Automotive News Canada - June 2017 - v2 - 23

* JUNE 2017

City greets condo plan 'with open arms'
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Les Mallins, the driving force behind
Streetcar Developments, a company with several successful condo and
retail projects under its belt in the
area, including the award-winning
restoration of the historic Broadview
Hotel. Mallins proposed that Streetcar
co-develop the project with DAG.
Net result: The DAG Autoplex will
be incorporated into a residential
development called Riverside Square,
with 900 condominiums, a public
square and retail - including seven
DAG dealerships - all built on the
same site. The condos will be set back
and above the dealerships, which will
be on street level. The dealerships are
nontraditional in layout and size.

OPENING SUMMER 2018
Construction began this spring,
and Alizadeh said the project is "on
target" for its planned opening in the
summer of 2018.
The project's pre-construction
phase was considerably longer, with
more plot twists.
"About two years ago, we (finally)
got buy-in from all the participants,"
said Alizadeh.
The city was not among the dis-

Construction is well under way on
a five-acre (two-hectare) lot for the
Downtown Auto Group's urban
autoplex. ( P H O T O : M I C H A E L G O E T Z )

The architect's rendering for the
Downtown Auto Group's development shows dealerships at street
level and condos rising above.
( I L L U S T R AT I O N : D O W N T O W N A U T O G R O U P )

Automakers
celebrate
Canada's 150th
with creativity
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has done in previous years. It also
debuted the new Odyssey minivan to
media in late May in Charlottetown, the
birthplace of Confederation, to include a
well-timed patriotic element to reviews of
the vehicle.

senting voices.
"The city approved it with open
arms, because they felt this was going
to make sure that DAG's Downtown
Toyota outlet, which has been
on Queen Street for 30 odd years,
wouldn't be there anymore with its
open used-car lot ... they hated that
open used-car lot."
DAG owns 10 dealerships, seven of
which - Toyota, Hyundai, Genesis,
Nissan, Infiniti, Ford and Lincoln -
are moving into the new autoplex.
DAG's newly opened Genesis dealership is in a rental property and will
move into the autoplex when construction is complete. Downtown
Lexus is also part of DAG, but will
stay in its current and nearly new
facility on nearby Dundas Street.
Avenue Nissan and Toyota on Front,
both on the other side of downtown,
will stay put.
Naturally, there was some concern
expressed by local residents; the word
"autoplex" rarely invokes warm and
fuzzy feelings among urban dwellers.
One resident filed a complaint with
the city ombudsman, but the ombudsman eventually ruled in DAG's
favour.
According to Alizadeh, the auto-

makers were the group that had the
most questions and needed the most
time to accept the "nontraditional"
aspect of the project.

'COMMON' TOUCHES
The autoplex will have a common
entrance and common parking for all
the customers of the various stores.
A valet service will ensure customers know where to go, and that their
vehicles are parked and correctly
received.
Alizadeh said that automakers had
concerns about maintaining their
brand images with those and other
common elements.
"We've since managed to give them
enough comfort that their individual
brands and images will be protected
and maintained."
He adds that they came to realize,
as DAG did some time ago, that traditional dealerships have to evolve to
meet new urban realities.
"They also recognized the value
of the community we were building
around the dealerships. We're building a community, 900 condos, alongside seven car brands. "I can't see
anyone actually saying this is not
good for the car business." - ANC

Many engineers working outside their fields
Engineering Research
and Development Centre
(PERDC), those are minor
asides to the main new narrative of automotive engineering in Canada.

CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

Olivier Trescases, a
University of Toronto (U of
T) professor specialising in
electric vehicles. Currently,
"many of our best graduates go straight to Silicon
Valley after graduation."
And while he's gratified to
see U of T alumni contributing to some of the world's
most innovative companies
in the United States, "I'm
also very happy to see some
of the new OEM initiatives
focusing on high-quality
design oriented engineering jobs (in Canada); that's
what our graduates are
looking for."
Trescases cautions that,
globally, automakers opening huge new engineering
clusters shouldn't take it
for granted that hundreds
or even thousands of engineers will be available on
demand.
"In fact this takes a longterm coordinated approach
between industry, government and post-secondary
institutions," he said.
For now, cutting-edge
work at Canada's universities is in large part why
automakers are growing

