Pickering got a major boost last week when it was announced that
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) had agreed to rent most of the remaining floors of the as-yet unnamed tower project under construction that will kick off what Pickering mayor
Dave Ryan hopes will be a revitalization of the east-end city.
The $50-million project, which is being built with $30 million in provincial and federal stimulus funding by 20 Vic Management, the development arm of the
Ontario Pension Board, will also include a bridge over the 401 between the tower and the GO station.
"We're calling it Pickering's Bridge to the Future," says Mayor Ryan, who is confident the construction of the bridge, which should begin by the end of this month, will not greatly affect traffic.
"It's a concept we've had since 1996," Mayor Ryan says. "We didn't have a design, but we had the idea linking the GO station with
Pickering Town Centre, which is essentially our downtown on the north side of the 401."
The original and anchor tenant will be the
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which had threatened to move out of Pickering, with its 200 jobs, until Mayor Ryan brokered a deal to build this tower on the south end of what's now the Pickering Town Centre parking lot, to suit their requirements for increased office space.
MPAC is set to occupy in March of next year, with
OPG moving in by June.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Dave Ryan
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