Durham Region is where the eastern GTA is growing: new communities in Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington, with Highway 401 along the lakeshore and Highway 407 across the north. Terrahills builds self storage facilities across Durham, from multi-storey climate-controlled buildings on valuable frontage sites to drive-up storage in the growth areas further east and north.
Land decides the product here more clearly than almost anywhere in Ontario. Along the 401 corridor in Pickering, Ajax and Whitby, commercial and employment land is priced like the GTA, and only a multi-storey climate-controlled facility earns enough rentable area from a site to justify it. Further east in Oshawa and Clarington, and north toward the 407, land is cheaper and larger sites make drive-up storage, or a climate-controlled building at the frontage with drive-up buildings behind, work. Pickering is also where our land planning work in Durham began: the 50-unit waterfront townhouse development advisory in 2021.
The approvals have two layers. Site plan and zoning run through the local municipality, and the Region of Durham governs regional roads, water and sewer servicing and its own development charges on top of the local ones. Development charges are a significant line on a large storage building, and whether a municipality charges storage at an industrial or a commercial rate changes the number, so it is confirmed before the land is committed. Stormwater review sits with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in the west of the region and Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority across much of the rest.
What it costs here
indicative 2026 Ontario ranges, hard costs per gross square foot: single-storey drive-up $70–$120, multi-storey climate-controlled $160–$260, conversion of an existing building $50–$120. Land, servicing, development charges and soft costs sit outside these bands, and a Class C estimate against the unit mix and the site is the number to plan on.
Proof of delivery
Pickering waterfront townhouse development: 50-unit land planning advisory, $18M transaction, 2021. Ramara Industrial Park: 100,000 sq ft multi-unit steel development taken from raw land through zoning, servicing, structure and envelope to occupancy under one contract.