Linamar's Shaun Scott says
the company is competing
with non-automotive business to attract engineering
talent. ( P H O T O : L I N A M A R )

their engineering presence in Canada: "There are
so many different fields of
engineering, and some of
the new programs are of
particular interest to auto
companies," said Hack.
"One I would mention
is Mechatronics; there's
a huge demand for that."
Mechatronics is a discipline
that blends mechanical
engineering with electronics, computer engineering,
and more.
So, while GM plans
to spend $10 million
on its long-established
cold-weather testing facility in Kapuskasing, Ont.,
and Ford will expand work
on powertrain technologies and alternative fuels
at its Windsor Powertrain

'NEW-AGE' FOCUS
GM's and Ford's
Canadian activities will
focus on "new age" technologies such as infotainment,
connected vehicles, active
safety and autonomous
drive systems.
Historically, GM
has been the leader in
Canada-based engineering. Its Canadian Regional
Engineering Centre (CREC)
in Oshawa was formed in
2001 to conduct vehicle
development and validation; one of its first projects was the original 2005
Chevrolet Equinox. In 2007
its mandate changed to
focus on applied research
and development and
advanced-technology innovation. Now, not only is
the Oshawa engineering
facility at capacity with 350
employees, GM Canada has
opened a Markham (Ont.)
Campus to accommodate
the expansion to 1,000 in
total. Markham will focus

on infotainment while
Oshawa will continue with
active safety and controls.
"There is definitely a
lot of talent in Canada,"
said Uzma Mustafa, manager of communications for
GM's Canadian Technical
Centres. "We are actively
recruiting. We participate
in university events and
engineering competitions.
We are quite confident we
will be able to reach our
goal."

ENGINEERING SUPPORT
Hack credits GM
Canada's current president, Steve Carlisle, with
the redirection and resurgence of engineering at
the Canadian subsidiary. Carlisle is an engineering graduate from the
University of Waterloo,
west of Toronto, and "is
very familiar with the talent at Waterloo and their
research ... developing fantastic partnerships in communications technology
with Blackberry/QNX and
others."
The Waterloo Centre for
Automotive Research

SEE SUPPLIERS PAGE 26

JAGUAR LAND ROVER is conducting a social
and digital brand campaign which, "in
a truly British manner ... will provide
well wishes to Canadians celebrating on
July 1." There will be two "hero videos"
filmed in Canada: the first stars the new
Land Rover Discovery and the other, the
Jaguar F-Type SVR, which will "showcase a celebratory feat never done before,
however we may have overdone it a
touch." Both campaigns are live June 22.
MERCEDES-BENZ just organized a media trip
across Canada, from St. John's, Nfld., to
Victoria, B.C., that visited all 10 provincial capitals in five days of driving and
flying. Dubbed the #CabriOCanada150
tour, six invited journalists drove eight
different models of Mercedes convertible
cars in time for their stories to appear for
July 1. In Newfoundland, however, where
it was snowing, they only drove around
the block before flying to Halifax.

PORSCHE is offering the Porsche Tour
Canada 150 in September, in which up to
20 participants will drive a new Porsche
911 Carrera 4S on a 10-day, 3,000-kilometre road trip from Toronto and ending in
Halifax. "Food will be served in worldclass restaurants, and you'll rest your
head in only the finest accommodations,"
according to Porsche. "Every leg of the
tour is designed to unite the driver and
explorer that live in all of us, to experience just how far Canada has come in 150
years." It costs $11,995 per person, plus
tax.
SUBARU has a "Looking Good Canada" contest for all fans of its cars, who are asked
to take pictures of their Subarus "against
the backdrop of our Canadian landscape."
Five finalists will be selected, one from
each of five regions; a winner will be chosen by online voting, who will then win a
trip to Ottawa in time for Canada Day.

TOYOTA is supporting a national initiative
called "Innovation 150," which is an education outreach tour including a "travelling youth innovation lab" with handson educational workshops for kids and
youth. The tour is organized by Actua,
a university- and college-based national charity that inspires young people
to become innovators and leaders. It's
expected to reach more than 100,000 youth
with stops in more than 80 communities
across Canada. - ANC

Convertibles were the focus of a
Mercedes-Benz media drive that
spanned the country, although snow in
Newfoundland meant an abbreviated
stop there. ( P H O T O : M A R K R I C H A R D S O N )

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - June 2017 - v2