Northcrest Developments is taking a 43-acre employment block at Toronto’s YZD to market as the 370-acre redevelopment of the former Downsview Airport lands shifts from years of planning into construction.

PSP Investments acquired the site from Bombardier for $825M in 2018 and created Northcrest to oversee its redevelopment. The former airfield is planned as a series of mixed-use neighbourhoods that could eventually accommodate more than 66,000 residents and 23,000 jobs.

The North Hangar lands at 123 Garratt Blvd. sit within the 101-acre Hangar District, the first neighbourhood Northcrest is advancing. Cushman & Wakefield is marketing five hangar bays totalling 548K SF and land with about 1.2M SF of permitted employment development potential.

The process could take the form of a sale, long-term lease or strategic partnership.

“We are now shifting from planning, design and entitlements to actually building,” Northcrest executive vice-president Chris Eby told Connect.

Northcrest has completed early infrastructure work, with about two more years of roads, sewers, water and other infrastructure still to come.

The existing hangars are a major part of the pitch. Individual bays range from about 82K SF to 127K SF, with clear heights reaching 41 feet, column-free spans, oversized hangar doors and overhead cranes.

Eby said those spaces could appeal to companies that need room to build physical products.

“If you’re building things, physical things, our site, I think, would have a lot of appeal, because it’s got those large format spaces and it’s in an urban area, connected to transit,” he said.

Northcrest is targeting what Eby called “future focused industries,” including defence, technology, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, post-secondary institutions and film and digital media. He ruled out logistics, citing truck traffic and the site’s urban surroundings.

“Aerospace dominated the site for 100 years,” Eby said. “But it was the innovation story that really separated Downsview and made it different.”

He said Northcrest wants that innovation legacy to continue as new employment uses move onto the site.