My Goals and Visions for Oshawa's Future Downtown
Business Downtown, in Ward 4, and in Oshawa Generally
Our Downtown - Re-creating the "Village of Oshawa"
My 9-Point Plan
This is my biggest area of goals and visioning - and it is, perhaps arguably, the most important area of focus for the advancement of Oshawa as you will read in my closing comments.
Basically, I believe we need to re-create the "Village of Oshawa" in our downtown in the heart of this great city.
To achieve this "Village", we need the downtown to be self-contained as it was historically (and I don't mean a '15-Minute City'). We need a permanent population level which will drive businesses downtown, a self-contained downtown/"Village" lifestyle, and access and supports for others to "visit" and to enjoy what we have, as well as ease of transportation if downtown residents need to go elsewhere to work.
To achieve the "Village" we need to look at the following areas (not in order of priority):
1. "Feet-on-the-street" - permanent residents, upcoming multi-residential developments
2. ACE Hub - brand our downtown as an Art, Culture, and Entertainment hub, a place of destination
3. Parking - residents, employees, visitors/customers
4. Michael Starr Trail Upgrade - to safely connect our downtown and neighborhoods to the upcoming GO
5. GO/Metrolinx Completion - with landscaped entryway
6. "Village" walk-in grocery store (or more)
7. Housing - especially Affordable but also Market rate
8. Social Services and Medical Clinics - to care for a range of citizens residents downtown
9. Active Transportation access and egress - green transportation, reduce the need for rapid transit and vehicular volumes
1."Feet-on-the-street" - Permanent Residents
There are 10 residential development projects either completed, under construction, or in the planning stage. When all of these are complete, there will be between 6,900 and 7,400 new residents Downtown in the "Village". They will all need food, clothing, entertainment - and places of work. The rate of development of these projects will be, in part, determined by the advancement of the other 8 areas that I highlight in my plan. Higher interest rates and tariffs have slowed the progression of some of these developments - but not all: 40 King West, 39 Athol West, and 0 Athol West (Lot 4 parking lot) are moving forward now.
Additionally, the Medallion Project (old Fittings property at Bruce and Charles) has begun this year.
40 King West (Centre/King) - 8 stories, 119 units, 105 2bdrm, 14 1bdrm - projected completion/move-in later this year
39 Athol West (Centre/Athol - south side) - 18 stories, 225 units, mix of bachelor, 1, 2 and 3bdrm, 25% Affordable units (@55 units), now under construction, completion 2028
0 Athol West (Centre/Athol - north side, current Lot 4 parking lot) - Stage 1, 23 stories, 297 units, mix of 1, 2, and 3bdrm, @35% Affordable units (@100 units), medical clinic, in-house daycare, and the Woodgreen Homeward Bound Program. The current 68 parking spots will be increased to 73 plus @150 for the various building tenants, with completion set for 2029. Stage 2 should commence prior to the completion of Stage 1 - details to follow - and there exists the possibility of a Stage 3.
The completion of these three projects will put approximately 1,000 new, permanent residents into the western half of our downtown. The two Medallion towers will put another 1,000 in the eastern half. Think of what that means for current and potential future businesses.
2. ACE Hub ("Entertainment District")
This is my concept for "branding" our "Village" Downtown. ACE stands for Arts, Culture, and Entertainment. Our Downtown can't compete with the Oshawa Centre for shopping, but the Oshawa Centre does not have ACE. The arts are what makes a "Village" lifestyle more attractive to locate as a resident - quality of life. The opening of the Biltmore Theatre in 2021/22 and the recent development of the Bond/St Event Centre are two solid additions to the ACE concept. There will be more.
As examples, the Biltmore and the Regent theatres average 130 and 143 events per year, respectively. Imagine what our downtown would be like without these venues.
As the "feet-on-the-street" numbers go up, so will the number of ACE venues and vice versa. These venues help drive the many and varied restaurant businesses (numbering over 60) in our downtown. Both of these aspects are key to bringing customers and new businesses to the "Village". The ACE Hub is what Downtown Oshawa should be known for. It is and will be the "draw" of the future and must be promoted and communicated as such on an integrated basis.
