Centro Square the gateway to Vaughan

Marco Filice believes that a bright future lies ahead for Highway 7.

I think it has the potential to be the next Yonge Street, says the senior vice president for Liberty Development, which is developing Centro Square, a two-tower, 800-unit condo project located at Highway 7 and Weston Rd., at the edge of Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. (The site was previously home to Al Palladinis Pine Tree Lincoln Mercury car dealership.)

Centro Squares two residential towers one 33 storeys, the other 31 storeys will sit atop a podium that will include more than 250,000 square feet of office and retail space.

Centro Square is only the latest in a slew of mixed-use condo projects that have been cropping up in recent years along Highway 7 from Vaughan to Richmond Hill to Markham as York Region works to concentrate high-density development on its major thoroughfare, in accordance with Ontarios smart growth strategy.

This intensification effort will be aided by the eventual construction of Viva transits Highway 7 rapidway, a bus rapid transit (BRT) service that will run down the median of Highway 7, connecting the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre with the Richmond Hill and Markham town centres.

There will also be a new TTC subway station opening at Highway 7 just west of Jane St., the final stop on the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension.

With all that mixed-use development and the transit to support it, Filice is convinced Highway 7 will ultimately rival North Yorks densely populated Yonge St. condo corridor. There are going to be a lot of new developments here in the years to come, he says.

Liberty has staked a few claims along Highway 7. The developer has completed work on Eko, a 196-unit project in Markham Centre at Highway 7 near Warden Ave., and has launched another, Royal Gardens, at Highway 7 and Bayview Ave.

Centro Square, situated at the entrance to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, is one of a number of other projects in the area particularly the Cortel Groups Expo City, just east of Centro Square that are helping develop a true city centre for Vaughan where none had existed before.

Centro Square has been designed by Kirkor Architects (the same firm that worked on Libertys mammoth World on Yonge project just north of Steeles Ave).

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Centro Square the gateway to Vaughan