Abandoned airport being transformed into £22bn city as plans unveiled

An abandoned airport is a step closer to being reborn as a £22bn city for around 50,000 people. Downsview Airport in Toronto, Canada, was closed in 2024, but the 370-acre site is earmarked for a $30bn redevelopment (around £22bn) that could house about 50,000 residents.

YZD, as the colossal scheme is known, is expected to take more than 30 years and will include homes, shops, schools and parks. It is widely considered one of the most ambitious projects in the history of North America. A 1.24-mile former runway will be converted into a park linking the neighbourhoods – described as the area’s “connective tissue”. And it seems that the scheme is progressing.

The Downsview Airport site was used for warplane production during the Second World War and was later taken over by an aerospace company in the 1990s.

Derek Goring, the CEO of the company in charge of the project, Northcrest Developments, told CNN: “One of the biggest challenges with large-scale urban redevelopments is when you don’t have anything to start with, they can feel generic.”

He added: “We want to lean into what’s there and make as much use of it as possible. It helps bring character and it makes it more interesting and unique.”

Under the latest proposals, the development would deliver about 8,800 residential units — 20% of them affordable — plus a blend of “employment, retail, institutional and community uses”. The plans also advance the Depot Mews “shared street” concept.

Derek added: “There’s a lot of embedded carbon in the existing buildings and rather than tearing them down and building everything new, there’s a big carbon benefit to retaining those buildings.”