Demand for new residential space continues to outpace that for commercial and retail square footage, fostering a wave of redevelopment proposals sweeping through malls and shopping plazas across Ontario.
One shopping plaza just east of Toronto has joined the ranks of the many retail properties slated for future demolition to make way for ambitious new residential towers following a planning submission filed with the City of Pickering in November.
Developer Resident has applied to redevelop a shopping plaza at 705 Kingston Road, just east of the Whites Road exit along Highway 401, with an enormous five-tower complex that would feature some of Pickering’s tallest buildings if approved as proposed.
The site is currently home to the Whites Road Shopping Centre, a strip plaza containing several businesses, including a Lone Star Texas Grill, an outpost of Toronto-based Caribbean chain Allwyn’s, an LCBO location, and a few other shops and restaurants.
The property owner has signed on architects BDP Quadrangle to design a community of five towers with heights of 35, 35, 35, 31, and 28 storeys.
The tallest of the bunch would rise almost 123 metres, taller than anything that exists on the Pickering skyline as of early 2025.
Just shy of 1,750 residential units are proposed across the complex, bringing a significant boost to the local population.
At street level, the complex would help create more urban conditions along this unapologetically suburban stretch of Kingston Road, adding over 3,900 square metres of commercial space to the thoroughfare that, along with the residential density, will help animate the development’s ground realm.
Further bolstering street-facing activity, the plan would dedicate almost 2,200 square metres of space of new parkland to the City, complemented by a privately-owned public space measuring over 800 square metres.
Despite some clear urban ambitions, the project would include a substantial parking component with a capacity for almost 1,500 cars in a partially above-grade and partially underground parking garage serving complex residents and visitors.
The massive parking component shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the site’s proximity to a Highway 401 exit/onramp, though the project will also offer a significant cycling component of over 1,050 bicycle parking spaces.
According to a phasing plan, construction would be carried out in two phases, starting with the towers along the site’s Kingston Road frontage.
