Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, formerly Vaughan Corporate Centre, is a proposed 125-acre (0.51 km2) commercial downtown development in the area of Highways 400 and 7 in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is expected to be the central business district of Vaughan. It will be linked by a future subway station on the Yonge-University-Spadina line of the Toronto subway and RT system.
Influential businessman, Mitch Goldhar, has owned the 100-acre site since the mid-1990s; 40 acres of it are now owned by developers Rudy Bratty and Silvio DeGasperis, and the remainder by Goldhar’s firms. Prominent businesses having property in the Centre include Toromont, Wal-Mart, AMC Theaters, Lowe's, and Future Shop. Sam's Club had been located there before it closed down in March 2009. Two hotels operated by Marriott and one by Hilton, are also located at the Centre, as well as a Monte Carlo Inn. The core of the centre is approximately 1000m long (west to east) and 400m wide (north to south), although the plans for the Centre also include lands immediately outside this core zone.
Two traffic circles will be constructed on Highway 7 at Commerce Street and Maplecrete Road; these will intersect a ring road that will represent the border of this core. Parts of this ring road already exist as Commerce Street, and portions of Doughton Road, Maplecrete Road, and Applemill Road. The new Vaughan Corporate Centre TTC Subway Station will be built at the very centre of this core, which is the intersection of Highway 7 and Millway Avenue. Inside the core, the average block will be 100m by 100m (330 ft. by 330 ft.). Thus the theoretical maximum number of blocks is 40, but the Black Creek Valley and the non-perpendicular Jane Street will lower that number somewhat.
These blocks will be separated by small roads, alleys, or pedestrian walkways. One of the first buildings to be built with the tiny block size taken into account is the two-story Future Shop. At ground level, this building has small shop-sized units facing Highway 7 and Millway Drive that are currently vacant.
The council for the City of Vaughan announced in early 2009 that they wanted public submissions to suggest a new name for what was then called the Vaughan Corporate Centre. In July, 2009, the Council announced it chose the new name, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, out of 1569 entries.
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