Weekdays in European cities tend to have a familiar feel.
Whether it’s Barcelona or Berlin, the mornings begin with people spilling out of cafes carrying pastries, ready to dash through lush parks to nearby offices. When the clocks strike 5pm, the bars and restaurants fill with alfresco diners. Socialising until late is easy if it’s only a short walk or cycle home.
Mississauga feels a little different. The nearly 9,000 parking spots surrounding the Square One Shopping Centre are testament to the district’s reliance on the car, but change is coming. Our Master Plan for a revitalized Square One District will include 18,000 new residential units and 3 million square feet of workspace, making it one of the largest mixed-use developments in Canada. More than ten acres of green spaces and new community infrastructure will connect the homes with the offices, shops and restaurants, ensuring those living and working in the Square One District have everything they need within easy reach.
“That European model, where you can have a very rich life all within one area and everything is walkable – that’s what we’re trying to create,” says Veronica Maggisano, Vice President, Development at Oxford Properties.
A development of this size and scale requires innovative thinking, and the team must draw on Oxford’s end-to-end expertise from across the four continents upon which our existing portfolio sits.
“Executing a project of this scale requires vision, collaboration, and the ability to adapt over time,” says Dean Shapiro, Global Head of Development at Oxford Properties. “Our team is leveraging decades of expertise to ensure Square One District is not only cutting-edge but also deeply attuned to the needs and aspirations of the local community.”
The masterplan includes 48 buildings, 41 of which will be residential. Oxford’s ownership of both the mall and the homes will enable us to offer residents unique VIP experiences, including special offers at more than 100 restaurants and entertainment outlets. Indeed, the success of the project will hinge as much on nurturing the community that will live, work, learn, and play in Square One District as it will on delivering the buildings, Veronica says.
That’s a multi-decade process. Oxford has managed Square One Mall since 2004, but crucial steps began eight years ago when we began converting traditional retail stores to food, beverage and alternative uses. Those uses included a new managed food hall, TriOS College and IDEA Square One, a 4,300 square-foot connected space for entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups that has become a critical part of the city’s innovation ecosystem. We want our customers to spend more time in the mall, enjoying experiences, rather than simply making essential purchases before driving home.
“The common theme here is that they are all community uses,” Veronica says. “We knew that the community building had to start within the bricks and mortar that we owned, and we needed to give customers reasons to keep coming back before we started delivering the buildings.”
The Square One Mall is the beating heart of the district, but a community needs the right mix of homes, which in turn must be supported by infrastructure.
“Successful communities are built on a foundation of choice and inclusivity,” says Sherif Masood, SVP, Asset Management and Development. “Our approach at Square One District reflects that, offering a diverse mix of housing options with world-class amenities to meet the needs of a growing and vibrant population. This is what will make Square One truly a destination, not just a place to live.”
A large proportion of the district will be purpose-built rental homes, offering some help in alleviating a long-running housing shortage. Our position as a long-term investor enables us to take the long view, too: the success of Square One District will hinge on families building lives there, so offering families secure tenancies is both good business and the right thing to do. We’ll decide on the right mix of rental and for-sale homes as we move through the project, responding to changes in demand from residents. We have started constructing two buildings so far - one is multifamily, and the other is for sale.
“We need residents to come without the worry that a landlord is going to come and flip a unit out from underneath them,” Veronica says. “That allows a family to put down roots within this community and stay there for a really long time.”
Walkable cities require high density development, which places much more intense demands on the existing infrastructure. For years, we’ve worked with city authorities and private utilities companies to ensure that what’s below ground level is sufficient to support the rich community living above.
It became clear as we worked on the masterplan, for example, that entire swathes of land on the north side of Mississauga had no electrical capacity, so we executed a land swap deal with Alectra. That deal, which will enable Alectra to build a new substation, offers a glimpse of the complex patchwork of agreements that underpin progress at Square One.
“The whole city had to develop literally from the ground up in order for us to go vertical,” Veronica says. “All of this has allowed us to now turn our attention to what is left to do on the outside, which are the buildings, and really making this a reality.”
Mixed-use projects of this scale come with risks. They can span multiple economic cycles, bringing challenges that can’t be foreseen. However, by gaining control of very large sites developers really put communities first, raising the chances of success.
We’re not alone in that view. City authorities worldwide are seeking to promote mixed-use developments to boost housing choice and encourage climate friendly lifestyles. The advantages sit neatly with many long-term trends that became more embedded after the pandemic: walkable environments foster connections and civic engagement, and they are shown to improve both mental and physical health.
“For developers, borrowing attitudes that are more commonly found in the retail sector will raise the chances of success,” Veronica says. “Focussing entirely on what customers want: what will make people want to invest their time and build lives at Square One, offers a blueprint for progress.”
“When we were looking at that development, we could have adopted a very typical real estate strategy, which would look something along the lines of, ‘let’s take a site, let’s put a couple of buildings on it, and let’s go from there’,” Veronica says. “But we realised pretty quickly that that in itself was not going to really keep customers coming back to the site, so we have tried to come up with a vision that put community first.”
Transcript
Narrator: For decades, North American cities have been built around one thing - the car. But in an era of rapid urban growth, the real question isn't how we build more, but how we build better.
In cities like Barcelona and Berlin, life unfolds within a short stroll. Cafés, parks, workspaces – a place where living, working, and playing all connect seamlessly. It's a model that shaped Oxford's vision for the Square One District.
Veronica Maggisano: When I think of that European model, I really think about a town square and everything spreading from that town square. And at the Square One District, we are building our own town square. And that's where you're going to have the mall and the residences and the office towers, the beautiful parks, the community spaces, the restaurants and the cafés all off of that town square. And so people know where to come and where they can get everything they need all in one spot.
Narrator: But bringing this vision to life is about more than design. It's about more than scale. It's about building with people at the centre. It's about creating a place where community comes first.
Veronica Maggisano: We have all of the capabilities that are required to envision a project like the Square One district all under one roof. So whether that be our development and construction teams, our asset management teams, our investment teams, we really all collaborate together in service of the best outcome for the project.
We also are vertically integrated across our property and our leasing teams. And what that really does is keep us closer to our customer. We started with the small bricks and mortars of the mall, and the small moments that we could envision within that mall, and how we could bring the community into the Square One Mall itself. And then as we were doing that, we were envisioning the grandness of the district around it. And we turned our attention to the infrastructure that was going to be needed in order to build up that city.
Sherif Masood: When we brought forward our ambitious master plan development, the city was a very willing partner on the other side. The stuff people don't often talk about, which is everything that's below grade, that enables the development to come to life.
Narrator: From high-rise living to public places designed for connection, this district is about more than where people live. It's about how they live.
Sherif Masood: Being long-term institutional owners gives us the opportunity to think long-term. For us, we want to create an environment that people want to live, work, enjoy, be entertained, and can see themselves raising a family. Creating the amenities that people want to live around, so it's not just gym use and having a swimming pool and basketball courts, but it's the programming. It's creating camps for kids from underprivileged communities and backgrounds. And creating space for daycare. So really it becomes a livable community that has green space, has entertainment, shopping, recreational, health and wellness. It's all in one place.
Narrator: Cities are always evolving. The question is, who is shaping that change? For Oxford, Square One District is about reimagining urban growth, creating a city within a city where people can truly live, work, and thrive.
Sherif Masood: I actually grew up in Mississauga. To know that we're creating a community where people want to put down roots and live, while at the same time creating a very enriched environment and helping the downtown Mississauga grow and prosper is really inspiring.