Woodbine Live! - Toronto's First Upscale Outlet Destination

After outlet retailing takes hold in Europe and Asia, the focus finally turns to Canada

Cordish Companies and Woodbine Entertainment

Cordish Companies and Woodbine Entertainment plan to develop Woodbine live!, a 200-acre retail and entertainment project at Woodbine Racetrack & Casino, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Toronto . With 6.5 million visitors annually, the gaming and live racing venue is already the No.1 existing tourist attraction in Toronto.

The development is Cordish's first venture in Canada. The first phase of Woodbine Live! will be an urban lifestyle and entertainment center totaling approximately 1.5 million sf. It will include 500,000-sf of retail with outlets in the mix, a 450-room hotel with meeting facilities, a 4,000-seat live performance venue and a state-of-the-art movie complex. A 500,000-sf phase 2 will include more retail, plus 2,500 residential units, 1 million sf feet of office space and three additional hotels.

Cordish Companies VP Blake Cordish said in a statement, "We are confident the project will add value to Woodbine Racetrack & Casino, the City of Toronto and the region as a whole. The synergy between outlet shopping, gaming and entertainment is a proven winner at projects of ours such as The Walk in Atlantic City , as well as in Las Vegas and other gaming destinations."

Woodbine Live! is at the intersection of all of Toronto 's major highways with traffic counts of more than 500,000 per day. It is also in the center of the region's population with more than 4 million people within 30 minutes.

"There are few comparable sites in North America with its potential to drive huge sales," Cordish said.

Woodbine Live!, which is Toronto's only 24/7 gaming facility, has more than 300 days of live racing, plus it has Toronto's largest free parking lot.

The original Woodbine racetrack opened in 1874 on the then-far eastern outskirts of Toronto , which is now virtually downtown. The present Woodbine, which has undergone several multi-million-dollar expansions and upgrades, was opened on June 12, 1956. It is on approximately 650 acres, near the Lester B. Pearson International Airport and a multitude of modern hotels. In Y2K, 2,000 slot machines were added in a 56,000 sf space.

Upon completion of the first phase, total annual visitation is projected to exceed 13.4 million. Construction is expected to begin this fall, with the opening scheduled for fall 2013.