Mississauga Developments

[ijmorlan]

It doesn’t need to be re-developed to fix that. Just change the ownership to the city and the status of the main corridors to being streets (closed to vehicle traffic, presumably).

Knocking the whole thing down and rebuilding without roofs spanning the spaces between the buildings seems like an overreaction.

Yet developers all over Canada seem to see potential dollars by redeveloping these relics from the 1960's into mixed-use neighborhoods. To name a few Oakridge, brentwood, lougheed, Galleria, cloverdale, Agincourt, even yorkdale which is probably the most successful mall in Canada has plans to build residential towers where parking currently sits. There is money in it for these developers. They are coming to realize that a sea of free parking makes them no money. It is only a matter of time until developers in the region see this opportunity. I think some of the smaller malls in the region could see plans for redevelopment in the next decade. Frederick st mall is prime for redevelopment into one of these neighbourhoods.

Now you’re talking about something different — building stuff on the existing parking lots, which if I understand correctly is what is planned for Square One. I’m talking about not knocking down a perfectly functional shopping district just to fix a public space ownership/status problem.

There is absolutely zero incompatibility between enclosed malls and mixed-use area. Imagine an entire city block covered by a 5-story podium with towers rising out of it. Ground floor is shopping. Next floor is medical offices, dentist, therapist, and so on. Remaining 3 floors are commercial office space. Towers are residential. If warranted, there can be basement parking levels.