Politicians, developers and business owners gathered at the Art Gallery of Burlington Friday morning (Sept. 20) to speak on Alinea Land Corporation’s planned development of a large entertainment district at 1200 King Rd. in Aldershot.
The discussion was part of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s (BCC) Business Before 9 event series and was attended by Burlington councillors Kelvin Galbraith, Rory Nisan and Angelo Bentivegna as well as Alinea President Paul Paletta, BCC President Terry Caddo and around 100 chamber members.
The site is about 50 hectares in size and sits between Highway 403 and the GO Transit Lakeshore West line. The site is expected to have around 9,200 residential units, 11,600 square metres of retail space, 23,000 square metres of innovation and education space and a 5,000-seat arena that could serve as both a hockey rink and music venue when completed.
“The thinking around King Road is to create an ambitious site,” Louis Frapporti, a lawyer working with Alinea, said. “Every element of success is positioned here to make this particular community and development something that’s not only locally significant, but nationally and internationally significant.”
The district at 1200 King Rd. is expected to cost around $6 billion to develop and take between 10 to 15 years to complete.
Galbraith and Paletta sat down together to discuss the upcoming development, which could start construction as early as 2025, and its effect on the surrounding community.
“Bringing in the entertainment district can be a real benefit to the entire community, especially the local business community,” Galbraith said. “Programming that could include 150 nights per year has spillover into hotels, motels, restaurants and retail business. I’m really excited about that potential opportunity coming to the West End, local businesses will often locate around an entertainment hub like that.”
Alinea has estimated that the district will earn around $300 million in retail spending per year after the construction is complete.
“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Paletta said. “The opportunities that these sites will create for new businesses to start or existing businesses to grow are endless, and we're open to anything and everything.”
The City of Burlington has been speaking with Mohawk College about potentially opening a campus in Burlington at the 1200 King Rd. site, though no details have been finalized.
Alinea also plans to keep a large amount of accessible green space at the site, with around 25 hectares of the district being used as parks, trails and open spaces.
Despite the full impact of the new entertainment district on Burlington being unknown at the moment, Frapporti is hopeful that it will affect the city in a largely positive way.
“When the site is fully built out, it doesn’t just affect the site,” Frapporti said. “It becomes a key node within the city as a whole, generating interest and attraction for folks to come to enjoy the facilities at King Road.”
Alinea, which owns about 80 per cent of Burlington’s undeveloped land, has four other sites in the works at Appleview Square, Bronte Creek, Paletta Court and Waterdown Road.
