Item - 2019.RA9.5

The Board of Directors of CreateTO:

1.  Received the report (November 13, 2019) from the Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO for information.

The Senior Vice President, Development, CreateTO and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat provided an overview of Housing Now.

On January 31, 2019, City Council approved a signature affordable housing initiative, "the Housing Now Initiative," 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, with the potential to create 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.

The Housing Now initiative is coordinated through a Steering Committee comprised of senior staff from the Housing Secretariat, City Planning and CreateTO. The first four properties deemed most ready for market offering by the Steering Committee are: 140 Merton St., 777 Victoria Park Ave, 705 Warden Ave., and 50 Wilson Heights Blvd.  

On January 31, 2019 Council delegated approval of the business case, market offering process and proposed transaction for each property to the Deputy City Manager, Corporate Services and the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer with the concurrence of the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the Board of Directors of CreateTO.

In September 2019 the CreateTO Board of Directors and the Deputy City Manager, Corporate Services and the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer endorsed the business cases and market offering process for the first four properties and the establishment of a Reserve Account that will enable the City to capture any value generated from individual sites and cross-subsidize across the Housing Now portfolio.

On October 15, 2019 CBRE launched the marketing program for three of the properties and bids are requested for December 10, 2019.  We expect to review and negotiate a winning bid in January 2020.  The Housing Secretariat will launch the marketing program for the fourth property, 140 Merton, on November 15, 2019 with bids requested by mid-January, 2020. This selected bid would then be presented to the Board of Directors and Senior City leadership for approval.

City staff will present necessary official plan and zoning amendments and draft plans of subdivision related to the first four sites to the Planning and Housing Committee in November, December and January.  

Work is proceeding on preparing the remaining seven sites for market offering later in 2020. The next set of Housing Now properties are being identified.