canarob

canarob

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CF look like they're ready to move forward on redeveloping the old Sears location at Markville. This plan is to partially demolish the old Sears store for what looks like an anchor tenant (Nordstrom? Simons?) and build a stand-alone, pedestrian-friendly-ish, two-story retail/restaurant/office building at the corner of Bullock and McCowan. There would also be a new parking deck in between the two buildings. The proposed timelines would be for the Sears location to be redeveloped by spring and the new building to be ready spring 2018. It appears as if they have tenants.

Overall, I think this is a decent plan, and it makes me wonder if the next stage would be to demolish the old parking deck, which has seen better days, and expand along the McCowan frontage.

Details and renderings:

http://www2.markham.ca/markham/ccbs...t Services/pl160620/Cadillac Presentation.pdf
 
Glad to finally see some movement on this; I walk through that stretch of empty parking every day (along with lots of high school students and local residents) and it's good that they're looking to make connection from the corner of Bullock and McCowan to the mall a bit more pedestrian-friendly. I'm not too happy about the somewhat unfortunate frontage on Bullock though, and I personally would've liked to have some building entrances face the street rather than only the parking lot.
 
Why leave a big gap between the mall and the new building at the northeast end? Why force people to walk through the parking lot to reach it? The new building may be accessible from the sidewalk, but the plan doesn't put the mall itself any closer to the street. There's no real attempt here to accommodate growing pedestrian and cyclist culture.

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interchange42 said:
Why leave a big gap between the mall and the new building at the northeast end? Why force people to walk through the parking lot to reach it? The new building may be accessible from the sidewalk, but the plan doesn't put the mall itself any closer to the street. There's no real attempt here to accommodate growing pedestrian and cyclist culture.

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I think part of this had to do with access to the existing parking deck since an expansion all the way to the corner of McCowan and Bullock would block the northern ramp. After this project is complete, I would hope any future expansions would extend the mall itself.

It's also noteworthy that there will be a new vehicle/pedestrian entrance at the stop light by Centennial Community Centre. This is where the GO buses stop (and is what's across from the rail station) and folks now trod over the grass along the edge of the parking lot to avoid walking to the nearest entrance. At least CF are responding to how pedestrians and transit users are accessing the mall.
 
This section of the parking lot is fenced off and equipment is on site, so it looks like they'll be starting soon.
 
Changes to the above plan are proposed and would now consist of a dealership/service centre on the corner and a four-story (up from two) mixed-used building to the west of the site. Mercedes is already opening a dealership inside the mall (Mercedes Me) near where the old Sears is being redeveloped, so I guess CF is diversifying by adding a couple of dealerships.

http://www2.markham.ca/markham/ccbs...t Services/pl170612/Markville Mall Report.pdf

markville_1.jpg
 
Considering how close it is to Highway 7 and Centennial GO, I wish Building B was a condo instead.
 
I think we will see lots of condos in the area in the future. I think the Markville Key Development Area plan still needs to be approved first though.
 
Sandpit said:
Considering how close it is to Highway 7 and Centennial GO, I wish Building B was a condo instead.
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canarob said:
I think we will see lots of condos in the area in the future. I think the Markville Key Development Area plan still needs to be approved first though.
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Please remind me of any empty space for condo development in that area. If they are building condos make sure the residents do not drive single driver cars. Traffic has been crazily jammed in that area.
 
The Porsche Dealership part of the redevelopment of that north section of Markville Mall is now open. Not sure when it did open, but it seems to have opened about a month ago.
Here is Porsche's website for this dealership: https://porschecentremarkham.com/about_us/

I will try to get some photos if I swing by the area one day, including if the next phase (the office/retail building) has started construction.
 
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