What to know
- Mirvish Village, a new rental community at Bathurst and Bloor streets, is opening an exclusive veterinary clinic for tenants on Nov. 16.
- The Village Vet+ will offer services including urgent care, diagnostics and vaccinations.
- Peterson developer Barrett Sprowson says demand for pet-friendly amenities has grown since the pandemic, with renters increasingly considering their pets’ needs when choosing where to live.
- Beyond simply allowing pets, some rental buildings are introducing amenities such as pet spas, grooming stations and designated relief areas.
- Looking ahead, developers are considering new features such as covered indoor spaces where dogs can walk and get some fresh air during bad weather.
Between finding a pet-friendly building to moving vets, renting as a pet owner can be tricky; but with so many pet parents in the city, Toronto developers are now changing their priorities to better accommodate four-legged residents.
If you’ve had to move rentals with your pet, you might know the struggle to find units that not only accommodate pets but also offer access to parks, nearby vets, pet stores, and any other amenities your little companion might need.
But it seems that pet parents are starting to become front and centre when it comes to developers’ priorities.
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New rental community to open exclusive pet clinic
Mirvish Village, a new rental community located on Bathurst and Bloor streets, is launching a new neighbourhood clinic.
Vet-owned The Village Vet+ is set to open on Nov. 16, offering a new option for pet owners to access support close to home. The clinic will offer several essential pet services, from urgent care to diagnostics to vaccinations, and is open exclusively for Mirvish Village tenants.
Barrett Sprowson, Senior VP of Residential at Peterson, the developer behind Mirvish Village, tells Now Toronto the idea to add the clinic came from a combination of demand from the community with the opportunity to make it happen.
As pointed out by him, the City of Toronto is estimated to be home to about 600,000 dogs. In addition, several renters who are pet parents have revealed that access to pet-friendly amenities are top-of-mind when it comes to finding a place to live, according to the developer.
With so many pet parents in the city, he says having pet-friendly spaces and amenities has become a priority for developers when designing new rentals since the pandemic.
“Five or six years ago we really started focusing on how to make sure that we have pet amenities in a building… It’s one of those things that just really picked up steam during the pandemic and has stayed,” he said.
Pet-friendly has become more than just allowing pets in
Although facing building and landlord restrictions might still be a big concern for pet owners who rent in the city, for many, a building that solely welcomes pets might no longer be good enough.
As developers adapt to the new trend and introduce pet spas and relief spaces into rental buildings, many owners have also started looking for amenities that accommodate their pets needs.
Considered a pet-friendly building, Mirvish Village, for instance, offers not only a welcome pass to pets, but also different amenities like a pet spa and relief areas.
“It’s basically a grooming spot for your pet that you can go and wash down your dog, and there’s warm water and there’s the right soap and hair dryers and all that,” Sprowson said.
“That’s fairly convenient to get to with your pet, so that when you go for a dirty walk, you can come back and give your dog a spray down before you take him or her into your home.”
Moving forward, Sprowson expects more pet-friendly spaces to pop up across the city’s rentals, including new demands like indoor walking spaces, especially during cold or rainy days.
“If we can program a spot where the humans can stand underneath a cover, and the pet is able to run around and do their business for 10 minutes… That’s my goal in all of our future buildings,” he said.
“You have a period of the year that is just really nasty outside. So… you just want to be able to do stuff without it being really uncomfortable.”
