An innovative condominium project coming to Pickering is the first of its kind in the Greater Toronto Area — and, its developer believes, a first in the world.

Each of the 336 units in Axess Condos, by Liberty Hamlets Inc., will be 100 per cent accessible with features including wider corridors and doorways to accommodate wheelchairs, and levered door handles. Twenty per cent of the units will be reserved for those with disabilities and their families; 10 per cent will be sold to individuals with cognitive disabilities, and 10 per cent to people with physical disabilities.

The visionary behind the project at 1525 Pickering Parkway is Dan Hughes, executive director for Enhanced Day Program for autistic adults, and president and managing director of Liberty Hamlets. Hughes’ parents had physical disabilities and he’s worked with individuals with mental and physical impairments since he was a teenager.

Hughes is on the City of Pickering’s accessibility committee and after reviewing designs and blueprints for other projects, he realized many were not accessible or were minimally so (the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires condominiums to be 15 per cent accessible). So, he founded a development company.

“I wanted to start a company that was focused on building fully-accessible units, designed 100 per cent that way,” Hughes said.

He soon found support for his vision. Blair Gagnon, who has been involved in real estate development for 40 years and has a 26-year-old son with cerebral palsy and autism, helped Hughes acquire the site in Pickering’s Central Business District close to Hwy. 401, the Pickering Town Centre and GO station. He brought in Fieldgate Construction Management Ltd. and the MBTW Group, a Toronto landscape architecture, urban design and community planning firm, as partners.

“MBTW and Fieldgate bought into the concept right away,” says Gagnon. “Fieldgate is one of Toronto’s top builders and believes in what we want to accomplish, and MBTW is involved in creative, leading-edge design.”

Although Hughes originally planned to build a smaller, four-storey complex, he had to go with a larger project to conform with zoning for the Central Business District. Axess Condos will consist of two towers, 22- and 24-storeys tall.

Toronto architect Philip Tan of Architect 1:1 designed Axess Condos. He has an adult son with autism and met Hughes through Enhanced Day Program .

“What’s special about Axess is that it’s not just about profitability, it’s about doing what’s right for people with disabilities — and you don’t see that very often these days,” says Tan. Features, such as corridors that are wide enough for wheelchairs to pass, add to a building’s cost and would deter many builders, adds Tan.

The condo towers will share a three-storey podium where there will be commercial, office and retail space for lease. Above the podium, there will be 19 storeys of condo units with plans for a restaurant — open to the public — on the top floor of one tower.

The goal was for Axess Condos to be progressive but not pretentious. “We are not in New York City, we are in Pickering, and we need to be comfortable in our own skin,” says Tan. “We looked at the immediate neighbours and needed to be contextual.”

The buildings’ north and south exteriors will differ with “fast-read architecture facing south, but a slower read facing north. People will be walking by and it’s a slightly different, human scale with more details,” Tan says of the facades that will incorporate brick and stonework to complement townhouses across the street.

Suites will average 950 square feet in the south tower and 770 square feet in the north tower, with floor plans from one- to three-bedroom. Prices will be in the $620-per-square foot range.

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As well as relocating the Enhanced Day Program to Axess, Hughes has also engaged Trillium Support Services to provide personal support workers and respite workers in the building that can be hired and co-ordinated at the concierge desk. Tan hopes services such as a hair salon and dental clinic will locate in Axess.

“This is a very sustainable model, with everything under one roof,” says Tan. “One of the biggest issues facing a lot of families who have children with disabilities in day programs is how do you get them there. On days when we have bad weather and you can’t take them, it upsets the kids’ routines — and the parents’.”

As well, the city recently announced a new arts centre, youth and seniors’ centre and library will be built, just a few hundred metres from Axess Condos.

“Pickering has gone from a town to a city and has all kinds of amenities planned around the city core on both sides of the 401,” says Tan. “This development will fit nicely with this area.”

A sales office will open in late March, with construction set to start in June or July. For more information, go to http://www.axesscondos.ca/