Dollars & Sense: A Community Built Around Woodbine

The smartest sports operations understand the importance of connecting with the community; Woodbine is emphasizing that approach at an impressive level.

In its 2022-23 Corporate Responsibility Report released last week, Woodbine Entertainment detailed its plans to develop nearly 400 acres of its 684-acre footprint to bring housing and mass transit to the Rexdale neighborhood of Toronto. 

The Woodbine Community Plan offers a way to develop a community connection while making use of the property. Too many times in recent years we've seen the value of the land that a track sits on become more attractive than the racing venture, resulting in eventual sale of the property and closing of tracks. This Woodbine approach offers a model that can work for the track and developers.

Woodbine, an Ontario corporation that operates without share capital with the mandate of supporting and growing the horse racing industry, says that the plan will generate new revenue streams and create 17,000 permanent jobs while upgrading the track's racing and training facilities.

"The latest development milestone achieved is Woodbine's first draft plan registration, which allowed for the casino and entertainment complex to open and will also allow Woodbine to better utilize the lands not required for horse racing," said Woodbine Entertainment chief development officer Will Fleissig in the Corporate Responsibility Report. "This milestone will allow us to move forward with plans for affordable housing, open space, and employment uses, providing long-term, sustainable revenue to support the sport of horse racing and benefit our broader community."

Highlights of the community project include plans for 29,000 homes for some 60,000 people; 13.5-million square feet of non-residential space, including light industrial and laboratory jobs as well as retail. Seventy acres of parks and green space also are planned for the project.

"We are building an urban community for all of Toronto around Woodbine Racetrack," says the Woodbine Community Plan. "(The) site will become new neighborhoods with housing, employment space, and parks, along with upgraded horse racing facilities. Long-term ownership means we can generate sustainable, long-term value for our horse racing community and benefit people who live and work in (the area)." 

• Other highlights of the Corporate Responsibility Report include updates on Woodbine and Woodbine Mohawk Park (Standardbred racing) surpassing $1 billion in all-sources wagering for the first time.

• Woodbine is the first North American track to partner with the "You Can Play" project that aims to make horse racing more inclusive.

"One of the main focuses of our corporate citizenship efforts has been the pledge to serve as an example to the horse racing industry of a workplace with a strong commitment to advance, nurture, and sustain a holistic culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging," the company said in its report. "Next year the work will continue with plans to establish a Diversity & Inclusion Committee, develop a more formal truth & reconciliation action plan, provide more education and training at all levels, and implement more actionable practices across the organization."

• Woodbine continues to operate as one of the safest Thoroughbred tracks in North America.