Item - 2019.RA3.3

The Board of Directors of CreateTO received the report (February 7, 2019) from the Senior Vice President, Development, CreateTO for information.

The Senior Vice President, Development, CreateTO gave a presentation on Update on Housing Now Initiative.

On January 31, 2019, City Council approved a signature affordable housing initiative, "Housing Now," to leverage City-owned land for the purpose of creating new mixed-use, mixed-income communities. Through the initiative, 11 properties were identified for development, which are expected to result in a total of 10,000 new residential units. City Council set development targets for these properties of at least one-third affordable rental, one-third market rental, and no more than one-third ownership housing.

In order to implement the Housing Now, CreateTO will be working in collaboration with City partners to undertake and complete due diligence analysis, concept plans, public engagement, necessary planning approvals, and, pending Board and executive approval, a market offering process for the 11 properties.

A City-wide working team has been established to coordinate Housing Now including the Director, Affordable Housing Office, CreateTO, City Planning, Real Estate Services and, once established, a new Housing Secretariat responsible for overseeing all aspects of the initiative. Don Logie, Senior Vice-President, Development has been designated as the CreateTO lead for the initiative. 

City and CreateTO staff will report to the CreateTO Board of Directors on business cases and the proposed offering process prior to bringing the properties to the market and terms of the proposed sale/lease agreements with the successful proponent(s) (refer to the Organizational Structure Diagram included as Attachment 1 to this report).

The expectation is to complete due diligence, rezoning and bring the first four properties to market by the end of 2019, with the remaining properties to follow in 2020 and 2021.