3. Parking
This has been one of the biggest inhibitors to growth in our Downtown. I have worked with City Hall staff to suggest ways of adding additional parking venues and alternatives for our entire downtown, bearing in mind the other listed parking areas. The City of Oshawa has entered into negotiations for the sale of three downtown parking venues. Each project (when completed) will replace and add to the number of current parking spots in that location while seeing the construction of multi-residential buildings on each site. Currently, none of the three parking venues have property tax revenue associated with them as they are municipally owned but, due to each project being private development, the projected property tax revenues from each completed multi-residential building will be significant - and the downtown will see net increased parking for businesses and customers/visitors, as well as special events. As an example of the property tax revenue difference on private property: Before being developed, one downtown lot was assessed at $7,600/yr. After the multi-residential building is up and running, the property taxes will be $764,000/yr or 100 times the previous tax amount. A similar property tax situation exists with each of those three parking venues being sold for development.
4. Revamp and Improve the Michael Starr Trail (MST)
First: The MST will be torn up (likely 2027) in the section from Beatrice Street East, south to Hillcroft Street, due to the need to increase the size of the water and sewer mains underneath it. This will be for the increasing number of residents and buildings now and in the future in that whole area. This will take two years.
Second: When the infrastructure work has been completed, we must pave the entire MST - not just the rebuilt section - all the way up to its now-unpaved terminus at Mary Street, north of Beatrice, so it can be plowed and used in the winter months (see below as to why).
Third: Light the entire MST, not with streetlights - which would shed light into residents' backyards - but with bollard-style lighting which will light up only the MST and its shoulder areas. This will allow winter time commuters for the upcoming GO station at First Avenue to have a safe trip to work and home at any time of day.
Fourth: Use the MST as the main cycling, pedestrian, and e-Scooter route for commuters to the GO Station - also via Mary Street. No more waiting for buses. Walk, ride your bike, or book and pay for an e-Scooter via your phone app and then travel on YOUR schedule with safe, environmentally-friendly transportation.
Fifth: The MST will then be the main Active Transportation route in Oshawa for walking, cycling, and e-Scooters for work or leisure and for all ages - safely.
5. GO/Metrolinx completion
Now that the official funding announcement is finally in place, we will see large re-development of the areas around the new GO stations and especially around the First Avenue station. There will be a potential mega-project right at the station area itself. All of this will enable residents of all ages to live, shop, and play in Downtown Oshawa even if they regularly take the GO train into Toronto to work. The average one-bedroom apartment in Toronto is well over $1,000/month more than Oshawa. That's a lot of GO train money - and more besides - to spend and enjoy in our "Village" downtown with its ACE Hub. The whole area from Downtown to the GO station will revitalize with lots of affordable residential units.
6. "Village" walk-in grocery store(s)
To promote a healthy walking lifestyle, we now have a neighbourhood specialty grocery store at Richmond and Centre Streets. More will be coming. My niece lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and takes the ferry across the Hudson River to work in New York. Downtown Hoboken is a mile square and has 50,000 residents who shop at ground-floor commercial with residential above - and a minimum of 4 grocery stores none of which are over 7,000 sq. ft. We don't need a "supermarket" of 40,000 sq. ft. in our Downtown. It will take too much space, cost too much to operate, will promote vehicle use to access it from a distance, and would not cater to the active, healthy, walking lifestyle which residents of a "Village" typically enjoy. A lot fewer cars will be the norm. This will also affect our parking projections.
7. Housing - Affordable and otherwise
There must be a variety of housing types from Downtown to the new GO station including the assurance of both current accessible and affordable units and those which must be contained in some new multi-residential developments. The downtown will require workers/employees/business owners of all financial levels, so there must be housing units to suit. As for the current aging housing stock, there must be ongoing safety audits, fire and building inspections, and free smoke alarm programs and inspections. There is also a need to further develop transitional housing (micro-homes) and services for those in precarious situations in life. The Region purchased the old Ritson Public School at Ritson and Olive and this site will be for upwards of 400 affordable units (660 in total). The Region is on track to see 1,500 new, affordable units Region-wide in place or under design and construction by 2027.
