October 6th:

Past Events

Barry Lyon, president of N. Barry Lyon Consulting

The Business Challenges for Success
In the second presentation, Barry drew from his experience with large, brownfield redevelopment sites across southern Ontario. He identified that the market potential for the Lakeview area is significant, since there are few large development sites left in the City, and certainly few as attractive as this waterfront location.

Success, he noted, will depend on attracting a true mix of uses, including employment, residential and retail/commercial uses. Citing the redevelopment of the St Lawrence Starch site in Port Credit and the former railway lands in Toronto, Barry stressed that redevelopments of this kind take a long time and have to be phased appropriately and tied to market conditions.

Youth was also a focus as he sees this as an important consideration. The project should be attractive to youth (those under 30) – as they bring life to a place and are often more willing to take risks with a new idea. These same young people, who move in in the early days, can also become attached to a place and will drive, and be champions of, its evolution over time.