WHAT’S GOING UP: Final projects underway on former Newmarket golf course land

Construction, servicing work proceeding on lands expected to add 179 homes near Yonge and Bathurst when the market picks up

What’s Going Up is a regular NewmarketToday series highlighting growth and development that is proposed and ongoing in town.

Site work is underway on the final phases of residential development at the former lands of Glenway Golf Course in Newmarket. 

Marianneville Developments Ltd. has begun work on two areas between Bathurst and Yonge streets, representing the last blocks of the Glenway West development project. These include Glenway West Blocks 11 and 12, located east of Alex Doner Drive, and Block 13, situated at the corner of Bathurst Street and Sykes Road. Blocks 11 and 12 will feature about 87 single-detached dwellings and Block 13 will have 92 townhouse dwellings.

Kerbel group vice-president Joanne Barnett said homes for Blocks 11 and 12 will start hitting the market in the fall, with construction in the spring. But the final Block 13 may wait for better market conditions for construction to start.

“We hope people will start buying them,” Barnett said.

Glenway West has been in the works for years, built as part of a series of residential developments on the former golf course. The two blocks now getting underway for construction received zoning approvals from the town council in 2022. Glenway donated 16 acres of land to the town as part of a deal to help push forward development on the golf course lands. 

Securing site plan approvals to proceed with work in the area took approximately 2-1/2 years, Barnett said, but added it was acceptable given a downturn in the housing market. But now construction work is getting underway to add infrastructure services to the lands to ensure housing can be built there. 

The town’s planning department said Marianneville Developments Ltd. has entered into a pre-servicing agreement with the town to allow critical infrastructure to be in place to allow for quicker construction later. This is occurring with planning review work still happening for the western Block 13.

“The Town of Newmarket’s planning staff are currently reviewing and processing the detailed site plan drawings to ensure the site functions as designed and are meeting all municipal design requirements,” the planning department said.

Barnett said the developer’s plan is to start selling the eastern block portion, with 87 detached homes, sometime in the fall. She said those will feature housing like bungalows that are in demand in the market.

However, she said further construction on the western block will have to wait for a better market. She said that with fewer people buying homes, it makes development more difficult.

“If there is no one to buy it, we cannot build, because we cannot get funding without purchasers. This is the economic reality,” she said, adding that the “fewer houses we build, the more expensive they are. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Still, she said that by having servicing on the western block, they will be able to get construction happening quickly as demand picks up.

The blocks represent the final portion of the Glenway developments on the former golf course lands, she said.

“We’re ready if people want to buy houses in Newmarket and there’s a market demand for them,” Barnett said. “We will meet the demand because we have a number of projects available to be developed, but not without purchases.”