The $22 billion plan to turn a defunct airport into a small city

livemint.com:

A planned community for about 55,000 residents in Toronto will include the usual playgrounds, bike paths and shops. It will also feature 11 airplane hangars and more than a mile of airport runway. That is because the C$30 billion, equivalent to about $22 billion, development will be located at the Canadian city’s former Downsview Airport.

Airports have been repurposed as communities and parks before, but developers typically raze the original infrastructure and start from scratch. In this case, Northcrest Developments is betting that by preserving the airport’s main features it can enhance the community’s allure. “It’s hard to make a planned community seem authentic when everything is brand new," said Derek Goring, chief executive of the Toronto-based developer.

“So we really decided to lean into the aerospace legacy." Those old hangars, for instance, will anchor the project’s first neighborhood: a 50-acre residential district with 2,850 homes, mainly in mid-rise apartment buildings. The runway will be preserved as a pedestrian thoroughfare lined with stores, restaurants, public patios, schools and a library. Overall, Northcrest and its partners are creating more than 28 million square feet of residential space, 7 million square feet of commercial property and 74 acres of parks and open spaces.

The development is expected to take 30 years to complete and is being built in phases across seven distinct neighborhoods, making it one of Canada’s largest real-estate projects. Northcrest cites high-profile developments that repurpose aging industrial infrastructure, such as the High Line park in New York City, as a model for Downsview. “The fact that it’s an old rail line is something that makes it interesting to people," said