Sustainable Development Group (SDG) is laying the groundwork to develop a 400,000-square-foot, four-tower project to deliver over 1,000 housing units in Barrie, Ont. It is to be constructed utilizing components from B.C.-based mass-timber prefabricator Intelligent City. 

The project is to be built on a 3.6-acre property at 35 Sperling Dr., in the north end of the city overlooking the Hwy. 400 corridor on one side, the Little Lake area and rolling hills of Oro-Medonte Township on the other. The complex is to have a two-storey concrete base, above which the phased 18-storey towers will be constructed with mass timber.

Based on the total of 1,035 apartments, it would be the largest Canadian mass timber residential development by unit count.

Barrie is located about 75 kms north of Toronto, and is a rapidly growing city of about 150,000 people largely due to its location on Kempenfelt Bay (Lake Simcoe), more affordable housing and transportation links to the Greater Toronto Area.

“We’ve taken it through zoning, and now we’re at the next stage of due diligence, and there is a lot of interest from all parties. This was actually a City of Barrie property. It’s an old police station that got rezoned and is getting turned into 1,035 units,” said Kartik Singla, co-founder of Sustainable Development Group, who spoke to RENX.

Site work planned for 2026

SDG hopes to begin pre-build work in 2026 and commence construction in the spring of 2027, he said. The property will include approximately 330,000 square feet of total leasable space, plus common areas and amenities.

For Singla, the project will help the company realize its corporate mandate: “We want to use Canadian everything, to set the precedent that we can domesticate our housing construction industry.”

Intelligent City is already at work on Toronto’s tallest residential mass timber building, but is working to expand its manufacturing base into the Ontario market according to its president.

“We are looking to set up a factory in Ontario that can deliver up to 1,200 units a year. By the end of 2026 we are going to be ready to deliver that locally,” said Oliver David Krieg, president of Intelligent City, who also spoke to RENX.

Currently, the Toronto project is being supplied by the company’s factory in North Delta, B.C. but that is facing logistical challenges. Hence, the need for an Ontario manufacturing facility.

“While it’s been going really well once the trucks arrive, we have not been able to deliver quickly enough to really accelerate on-site construction," Krieg said. "When the trucks arrive, the panels go up one level per day, basically. But our factory is too small to keep up with that speed."

Despite this challenge, however, he said reaction to the Royal York Rd. project has been positive.

“I think everyone who’s coming on site is extremely impressed, because the thing about mass timber and about prefabrication is that it’s an extremely clean site. If you have concrete formwork, you have 30, 40 people, it’s dirty. And here, we have six people that are putting this together, and it’s quiet as well.”

Barrie a strong residential market

At the Sperling Drive development, SDG is hoping to add an amenity package similar to its work on Clapperton Village, a smaller project also in Barrie.

“We’re working with the world-renowned landscape architect Peggy Chi, and her role is to create a Nordic-Spa type of an experience of outdoor amenities,” Singla explained. “Sperling is going to be an extension of that concept. We haven’t figured it out exactly, but the emphasis is going to be outdoor amenities integrating with health and wellness.”

For SDG, choosing to do such a large project in Barrie was a no-brainer.

“Barrie is a very attractive market because they’re one of the fastest-growing cities in Ontario. It actually has a very high median household income so a lot of middle class, millennial families are in Barrie working from home,” Singla said.

The municipality of 147,829 residents (according to Statistics Canada 2021 data) saw a 4.5 per cent population increase since 2016. Singla said the city administration is supportive of growth.

“Barrie is also one of the fastest municipalities in terms of the planning approvals,” he said.

SDG founded two years ago

SDG itself is based in Barrie and was founded by Singla, Jimmy La and Dave Knight.

“SDG is actually a relatively newer company. We were established two years ago, and our DNA is the missing middle developer,” Singla said.

Its origins were simple, but it's growth has been rapid.

“We just acquired a single-family home, and then very quickly got it through a process where we were allowed to build 10 units on it in downtown Barrie," Singla said. “And one thing led to another, and we had 90 units. Well, actually, now we have hundreds ..."