As Toronto condos stall, this giant rental community in downtown Oshawa is breaking ground

“We’re really trying to implement a vision,” said Anna Fagyas, director of development at Medallion.

“It’s not just a one-off building, but a real community and a real opportunity to change the downtown, to change Oshawa, and Durham Region.”

The company, which bought the land about a decade ago, doesn’t have city approval yet for the next phases, but the long-term vision includes nine mixed-use buildings, about 3,000 rental homes, restaurants and a “substantive” park.

The first two buildings include 30 per cent affordable units, with rents at or below 20 per cent of median total income for Oshawa, and there will be additional rent-geared-to-income units. Fagyas said the target renter is everyone from students to young couples and downsizers. 

Over half of the units will be two or three bedrooms (49 per cent two-bedroom, three per cent three-bedroom). Forty-six per cent will be one-bedroom units and two per cent will be studios. 

The site was home to the Fittings Factory, which made pipe fittings and at one point employed hundreds of people, contributing to Oshawa’s reputation at the time as the “Manchester of Canada.”

It closed in the late ‘80s, was damaged by fires a few years later and then was torn down, according to the Star’s sister paper DurhamRegion.com. The land has been vacant since then.

The property “represents the struggles that we’ve had because for 40 years this land has basically been dormant,” said Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter. 

Carter said the project “holds on to the history of the Foundry District,” while bringing it into the future.

Fagyas credits support from the Region of Durham and the City of Oshawa for helping them break ground in such a challenging environment, as well as the company’s background in purpose-built rental.

The project is also getting $188 million in funding through the federal Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.‘s Apartment Construction Loan Program, which gives money to private developers, and comes with requirements for affordable housing. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $2.7 billion in funding for Toronto rentals earlier this month, with much of it going to the Apartment Construction Loan Program.

The new-home construction industry in the region has been hit with historic challenges over the last couple of years, with low demand for new condos. As a result many projects have been cancelled, and condos converted to rentals. 

This one however was always planned as rentals, Fagyas said. They benefited from a lack of development fees on projects in downtown Oshawa, which has been in place for years, as well as about $3.9 million each from the city and the region. 

The units, aside from the affordable and rent-geared-to-income ones, will be offered at market rent. In Ontario, units occupied after Nov. 15, 2018, are not under rent control, meaning landlords can raise the rent by as much as they want, each year. Fagyas said it’s too soon to say how much rent will be, but it will be based on demand.

“We can only rent based on what the market absorbs. We have to ensure that our buildings are rentable,” she said. 

Carter believes it’s the right type of development for the area. He hopes it will eventually bring more small businesses, as well as affordable homes, to the downtown, and get people out of their cars. 

“You need feet on the streets,” he said. 

“It’s like putting an apple pie together right now. All the ingredients are there. We just got to make sure we put them in order.”