Northcrest Development has submitted a district plan to the City of Toronto covering the first phase of the massive redevelopment of the former Downsview Airport Lands.

The first phase is known as the Hangar District and is slated to contain a combination of multi-residential, retail, industrial and office properties, along with amenities. Future phases will contain the same asset mix.

The overall $30-billion redevelopment project is now known as YZD in tribute to the former airport’s call sign.

“That [district plan submission] was another big milestone for us,” said Kristy Shortall, a Northcrest senior vice-president who heads the firm’s development team. “It was the next step in bringing this project to fruition, to get approvals to build our local streets and our parks and outline the building typologies and the land uses. All of that is reflected in this district plan.”

The district plan submission came after Northcrest, a subsidiary of the Public Sector Pension Plan Investment Board, obtained approval of the Hangar District’s secondary plan from the city.

“We really hope that [district plan] can move forward quickly, and we can see development occurring in the next few years,” said Shortall.

She is working under the assumption that the city will approve the district plan in early 2025. Northcrest hopes to begin construction in 2027.

“But there’ll be lots of early works happening on the site in ’26,” she said. “We have to build a lot of new roads, put a lot of pipes into the ground to facilitate all of the construction of the buildings.”

The Hangar District comprises about 100 acres. About 50% of the area is slated to receive employment-related development. The remaining 50% is slated to contain mixed-use properties, including multi-residential, retail and office components.

Retail spaces will be concentrated into a “main retail spine” (in other words, a shopping district) known as the Taxiway. All mixed-use buildings will also contain ground-floor retail spaces.

There will be no standalone big-box stores, because Northcrest wants to create a complete community with daily amenities that can be accessed within an easy 15-minute walk, bicycle ride or “roll” from a user’s location.

“We’re expecting about 2,850 new homes to be brought to this district, and we’re really focused on the mid-rise typology,” said Shortall. “I think that offers an ability for different demographics to come in. So, over 40% of our units will be two bedrooms or above, and that is to offer a different unit typology.

“For Toronto, we don’t see that very often. We see a lot of bachelor and one-bedroom apartment. So that is one of our core residential elements, is thinking about the built form and also the amenities nearby.

“We’re offering six acres of park, which is three times what the Planning Act requires in this area, and that’s just thinking about the amenities and the services for those users.”

The Hangar District and all future phases will incorporate existing buildings that were part of the former airport.

“Part of Northcrest’s initiative is to think about sustainability, and the preservation of these buildings will really help with reducing our embodied carbon impacts to the site. And, we think that they’re pretty unique spaces, to be honest,” said Shortall.

“We think that through adaptive reuse, they’ll become part of the attraction for the site. I know, personally, when I go somewhere, I love to see repurposed heritage buildings and how they get transformed over time. So, the majority of the 1.6 million square feet [of buildings] will be preserved.”

Northcrest is deploying a meanwhile-use strategy whereby the company is hosting public events to give access to lands that were previously inaccessible for 100 years. Some buildings are also being leased to help cover their taxes and operating expenses.

“It’s sort of a break-even strategy,” said Shortall.