First highrise will soon take shape at huge new waterfront community in Mississauga

Construction of a huge new waterfront community in Mississauga that will eventually number some 16,000 homes — in addition to numerous businesses — officially begins on Monday.

Work is starting on the first residential section of the 177-acre mixed-use Lakeview Village development located in Mississauga’s southeast corner where the Lakeview Generating Station and its four stacks once stood.

Lakeview Community Partners Limited, developer of the award-winning planned community, said in a news release construction will officially begin Monday morning on the highrise condos known as Harbourwalk.

The developer in addition to the builder, Tridel, and City of Mississauga officials will be on hand for the groundbreaking.

Harbourwalk is “the first of many new homes at Lakeview Village on the shores of Lake Ontario on the Mississauga waterfront,” the developer said, adding the residential highrise is expected to be “a visually stunning complex (that will be) a collection of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with terraced balconies that step down toward the waterfront.”

Earlier this year, the city and developer reached a deal that laid the foundation for getting shovels in the ground. The pact paved the way for work to begin on more than 8,000 of the eventual 16,000 or so homes that will be part of the new waterfront community.

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

Mississauga officials said at the time that work could now get started on new homes, affordable housing, parkland, community benefit projects such as a landmark public pier that could stretch 600 metres out into Lake Ontario and other initiatives planned as part of the Lakeview Village community.

Both city officials and the developer 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 around $100 million.

Rendering of what a new Mississauga pier might look like. (Image: Lakeview Community Partners Limited)

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,” Mississauga Deputy Mayor and Ward 8 Coun. Matt Mahoney said in an earlier 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.