(Kristy Shortall is the winner of a 2024 Canadian Women in Real Estate Award, presented by Connect Canada CRE. Check out the full list of 2024 Canadian Women in Real Estate Award winners.)

Kristy Shortall is the head of development at Northcrest Developments.

She is overseeing the massive $30-billion redevelopment of the former Downsview Airport Lands, now known as YZD, in Toronto. The 370-acre mixed-use project will contain thousands of multi-family residential units, along with office, retail and industrial on a site that comprises roughly 1% of Toronto’s total area.

With Northcrest, a firm established in 2018, Shortall has emerged as a skilled collaborator and visionary city-builder, said a colleague who nominated her for her Canadian Women in Real Estate Award. She has played a pivotal role in developing a planning framework for the former airport in collaboration with Canada Lands Company (CLC), which led to a city-wide update of Toronto’s secondary plan.

The update, unanimously approved by the Toronto city council in 2024, marked one of the fastest planning approvals in the city’s history and addresses key city-building needs, including affordable housing, transit utilization, stormwater management innovation, and the creation of a new employment hub in north Toronto.

The framework that she helped shape with CLC has won several prestigious urban design awards at local, national, and international levels.

In addition to leading YZD, she spearheads Northcrest’s Responsible Development strategy, a core pillar in the multi-decade transformation of YZD. This framework emphasizes environmental and social priorities across urban design, land use, architecture, community engagement, and development practices.

A strong advocate for the development community, Shortall is deeply involved with the Urban Land Institute (ULI). As one of the founding members of ULI’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, she currently serves as chair of mission advancement, where she champions diversity and mentors the next generation of development professionals.

“Her leadership at Northcrest reflects her commitment to promoting inclusivity and innovation in the industry,” said her nominator.

Shortall has been working in real estate for about 20 years.

She started out in the City of Toronto’s policy and economic division and became interested in growth and growth patterns. She then moved to a large interdisciplinary consulting firm now known as WSP and “really fell in love with the development approval process” and figuring out how to repurpose land opportunities, to revitalize areas, she told Connect in an interview earlier this year.

After about 10 years with WSP, she went to the development side, initially with based Metropia, which develops residential projects in the Greater Toronto Area. Focusing on mixed-use developments, she worked on two large projects with Toronto Community Housing and subdivision opportunities in and around Toronto.

Shortall’s dedication to city-building shines in her work, where she remains driven by a passion for enriching Toronto’s urban landscape through forward-thinking development practices.

These are just some of the reasons why she has received a Canadian Women in Real Estate Award.

(Check out the full list of 2024 Canadian Women in Real Estate Award winners.)