Daniels, Choice Properties aim to transform Scarborough’s Golden Mile

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Development partners Daniels and Choice Properties knew they had an opportunity to significantly transform the Golden Mile district in east Toronto when they first sat down to map out a redevelopment plan for the Golden Mile Shopping Centre 18 months ago.

But as The Daniels Corporation CEO and president Mitchell Cohen explains it, the pandemic with its disruptions and tendency to disconnect people really brought home the importance of spurring educational, entrepreneurial and social development in addition to merely building homes.

The hardscrabble Golden Mile area of Scarborough was ripe for revitalization and that’s what Daniels and Choice along with collaborators such as the University of Toronto Scarborough, Centennial College, Carpenters’ Local 27 and LIUNA Local 183 are eager to bring. The developers recently announced a plan for phase one redevelopment of the 19-acre Golden Mile Shopping Centre at 1880 Eglinton Ave. E. that will include two condominium towers, a purpose-built market rental building, ground floor retail uses, institutional uses including a new “communiversity” and office spaces.

“It’s an approach to development that puts local community voices at the heart of the conversation and leveraging investment to build community capacity,” said Cohen.

“The bricks and mortar are there, and this adds a whole layer of significance in terms of how the development industry can positively impact the community, not just by having big buildings, not just by building condos, but truly building communities, that’s the difference.”