At a time when housing starts in the GTA continue to stall, Medallion Corporation has announced plans to begin construction on six new apartment buildings at four locations across the region by early 2025.
Medallion will build 1,500 residential units in Toronto, Ajax and Oshawa. The largest project, 591 Sherbourne in Toronto, will be 51 stories tall and include 532 residential units.
At 3101 Bathurst in Toronto, the developer will build a nine-storey building with 178 residential units, at Rossland Road East in Ajax two eight-storey buildings with a total of 357 residential units will be built, and at 135 Bruce Street in Oshawa Medallion plans two apartment buildings with 22 and 10 storeys and a total of 509 residential units.
Rad Vucicevich, Medallion’s director of development and construction, said the company can buck this trend by leveraging clever land consolidation, working closely with long-standing commercial partners, working with municipal partners on permitting processes, and taking full advantage of a variety of relatively new government tax incentives and financing relief at all four levels.
Groundbreaking programs
Two federal programs – the Apartment Construction Loan Program and the HST refund for purpose-built rental housing – the latter helped by Ontario’s decision to eliminate its share of the HST – have been game-changers as Medallion considers approving new projects.
With margins so tight, any opportunity to reduce or delay costs makes a difference. Examples include the Province of Ontario’s decision to reduce development fees for rental projects or the City of Oshawa’s willingness to offer tax incremental financing to delay payment of applicable property taxes.
Vucicevich said that amid a housing crisis, governments are becoming more innovative in both their policies and staffing.
“The big project is 591 Sherburne. We hesitated for a long time, it didn’t get the green light,” Vucicevich said. “And then the government announced its HST exemption, and the project became viable.”
He added: “The Apartment Construction Loan Program is a very good program.”
The CMHC reported that housing starts across Canada in urban centres with populations of 10,000 and more fell 13 per cent to 20,509 units in June, compared to 23,518 units in June 2023. The year-over-year decline was due to fewer multifamily housing starts, which fell 16 per cent.
Toronto-based Medallion is an integrated real estate development, construction and property management company that has been in business for 60 years. With the exception of design, it plans, builds and operates its projects itself, Vucicevich said.
Apart from a few residential developments, the portfolio consists exclusively of rental properties. The holdings also include commercial office, retail and industrial properties as well as an extensive land portfolio for future developments.
“First and foremost, it’s about the land,” Vucicevich said. “We buy land very, very well and very aggressively. And we buy where others wouldn’t, for example in larger projects where condo builders wouldn’t dare go. Ultimately, we revitalize the neighborhood.”
No overdesign
Another benefit of its long-standing status as a unionized construction company — Medallion works closely with LIUNA Local 183, Vucicevich said — is the ability to identify construction efficiencies.
“We really, really make sure that everything is designed very efficiently from an engineering and manufacturability perspective,” he said.
“For example, we minimize the number of arches and tubes, we minimize the number of structural transfers, we minimize the number of beams, we pay close attention to headroom… we don’t over-design.”
“We learn from communicating with our trades. We asked them: ‘How would you build this?’ For example, formwork, and where are we wasting money that you think we shouldn’t spend on.”
Federal programs such as the Apartment Construction Loan Program do not apply to all projects, and where they do not, Medallion works closely with those interested in making a project a reality to ensure the company receives adequate regional and local support.
Oshawa, for example, has created a community improvement plan that waives development fees, creating favorable conditions for a developer like Medallion.
The city of Ajax, meanwhile, is offering to accelerate its permitting process to enable the construction of urgently needed rental housing, he said.
“The municipality is actually helping us in the sense of, ‘What do you need? Let’s work together.’ We’ve always had a good relationship with Ajax, but in this case they obviously have a housing shortage and are helping us to accelerate the project.”
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