Standing out from the crowd in Mississauga

Mississauga has always been a city of noteworthy accomplishments, from its inception as a city in 1974, combining the former townships of Lakeview, Cooksville, Lorne Park, Clarkson, Erindale, Sheridan, Dixie, Meadowvale Village, Malton, Port Credit and Streetsville; to being home to Canada’s longest-serving mayor, Hazel McCallion, from 1978 to 2014.

You might expect such a track record of ambition from one of the most populous – and fastest-growing – municipalities in Canada.

Covering a huge swath of land – 288 square kms, 13 km of which front Lake Ontario – Mississauga comprises many distinct neighbourhoods and communities. The former town of Port Credit, for example, once a sleepy little industrial locale, home to the iconic – and smelly – St. Lawrence Starch Co. plant from 1890 to 1990, today is a much sought-after residential area, thanks to its prized waterfront location.

Local histories

Many of these areas host annual festivals – during non-COVID times, of course – that pay respect to local histories. Streetsville, for example, holds its annual Bread and Honey Festival, paying homage to the area’s roots as a mill town. And Port Credit’s Mississauga Waterfront Festival and the Southside Shuffle blues and jazz festival display everything that the community has to offer.

With McCallion running the show over 12 consecutive terms, until she stepped aside and Bonnie Crombie won the election in 2014, Mississauga was known as a city of growth. McCallion consistently boasted she oversaw among the lowest taxes in Canada and made it easy for companies to do business there. Today, the area is home to more than 60 Fortune 500 companies, including Laura Secord Chocolates, Honeywell Aerospace, Walmart Canada and Kellogg’s Canada.

Getting around Mississauga is, well, you are travelling over a vast area, and traffic these days… But Hwys. 401, 403, 410 and the QEW all run for stretches through the city, and there’s no shortage of GO Transit and Mississauga MiWay Transit options.

Waterfront recreation

For sports and recreation, again Mississauga is blessed with numerous recreational winter and summer sports leagues with decades of local history. There’s the Paramount Fine Foods Centre (formerly Hershey Centre), where the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga Steelheads play, and which is also home to a number of community rinks. And using the Streetsville example again, the Vic Johnston Community Centre dates back to 1961, and sits adjacent to Memorial Park and the Credit River.

Following the Credit River down to Port Credit, Memorial Arena is another beautiful old barn, sitting adjacent to Memorial Park and facing Lake Ontario. The park itself serves as host location for some of the area’s largest festivals. Cross Lakeshore Road and you’re right at Port Credit Harbour, home to the popular Snug Harbour Seafood Bar and Grill. Head out to the end of the pier and you’ll get a great view of a local landmark – the Ridgetown, the Great Lakes bulk freighter that was sunk off the shore when retired to serve as the breakwater for the harbour.

Prized development

The waterfront, in fact, is prized redevelopment land, former industrial sites which will soon be home to thriving new master-planned communities. On the old site of an oil refinery at Mississauga Road and Lakeshore, for example, Brightwater Condos & Towns will eventually welcome more than 15,000 residents.

Equally impressive is what’s happening in the Lakeview area of Port Credit, on the site of the former Lakeview Generation Station. The coal-fired power plant, whose huge smokestacks were known locally as the “Four Sisters” and part of the landscape since the early 1960s, was demolished in 2007. Soon, the area will give rise to Lakeview Village, another master-planned community comprising 8,000 new homes and condos, welcoming 20,000 residents.

But it’s not all about the lake in Mississauga, as there’s plenty of new condo development a little further north, particularly near the Square One Shopping Centre. Solmar Development Corp. has a number of new highrises at its Oro at Edge Towers project, as does Pinnacle International at Pinnacle Uptown.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

More than 288 square kms, 13 kms fronting Lake Ontario; bounded by Oakville, Milton, Brampton, Toronto and Lake Ontario; population 668,549.

KEY LANDMARKS

• Living Arts Centre
• Mississauga Celebration Square
• Paramount Fine Foods Centre
• Sheridan College Business School
• Square One Shopping Centre
• University of Toronto Mississauga

SELECT CONDO DEVELOPMENTS

Amber at Pinnacle Uptown

By Pinnacle International
pinnacleinternational.ca

Artform Condos

By Emblem Developments
artformcondos.com

Brightwater Condos & Towns

By West Village Partners
brightwatercondosmississauga.ca

Lakeview Village

By Lakeview Community Partners
mylakeviewvillage.com

M City

By Urban Capital
urbancapital.ca

Oro at Edge Towers

By Solmar Development Corp.
solmar.ca

Perla Towers

By Pinnacle International
pinnacleinternational.ca