Urban North townhouse community coming to Barrie
DEVELOPMENT OFFERS NORTHERN ESTHETIC LISA VAN DE VEN
With forest views and easy commuting options, a new low-rise neighbourhood in Barrie is looking to redefine the idea of “urban.”
Once completed, Urban North — the master-planned townhouse community by Pace Developments — will add approximately 850 new homes to the city an hourand-a-half north of Toronto. But why stop there when they can also include direct access to the local GO Station and 50 acres of preserved on-site woodlot as well?
“This is the first time we’re building in the Barrie area,” says Pamela Ventresca, chief operations officer at Pace, a family-run developer based out of Richmond Hill. “But Barrie is one of the fastest growing cities in Ontario, and we liked the location of this site: the GO train is there, and there’s easy access to Lake Simcoe, trails and parks. It was something we wanted to take on.”
Located at Yonge Street and Mapleview Drive, the project is only five minutes from Highway 400. But a new on-site platform for the Barrie South GO Station will make it particularly ideal for commuters looking to take advantage of the more affordable house prices in Barrie while continuing to work in the GTA. “People that will be living within this community can leave their cars in their driveway and basically walk to the GO train,” Ventresca says.
But commuters aren’t their only buyers, she adds — others are coming to the pre-construction site from within the Barrie area itself, wanting a new home that’s close to Yonge Street, as well as local amenities like Hewitt’s Creek Ravine Trail and Wilkins Beach on Lake Simcoe. And the developer plans on adding to those natural highlights with some of their own.
“This is a 100-acre parcel of land, 50 of which will be cleared for the community to be built, while the other 50 is protected land,” Pace’s COO says. “We’re going to be building on the natural trails and parks that lead right to the water.”
For some of the new homeowners, that 50 acres of protected forest will offer something else as well: spacious views. Many of the site’s Executive Towns — the largest of the project’s offerings — will overlook the protected green space, with three-storey freehold layouts of three and four bedrooms, ranging from 1,675 to 2,142 square feet.
But the Executive Towns are just one of three types of townhouse product available at the site. Back-to-Back Towns offer a more compact three-storey design, with units backing onto each other, while the site’s Urban Towns provide condo-style one- and two-storey stacked layouts. Each is available with two or three bedrooms; the Urban Towns range from 1,150 to 1,438 square feet and the Back-to-Back Towns from 1,095 to 1,619 square feet.
“The stacked homes are closer to the GO train, to increase the intensification,” explains Peter Sciavilla, Ventresca’s brother and Pace’s vice-president of construction. To meet the City of Barrie’s density requirements for the site Pace originally considered a series of more traditional mid-rise condo buildings. The property’s wet forest land proved problematic for the underground parking that would be required, though, so the developer looked for other alternatives that would allow them to meet the city’s requirements.
With private two-car parking at grade, the townhouses fit the bill, and didn’t need the same type of excavation a condo building would. Esthetically, they also offered Pace the chance to give buyers a little something different.
“I wanted to stay away from the heritage look,” Sciavilla says. “I didn’t want to see a board-and-batten look. So we went with a very flat design with lots of glass, and a really nice metal siding that looks like real wood.”
Vaughan-based RN Design — the architectural firm behind the homes — created a transitional design that takes inspiration from the northern location, with stone accents reminiscent of the mountain lodges found in the ski hills nearby.
“It’s not full-on modern or contemporary, but it’s that middle ground of design,” says Steve Hukari, senior residential designer with RN. “It has a slight chalet feel. It’s definitely representative of the locale and site.”
Each type of townhouse has a different design style, while still playing with the same materials, including brick and stone, wood-look metal siding and large windows. They all also have something a condo project wouldn’t: a front door to the outside. That’s something plenty of buyers are still looking for, Hukari says.
“Everyone has a front door to their unit, as opposed to a mid-rise building where you would enter into a lobby and go into a hallway and take an elevator or stairs,” he adds. “These have a direct access to the exterior.”
Those front doors start opening to residents in 2021, when move-ins begin.
Prices at Urban North range from the mid$300,000s to the mid$600,000s.
The sales office is located at 700 Mapleview Dr., Barrie, and open Tuesday to Friday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 705-252-1206 or visit myurbannorth.ca.