Vaughan's new downtown feels more dense and urban every year, but the emerging cluster of commercial and residential towers near Jane and Highway 7 still lacks the permanent destinations needed to draw traffic from surrounding areas.

This past March, Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca announced plans to develop a Performing and Cultural Arts Centre in Vaughan's nascent downtown, and those plans, in partnership with QuadReal Property Group, took a big step forward this summer.

The City of Vaughan and Quadreal entered into a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, in June to advance the planning process for this new venue.

Del Duca, members of council, representatives from QuadReal and other dignitaries attended the Assembly Park events space in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre for a ceremony to mark the project's advancement last month, getting the ball rolling for the new attraction.

This new performing and cultural arts centre is planned within QuadReal's Assembly Park community, though the details of how it will be realized are still being finalized.

Hariri Pontarini Architects had previously prepared two concepts for the new venue, with options for a standalone park pavilion design, and another venue integrated into the podium of an upcoming mixed-use development.

The firm has extensive expertise with performing arts venues, and recently won a design competition to lead the rebuild of Toronto's St Lawrence for the Arts.

However, new concept renderings shared since this June announcement reveal a bold, colourful new design for a standalone building from architects Giannone Petricone Associates.

The images bear the name Vaughan Performance Arts Center (curiously, using the American spelling), or VPAC.

Vaughan's new performing and cultural arts centre is expected to open between 2029 and 2032.

The City of Vaughan states that a 2019 feasibility study estimated that a cultural facility in Vaughan's downtown could stimulate more than $100 million in economic activity related to one-time construction, with the potential to inject over $2.5 million into the community annually.