be admired as a distinguishable landmark on Lake Ontario.”

The reimagined pier, the developer added, will offer a “world-class waterfront experience” while also connecting people “to places to play, with paddleboards, kayaks, a marina and a beach nearby. Year-round, it will be energized and activated with music festivals, art fairs and eatery pop-ups.”

For decades, the developer noted earlier, the pier was closed off from the public, used as an industrial pier to transport coal from ships to the former power plant on the site.

Attraction expected to create new jobs

“After its demolition, the coal plant left behind a unique one-kilometre-long pier that will become an important catalyst in reconnecting Mississauga with its waterfront,” the developer said. “Once complete, the newly imagined pier will offer panoramic views and a unique waterside experience.”

LCPL added the Lakeview Village pier will also create new jobs, support local businesses and generate revenue for the city.

“Simply put, building a waterfront destination equates to building a stronger economy for cities,” the developer said earlier.

City officials are also eagerly anticipating the addition of what’s expected to be a bustling waterfront attraction.

The pier is actually one kilometre in length when the horizontal component that separates the inlet channel from Lake Ontario is included. However, the structure will reach out into the lake a distance of 600 metres.

When open to the public, the Mississauga pier will be significantly longer than the nearby Burlington pier (137 metres in length), but much shorter than Chicago’s famous Navy Pier, which juts out more than one kilometre (1,006 metres) into Lake Michigan.