Downtown Markham is the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Markham,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

currently being developed. It is located within Markham Centre near the historic Unionville district and is proposed to serve as the heart of Markham. Businesses in the district are expected to employ up to 16,000 individuals, and it may house as many as 10,000 residents. The development plans will have a high density of residential, retail, commercial and mixed-use structures. The community is being developed, built and wholly financed by The Remington Group Inc.

Description

Downtown Markham is a planned urban hub and the largest planned mixed-use development in Canada. The development spans 243 acres and is situated in one of the fastest growing regions in the province. It will be the commercial and financial district at the center of the city of Markham, and will consist of a mix of residential, office and retail uses. Two million square feet of retail space will include international retailers, local shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Downtown Markham will also offer more than 3.4 million square feet of office space in a commercial district adjacent to

Highway 407 The following highways are numbered 407: Canada * Manitoba Provincial Road 407 * Newfoundland and Labrador Route 407 * Ontario Highway 407 King's Highway 407, commonly referred to as Highway 407 and colloquially as the "four-oh-seven", is a ...

. The vibrant urban centre is being designed and developed following sustainable guidelines, including energy efficient power sources and

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified residential and commercial projects. Aside from allowing greater density, the development also enjoys 72 acres of natural and landscaped green space, improved walkability and easy access to public transit, including Viva Rapid Transit and

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

. Downtown Markham refers to an area south of Uptown Markham / Highway 7, west of Kennedy Road / Main Street Unionville, east of Warden Avenue, and north of Highway 407 ETR. On the other hand, Markham Centre or Unionville refers to a broader area. Markham Centre is bounded north to Apple Creek Boulevard / Carlton Road, east to Kennedy Road, west to Rodick Road, and south to 14th Avenue.

History

The current City of Markham was created in 1971 when the former town was expanded by amalgamation with the surrounding namesake Markham

Township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

which also contained the independent communities of Thornhill and Unionville. With its original historic downtown, Markham Village, being small and situated to the far eastern part of the amalgamated municipality, the city decided a larger, more centrally-located downtown was needed. The area south of Highway 7 and east of Warden Avenue was frozen for development by the province during the planning and construction of express toll road Highway 407. In 1992, a plan was approved to develop the area with higher commercial density. The Town of Markham has approved the plan, according to Markham's former mayor,

Donald Cousens W. Donald Cousens (20 July 1938 – 23 February 2017) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1994, and briefly served as a cabinet minister in the govern ...

. The community situated in Unionville was planned to be self-sustained and

transit-oriented In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...

based on

smart growth Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood ...

development. Construction began in 2005, when Enterprise Drive was completed.

Aviva Canada Aviva Canada Inc. is a Canadian property and casualty insurance company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK-based Aviva plc. It provides home, personal, automobile, recreational vehicle, group and business insurance to more than three million ...

built its second Canadian headquarters on Birchmount Road and a new

Cineplex A cineplex is a multiplex, a movie theatre with several screens, coming from the words cinema and complex. Cineplex most commonly refers to: * Cineplex Entertainment, a Canadian entertainment company based in Toronto, Ontario. Cineplex may also ...

theatre opened on April 4, 2015. It provides a bigger space to include a few VIP theatres, a new gaming corner and much higher capacity than the old Cineplex theatre at First Markham Place. The

Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hot ...

hotel and the York condo was constructed on the corner of Enterprise Drive and Birchmount Road. It was finished by the end of 2018.

Development

Downtown Markham is using a development strategy named

. The community will try to limit urban sprawl by creating a denser urban centre. The urban centre is planned to be a transit-oriented community, with everything close by and fully transit dependent. In addition, the community was also planned to be environmentally sustainable as well. The community was planned by the City of Markham, in cooperation with The Remington Group. The Remington Group is mainly in charge of constructing most of the structures across this new community. According to the plan approved by the city council, the community will contain residential condos and townhouses, commercial, and retail buildings. Some of these structures have already begun construction. Updates as to what is built is underway. Downtown Markham has been nominated as the country's largest mixed-used development, as well as North America's largest LEED (leadership-in-energy-and-environmental-design) registered development.

Transportation

The primary modes of transportation in Downtown Markham are: Regional Roads, municipal roads, a toll highway,

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

, and GO Trains.

York Regional Roads

The community is bounded with three arterial streets, which are numbered York Regional Roads: Kennedy Road ( York Regional Road 3), Highway 7 (York Road 7), and Warden Avenue (York Road 65).

Toll Highway

serves the area with exits on Warden Avenue and Kennedy Road. The highway runs between Burlington in the west and

Clarington Clarington ( 2021 population 101,427) is a lower-tier municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham in Ontario, Canada. It was incorporated in 1973 as the town of Newcastle with the merging of the town of Bowmanville, the Village of Newca ...

in the east.

Bus Rapid Transit

The community is served by the

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

, Enterprise and Unionville stops on the

VIVA Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * V ...

bus rapid transit system. Warden and Enterprise are served by three lines:

Viva Purple Viva Purple is a line on the Viva bus rapid transit system in York Region, Ontario, Canada. The route primarily runs in an east–west direction along the Highway 7 Rapidway in Markham and Richmond Hill. It is operated by Tok Transit under co ...

Viva Green Viva Green is a Viva bus rapid transit line in York Region, north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Tok Transit under contract from the Region of York. Service on the Viva Green route was suspended during the COVID-19 outbreak, ...

, and Viva Pink, while Unionville Station is only served by Viva Pink. As of 2011,

is the only line with all-day service, the other lines operate only during rush hour. It is scheduled that when Downtown Markham is fully functional and occupied,

will return to full service. The community is anticipated to be highly dependent on these transit routes, as part of the planned smart growth. Viva Purple connects the locale to

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

; Viva Green connects the locale to

Don Mills Station Don Mills is a subway station that is the eastern terminus of Line 4 Sheppard in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is at the northeast corner of Sheppard Avenue East and Don Mills Road, within the residential communities of Don Valley Villa ...

and

; Viva Pink connects the locale to

North York City Centre North York City Centre is a central business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the administrative district of North York. It is located along Yonge Street, between just south of Sheppard Avenue northward to Finch Avenue with its focus aroun ...

. Other bus routes that serve the area include: * TTC 68 Warden * YRT 8 Kennedy * YRT 1 Highway 7

GO Transit

operates

Unionville GO Station Unionville GO Station is a train and bus station in the GO Transit network located in Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is a stop on the Stouffville line. The station is also served by Highway 407 East Express buses, which run westbound to Highway ...

on the Stouffville line during peak commuter traffic. The GO train line connects the Downtown Markham to

Stouffville Stouffville () is the primary urban area within the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville in York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is situated within the Greater Toronto Area and the inner ring of the Golden Horseshoe. The urban area is centred at the in ...

and

Downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Str ...

Environmental sustainability

The community reserves as a natural reserve, which includes an ecologically sensitive area, Rouge River.

Facilities

There are two recreational facilities in Downtown Markham: *

Markham Pan Am Centre The Markham Pan Am Centre is a multi-purpose community and aquatics centre located in the new downtown area of Markham, Ontario, Canada. The facility was designed to host the badminton, table tennis and water polo events for the 2015 Pan Amer ...

was built for

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak al ...

and became a city-owned facility after completion of the games in September 2015 * Markham YMCA Rudy Bratty Centre was completed in 2006 and upgraded in 2008; featuring two pools and other fitness facilities for YMCA members

Education

The York University Markham Campus is currently being built next to the Markham Pan Am Centre.

References

External links

The Markham Centre Story
{{Communities of Markham Neighbourhoods in Markham, Ontario Markham Proposed populated places