This number (1500) of new Affordable units does not include those developed by private builders. (See #1 Permanent "Feet-on-the-street" for examples.)
Social Housing is a Tier 1 (Regional) responsibility - not Tier 2, local municipal. To this end, the Region has two housing providers: Durham Region Non-Profit Housing Corporation (1985) and Housing Durham (formerly Durham Region Local Housing Corporation).
I had the pleasure of creating the Direction to Staff in 2022 which resulted in the AtHome Incentive Grant program at the Region which incentivizes private developers to build Affordable units within their multi-residential developments. The grant program will play a key role in the successful development of the 0 Athol West building (see #1 above) with at least 35% Affordable units.
8. Social Services and Medical Clinics
Social Services - It was a necessary focus to successfully complete the construction of the new St. Vincent's Kitchen (SVK) in at its new location at 227 Simcoe South at Hemlock. Previously, having this needed service in the middle of our Downtown was not the best location, as most of the clients lived further south of the Downtown in the area of the new SVK. This organization provides essential daily meals for those of our fellow citizens in difficult stages in life.
With the re-location of several Regional Social Service departments to the Midtown Mall location, the level of service has improved significantly as it is on a major transit route for much better access. For those living Downtown, it is walking distance instead of a bus ride elsewhere (it used to be on Wentworth in the far southwest area of Oshawa).
The new Refuge houses at-risk youth in its Simcoe/Olive location.
The Mission United multiple-service hub provides much-needed services - including medical and related - to our citizens in need and will be a key component to the new HART (Homeless Addiction Recovery Treatment) Hub, which will open its permanent location on Bloor Street, south of SVK, later this fall.
Medical Clinics - The loss of the Oshawa Clinic to our Downtown/"Village" can not be understated. To this end, I have contacted three healthcare organizations which are negotiating to occupy the planned medical clinic space in the upcoming multi-residential building at 0 Athol West in the "Village". This planned clinic will have an Urgent Care, a Life Lab, a Pharmacy, and Family Physicians. These are the highest-volume services in any medical clinic.
In addition to this project, I asked City staff to complete a Medical Services Survey of all current clinics in Oshawa, so that we can encourage upcoming clinics - and there are two more coming in the "Village" - as part of the now-approved Physician Recruitment Program. My thinking is to eliminate "silos" of medical service, potentially spread the various services offered amongst the planned clinics to the greater benefit of all and to lessen competition for the same services and to reduce unnecessary cost to each clinic for the services each chooses to provide.
The first of the two additional clinics will be in McLaughlin Square - opening this fall - and the other at 96 King Street East in the former D.G. Biddle building - opening projected for February 2027.
9. Active Transportation
I believe I have solved all of the obstacles/challenges to establishing a fully-realized Active Transportation Network from the north of our city (from the 407 in the north and from Conlin Road in the NE) to the upcoming GO stations at First Avenue and at Thornton Woods.
The following solutions are what I have personally brought forward:
Safe access/egress to the Durham College/Ontario Tech campus - cycling lanes on Niagara and into Dalhousie, then onto campus rather than continuing north on Simcoe (west side) with all of those businesses' and student residences' driveways and passengers at the bus stop.
Safe transport over the Oshawa Creek at Simcoe Street North - beginning in 2027, rather than a costlier extra-wide new bridge over the Oshawa Creek, a far less expensive vehicular bridge with a pedestrian/cycling Multi-Use Path (MUP) bridge on the west side linking to the current MUP north of there.
Safe "Cross-Ride" from the west side of Simcoe at Glover's Road to the newly-created cycling lanes (my initiative) on Glovers', Ormond, and Mary Street North, north of Taunton Road.
Safe cycling and pedestrian crossing along Hillcroft - a 4-way stop at Hillcroft and Masson especially for SJ Phillips students; the entire stretch of Hillcroft at 40 kph with cycling lanes from Simcoe to Harmony.
Safe, widest-possible sidewalk along the west side of Harmony from Beatrice to Taunton to connect the Beatrice MUP to the MUPs north of Taunton to Conlin. There was no room for an MUP without property expropriation.
Lowered the speed on Mary Street to a safer, neighbourhood-friendly 40 kph. The solution to the congestion at O'Neill Collegiate is coming.
