Morguard Corp. is endeavouring to help fill the so-called “missing middle” housing gap with a purpose-built rental development in a part of south Mississauga sorely lacking such options.
With 725 Village Green Blvd. — a three-building development on 3.5 acres of land that will bring 431 units to the intersection of Cawthra Road and Atwater Avenue — Morguard may very well have pulled off a strategic coup.
“Our market studies compared competitive projects and we found there is very little new rental housing in the entire city of Mississauga in the last five or 10 years — we found probably four mid- to high-rise projects,” Brian Athey, senior vice-president of development at Morguard, told RENX.
“But in south Mississauga, there’s the odd condo project going up, so there is the secondary rental market, but very little in the way of new purpose-built, dedicated rental buildings.”
Thus the time for developing new purpose-built rental is past nigh, Morguard believes. The surrounding neighbourhood is largely comprised of post-war single-family dwellings, while rental stock, which was built only a few decades later, is insufficient to meet current demand.
A project 20 years in the making
The neighbourhood’s rental scarcity isn’t surprising considering that Mississauga, Canada’s sixth-largest municipality, as a whole has such a pronounced dearth of this type of housing.
And therein is the opportunity which Morguard has seized. It broke ground at 725 Village Green Blvd. in September after patiently holding the property for 20 years. With tentative occupancy slated for autumn 2027, it projects the development to become a significant income-producing asset in its multifamily portfolio.
“We see ourselves being competitive at a premium basis with the current rental rates in this Port Credit-south Mississauga submarket,” Athey said.
“We won’t open the doors for three years, and with the location and quality of the product, and our timing as such, our returns were workable for this project.”
Spillover effect
The development is situated off of Cawthra’s Road’s quietest strip, sandwiched by the Queen Elizabeth Expressway (QEW) to the north and Lakeshore Road to the south.
The latter serves as the only thoroughfare to the trendy Port Credit strip several kilometres west, where dramatic gentrification sparked by several major waterfront developments have rendered it nearly unrecognizable from only a decade ago.
And there’s more to come with the construction of a dedicated LRT line on Hurontario Street extending from Lakeshore Road up to the Bramalea neighbourhood in Brampton. Combined with the Port Credit Go Train Station, which offers access to Toronto’s Union Station in around 25 minutes, and the nearby QEW — which is only minutes from the Highway 427 interchange — the area is becoming one of the most important transportation nodes in the region.
“We always look at public transit,” Athey said.
Morguard doesn’t develop condos, and that’s another reason the timing seems right to bring 725 Village Green Blvd. to market.
Athey added that construction pricing, too, has become favourable, calling it “a unique window in the construction market.”
“The condo market in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) has slowed significantly in terms of sales, and contractors are finishing condo projects,” he said. “As these existing projects under construction are being finished, sub-trades are becoming available and they’re hungry for work.
“We’re seeing good, competitive pricing right now from the construction sub-trade market, and that’s another reason we elected to proceed at this point in time.”
About 725 Village Green Blvd.
The project is divided into three buildings — building A will be eight storeys and 182 units; building B, also eight storeys, will have 158 units; and the nine-storey C building will have 91 suites and house the development’s amenities, which include an outdoor landscape with a kids’ play area, dog run and terrace fitted with BBQs, as well as a four-season greenhouse for tenants to grow their own herbs and vegetables.
Morguard has, through the amenity package, tried to create a farm table and green living theme at 725 Village Green Blvd. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Morguard envisions a tenant profile of empty nesters, especially from the neighbourhood, who want to downsize without leaving a community they’ve spent decades in.
Although 725 Village Green Blvd. will have studios and one-bedroom units, it will lean heavily toward two- and three-bedroom suites, and as such, will be delivered with what Athey called a premium package of finishes, from nine-foot ceilings to custom millwork.
Retail portfolio to receive injection
Morguard’s main asset classes are multifamily, office, industrial and retail, and it has no shortage of projects on the go. Athey said there are about 20 different files of potential projects in various states of study or design.
But while its multifamily portfolio appears to be doing very well in light of scarce supply, Morguard also sees many opportunities within its retail shopping centre portfolio.
“We have enormous opportunity for infill, rental and residential at some of our shopping centre sites,” Athey said, “so we’re carefully looking at this opportunity.”