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REX Awards Celebrate YZD Development Partnership at Former Downsview Airport
August 15, 2025 4 Minute Read
All eyes are on the former Downsview Airport these days. But they’re not watching for airplanes.
The site, which in the past had served as an airfield, air force base and eventually a testing facility for Bombardier Aerospace, recently became home to Rogers Stadium. The temporary, seasonal 50,000-capacity venue this summer hosts concerts by Coldplay and Oasis, among others. Live Nation Canada built the stadium in nine months and plans to operate it for the next few years.
The former 370-acre airport is being redeveloped into something far more permanent: a massive mixed-use, transit-connected series of neighbourhoods dubbed YZD. At an estimated cost of C$30 billion, it’s one of North America’s biggest urban redevelopment projects.
At NAIOP’s Rex Awards in June, CBRE along with Northcrest Developments and Hines won Investment Deal of the Year and Multi-Family Investment Deal of the Year for its work on the first phase of development at YZD. Hines was brought on as a development partner for the first phase of The Hangar District, the first neighbourhood of the YZD development.
“This award is a testament to our work securing a partnership for our client with one of the world’s leading developers,” says CBRE Capital Markets President Peter Senst, who along with CBRE Vice Chairman Casey Gallagher and Vice Chairman Jaysen Smalley represented Toronto-based Northcrest Developments, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the lead developer of YZD. “It speaks to CBRE’s global reach and our team’s expertise in coordinating the capitalization of major land sites.”
The Hangar District at YZD
The Hangar District is the first phase of YZD, a colossal mixed-use project that’s reshaping the former Downsview Airport lands. Spanning 370 acres, YZD will eventually house 55,000 residents and offer more than 7 million sq. ft. of commercial space, along with 74 acres of parks and open spaces. The project will be accessible via three major transit stops with connections to the TTC and GO Transit.
The Hangar District alone is expected to add 3,000 new homes, with former airport hangars retrofitted to accommodate shops, offices and public spaces. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
“This is a unique opportunity for developers to plan their business for the next generations,” says Gallagher. “It’s a guaranteed continuous pipeline of development that could span 30 years. We’ve never seen anything of this scale anywhere in Toronto.”
Landing the Deal
Northcrest awarded CBRE the mandate to market a 2 million sq. ft. co-investment opportunity for the first phase of the Hangar District at YZD. Senst, Gallagher and Smalley considered various deal structures before executing a global search for potential partners to invest in the Hangar District alongside Northcrest. “We had to be creative and model out the right partnership structure for the project,” says Smalley.
“This is a development the size of the city of Peterborough,” adds Gallagher. “To be a part of a project of that scale right in the centre of the GTA is an incredible opportunity.”
Senst admits that rising interest rates and inflation created some challenges in getting a deal done. “Many developers were nervous about the unpredictable state of global financial markets. We needed a group capable of riding through challenging times with the balance sheet to prove it.”
After receiving interest from a wide variety of firms, the team landed on Hines, a global real estate investment manager with a track record including large-scale projects like the Galleria in Dallas and Toronto’s CIBC Square.
“Hines had the financial horsepower we were looking for,” Senst says, noting that the partnership is among North America’s biggest joint ventures and development deals. “They have the expertise in major assignments needed to execute the vision for the Hangar District.”
While The Runway may be closed to airplanes, the revamp of YZD, the former Downsview Airport, is now set to take flight.
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