My plan to create an MUP on the west side of the upcoming TCC renovation/re-build to link Mary Street to the Michael Starr Trail (MST) and then on to the upcoming GO station.
I have an Active Transportation Parking Hub going into the secure parking garage of the upcoming 0 Athol West building. This will be easily accessible from the Athol Street cycling lanes which, in turn, connect with Mary Street, the MST, and - to the west - the Oshawa Creek Trail/MUP and onward to the Lakefront Trail.
Took out the left-turn lane on Athol at Celina and replaced it with an "advance green". The result was: a secure drop-off/pick-up zone for businesses in that location, 5 more on-street parking spaces, and no vehicles parking in the cycling lane because of the above thus being much safer for cyclists and mobility device users.
Safe, secure cycling and e-Scooter parking at the upcoming GO station - and a landscaped entryway at the entrance to the MST to show GO train visitors a nice, safe route straight to our "Village"/Downtown.
I also changed the planned Thornton Road west-side MUP to the east side to better link up the Taunton MUP with the BMX Bike Park (which I brought forward), and got agreement on extending the Thornton MUP to King Street with the plan to connect it to the upcoming Gibb Street MUP and thereby to the upcoming Thornton Woods GO station.
Virtually all of the above have has been approved by City Council and will provide for a completely safe and connected Active Transportation system, to reduce vehicular volumes, to reduce DRT congestion, and to help provide for a Greener, Cleaner Oshawa.
Closing comments
Are the following important?: The expansion of Lakeridge Health, the retention of General Motors, and the continued growth and development of our academic economy: Durham College, Ontario Tech University, and Trent University (and, potentially, a Queen's University Medical School Campus) amongst other current economic aspects? Absolutely, but I'm envisioning new/additional areas of growth and development to further expand the diversity of Oshawa's economy. I believe the 9 areas I listed and elaborated on clearly communicate that.
As a Regional Councillor (as well as and City Councillor), I sit on the Community Growth and Economic Development (CG&ED) Committee at the Region of Durham (and the Economic Development Services Committee at the City of Oshawa).
Please let me know if you’d like any further information on any of these programs or other projects which were developed by Community Growth and Economic Development staff at the Region:
• Downtowns of Durham Project: Includes a website www.downtownsofdurham.ca which offers business listings, blog stories about downtowns and businesses, and a spaces section about office space for rent. We also have produced a ton of social media promotion in relation to this ongoing project. This continues to evolve as we promote downtowns in Durham Region.
• Digital Main Street. We worked with partners to bring and promote the DMS program to downtown and main street areas in Durham Region. This program supports bricks and mortar businesses to get online, invest in social media, and get hands on mentorship and support from business advisors. It also includes a funding component in some cases.
• Shop Durham Region Marketplace. A unified ecommerce platform was launched that supports businesses getting on ecommerce for free. Multiple businesses can be shopped from in one transaction.
• Ritual One – this program is no longer in place but ran for 2020 and most of 2021. It offered a free platform for restaurants to use to facilitate online orders through their social media accounts. NO fees were collected as part of the program.
• Canatrace Contact Tracing – a free platform that was mobile based that allowed businesses to gather data from their patrons safely, touchless, and securely, protecting customer data. Canatrace is a local business and we assisted with promoting this program across Durham Region.
• Webinars – we produced, promoted, and hosted multiple webinars, through the Durham Business Recovery Series. Events were specifically for business owners and included topics such as vaccines, selling online, returning to the office, and relief programs. https://www.eventbrite.ca/o/durham-business-recovery-series-30196836496
• We also produced the Covid response web portal at www.investdurham.ca/covidresponse which covered all the information from all levels of government collated in one places place that businesses in Durham needed to know. Funding, where to find PPE, where to buy local food, all of our recovery events and programs, and more.
There are many more initiatives that have arisen and are coming forward from the Community Growth and Economic Development Committee.
As for Oshawa specifically, there is so much economic growth happening over the last few years and well into the future that a whole other page is warranted. I will start to work on that. Stay tuned.
All materials © Richard Kerr 2026
Authorized by the CFO for the Rick Kerr Campaign