Scarborough City Centre is not your average suburban neighbourhood. As a major transit node, its streets are lined with condos, office towers and a shopping mall. A civic centre and public square lie at the heart of the community. With its new transit line, the city wants to make sure it completes its evolution from farm fields to a thriving city neighbourhood.
City planners anticipate some ambitious new public amenities and improvements to Scarborough City Centre’s grid of streets in conjunction with the new transit line to replace the aging Scarborough RT. However, the suburban city centre near the 401 and McCowan already has good bones.
Albert Campbell Square is a pleasant social space with benches among foliage, a concert stage, a waterfall and a reflecting pond which turns into a skating rink. It’s the city’s only public square with retail spaces fronting directly onto it. Cafes and restaurants in those storefronts could one day animate the space like many a European square.
Scarborough Town Centre is one of the region’s largest shopping malls with a full line of fashion retailers. The neighbourhood has many office towers for employment and is home to Scarborough’s central YMCA.
The McCowan corridor has seen substantial population growth since its first condos appeared in the late 1980s—mostly in new condos and townhouses. It saw a 38 per cent increase in population between 2001 and 2006 alone. The city anticipates 10,000 new residents in the coming decade.
City planners don’t want to see the area lose its momentum in its evolution into a great urban district. With Toronto City Council’s approval last week, the McCowan precinct south of the 401 will get a new school, sports field, five-acre park and streets designed with a focus on walking and cycling.
Planners are looking at a new $69 million park and another park built on the Scarborough RT’s elevated guideway when the RT is replaced by the new transit line, similar in idea to New York’s renowned High Line linear park.
Scarborough City Centre is already a unique neighbourhood to call home with above-average amenities. With further city investment along with the new transit line, the city will cement the neighbourhood as an east-end gateway that will continue to attract new residents and thrive.
TO REGISTER FOR CONDOS IN SCARBOROUGH AND JOIN OUR VIP BUYERS PROGRAM, FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING FORM:
[condoForm]