Porsche ‘Experience Centre’ in Pickering delayed until early 2025
Published October 1, 2024 at 2:20 pm
A much-anticipated brand park and tourist experience scheduled to open at Pickering’s Durham Live property this fall has been pushed ahead to early next year.
Porsche Canada and the City of Pickering held the ceremonial shovel-in-the-ground moment two years ago for the Porsche Experience Centre and announced earlier in the summer it was still on schedule to open in late 2024.
It’s “early 2025” now, with Porsche Canada making that declaration as an aside in a press release announcing its new CEO, Trevor Arthur, who takes over the helm October 1.
Arthurs, the release stated, “oversaw the construction of its first-ever Porsche Experience Centre slated to open in the Greater Toronto Area early in 2025.”
There haven’t been many announcements on the ambitious Durham Live project, in fact, since the opening of the Pickering Casino and the attached hotel, and the Apostoloupolos family – Durham Live’s property owner – has gone radio silent on project updates since the Porsche Experience groundbreaking in 2022.
The Porsche Experience Centre, which will be automaker’s tenth in the world, the third in North America (after Los Angeles and Atlanta) and the first ‘urban’ experience, is a key piece to the complex, which is also slated to include two more hotels (with one scheduled to open next spring), a shopping district and additional restaurants and high-end residential towers (Pickering is still waiting to hear from the Province on fast-tracked zoning to allow one or more 60-plus floor buildings), among other amenities.
The family’s vision for the Durham Live complex has changed quite a bit since the casino opened in the middle of the pandemic in July 2021, with an indoor water park in the original plans, as well as a film studio, which was moved to nearby Sandy Beach Road.
The landmark Durham Live project, located at the northwest corner of Church and Bayly Streets, is expected to boast a dynamic mix of excitement, culture, nightlife, cuisine, and adventure that will cater to “every whim and indulgence” no matter what the final design looks like.
“The kick-off to this construction project represents the culmination of years of dedication and planning by teams on both sides of the Atlantic,” said then-Porsche Cars Canada CEO Marc Ouayoun at the 2022 groundbreaking. “More than a circuit, the future Porsche Experience Centre Toronto will represent a unique, exhilarating, and memorable place where visitors can fully immerse themselves in the brand and its products.”
Porsche instructors will be on hand through various driving modules all year long and the two-kilometre driving circuit will allow customers and fans to immerse themselves in the world of Porsche regardless of whether they own one or not.
Visitors will also be able to admire current and historic exhibition vehicles, stop by the café and browse the Porsche shop.
“Durham Live is an entertainment playground built for diverse demographics, thrill seekers, sports car aficionados, or the culinary connoisseurs; we look forward to having it as a fundamental component of our experience,” Pickering Developments managing partner Steve Apostolopoulos said at the ceremony.
Rendering of the Durham Live Porsche Experience Centre in Pickering