Will the development surge continue?

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

The numbers don’t lie, 2017 was a record year for the City of Oshawa.

Nearly 2,300 building permits, 1,754 residential units, and over $614 million worth of development. It was a record year, and that’s not just a euphemism, the city smashed a trio of development records (total building permits, highest total construction value overall and highest residential construction value) all set during the 2015 development boom.

However, as the city closes the books on a bright and sunny 2017 and turns the page to 2018, will the development continue?

Well, if city sources are to believed, now isn’t the time to blink.

“Development activity in 2017 was quite strong and is expected to continue in 2018 given the continued influence of the Highway 407 East, general commercial and service opportunities available in a growing and diversifying city,” a city report reads.

You can also hear it directly from the horses mouth. Paul Ralph, the city’s commissioner of development services tells The Oshawa Express he expects that 2018 is going to be a busy one, especially the first half of the year. With an election looming in the fall, many developers will be chomping at the bit to get their applications in before the summer recess and eventual fall break for the election in October.

“That’s expected, that’s normal for every election year,” Ralph says. “But if you look at the development, the volume of development applications right now, it’s going to be very busy.”

And while the city’s permit office will be busy with the approval stamp, many projects are already out the door and ready to turn ground in the city, including 25 single detached dwellings from Delpark Inc. on Grandview Street North, 67 houses from Greycrest Homes west of Harmony Road North, and a pair of projects from Beechnut Development Corp that will see 17 single detached dwellings and 115 street townhouses, to name a few.

A number of higher profile developments will also take steps over the coming years.

The largest of which will be progress on getting homes into the Kedron Part II planning area, which spans a massive chunk of land north of Conlin Road between Harmony Road and Townline Road. A collaborative build with 10 different developers that could see approximately 22,000 people living in the area once completed.

According to Ralph, many subdivision plans are now coming back to the city for further reviewing ahead of final approval.

“We’re now processing those, and those are the ones I know that some of them will want some form of approval before the summer recess,” he says.

Also taking steps this year will be the large RioCan development north of the Durham College and UOIT campus, a combination of residential and commercial uses, which Ralph says is starting to receive a lot more interest now that the Highway 407 extension is complete.

For some time, progress on the project was halted as interest in the commercial side of the development had evaporated, many of them holding back until the toll road was completed.

In terms of the Highway 407 extension, which has received much attention from Oshawa mayor John Henry in recent weeks, calling on the province to release the lands around the highway for development, Ralph echoed the mayor’s comments, noting the importance of the lands for the city’s future growth.

“We need to get that started to open up those for jobs and assessment growth,” he says, noting that following the mayor’s letter to the province, the city now has meetings set up with Ministry of Transportation staff to discuss the topic.

And while Ralph notes that the increasing amount of residential development in the city is typical, staff are also focusing on bringing industrial and other forms of development into Oshawa. One hotbed of potential is the Northwood Industrial Park, Ralph says.

The future 262-acre business park, generally encompassing the area between Oshawa Creek and the Whitby-Oshawa boundary, between Taunton Road West and Highway 407, is already starting to receive some interest, now that regional services have been extended to certain portions of the site. An application for a banquet hall has already been received for the area.

“So, we’re actually now seeing some interest in Northwood as a result of the investment the region and the city have put in the ground on Thornton Road in terms of services and a new road,” Ralph says.

Finally, the city’s north end will also see progress with the Columbus Builder’s Group, a conglomerate of landowners around the hamlet of Columbus who are looking to move forward with development. However, while Ralph notes meetings have taken place with the group as recently as last week, the steps in 2018 will be small ones.

“It obviously won’t come on stream any time soon,” he says. “There’s a lot of work to be done, a lot of consultation with the public, especially the Columbus community.”

And it isn’t just in the city’s north end, much closer to the city centre, the development of the former Fittings property by Medallion could make some progress and SO Developments and Graywood continue to work with the city on a pair of much maligned projects near the waterfront in the city’s south end.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows however, as Oshawa is not the only player at the table.

In Durham Region, the city may soon have a lot more competition for developers especially as the massive chunk of Seaton Lands in Pickering are slated to hit the market.

“There’s going to be a lot more land in terms of greenfield land opening up in the region and elsewhere,” Ralph says. “So they’ll be a lot more competition for developers and purchasers, but we’ll still have another strong year just given the amount of growth that’s happening in north Oshawa.”

But will it be as good as 2017?

“I don’t think you can crystal ball gaze and say we’re going to have another year like that,” Ralph says with a laugh.

For Mayor Henry, while 2018 will be a busy one, he encourages everyone to look beyond that.

“I think you need to look at 2018, 2019 and continue, there is a lot of things happening in this city and we’re excited,” he says.