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Stockyards, The (30 Weston Rd. @ St. Clair, retail, Trinity, 2s, GreenbergFarrow)

CharmAlarm

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From: NovaeResUrbis, Friday, April 25, 2008. By Mark Ostler.

A commercial development proposed for a site at Weston
Road and St. Clair Avenue West seeks to inject more life
into an area already undergoing significant changes.

Trinity Development Group is proposing to redevelop a
20-acre site at the intersection, with approximately
550,000-sq.ft. of retail space in the rapidly developing
area. The genesis of the proposal occurred two years ago.

Previously home to the Ontario Stockyards and a centre
of the meat-packing industry, many of these facilities
left the area in the 1990s. Subsequently, residential development,
largely consisting of townhouses, has increased
in the area to the north of St. Clair Avenue, and two condominium
towers are proposed to the south, at Dundas
Street West and Keele Street. Several big box retail facilities
operate in the area southwest of the Keele Street-St.
Clair Avenue West intersection, including Home Depot,
Canadian Tire, Rona, Dominion and Future Shop.

Trinity's proposed development will be different than
the nearby retail stores, says development vice-president
Stefan Savelli. "It's not going to look like that," Savelli told NRU. "A
lot of it is internalized, it has atriums. It's all pedestrian
connected. The buildings are right up against the street."

Official plan and zoning by-law amendment applications
are expected to be submitted within the next three-to-four
weeks, says Trinity development director Brad Caco.
Representatives from Trinity visited Chicago, Atlanta
and Miami to study and understand new formats that are
being implemented for retail centres. Caco noted that the
group's largely two-storey development, to be designed by
Turner Fleischman Architects, would be seen as "cutting
edge and the first of its kind in Canada."

The north end of the site will feature an anchor-retail
location that is in excess of 100,000-sq.ft., with the remain-
ing stores ranging from approximately 4,000-to-24,000-sq.ft.
Multiple levels of above-ground parking, located in the centre
of the site, will serve a perimeter of retail stores. The proposal
also calls for the inclusion of some office space, possibly
occupied by doctors and other medical services as
Savelli noted a lack of such offices in the area.

While the site is largely designated arterial commercial
under the official plan, a small portion of the site is designated
employment. The site is currently occupied by a vegetable
oil processing plant. Savelli stated that preliminary discussions with city
planning staff were positive.

Area councillor Frances Nunziata was unable to comment
on the project, citing the fact that applications
have yet to be submitted.

"It's an urbanized project," Savelli said. "It's what they
want to see happening in the City of Toronto. They don't
want the sprawl you see in the suburbs. They want intensification,
an that's what we're doing."
 
Interesting. Would this be going in on the northwest corner of Weston and St. Clair?

Anyway, with Turner Fleischer Architects at the helm (not Turner Fleischman as they are named in the article - nice fact checking, Ostler) I am not expecting anything that cutting edge.

42
 
http://www.trinity-group.com/?q=node/432

The website claims that this project will be finished by Spring 2010. For them to do extensive soil remediation and construction within 2 years will be impressive, but by no means impossible. (That Wal-Mart was up in no time down the street.)

KeeleandStClairdevelopment.jpg


KeeleandStClairdevelopment2.jpg


KeeleandStClairdevelopment3.jpg



My major concern is the proliferation of surface parking lots in this area. I would prefer that this site become an Eaton's Centre rather than a Yorkdale, and definitely not Sherway sprawl.

Dedicate a small tract of land at the corner of St. Clair and Weston/Keele for a future Queen Street Subway relief line stop which would create a great hub with the St. Clair ROW passing by the site. (Queen Street Subway could snake up Roncesvalles to Dundas West Station, then to this site, then up north parallel to Black Creek Drive, which is not far-fetched.)
 
Thanks for posting that.

It just looks like multi-level big box. Ugh.

The neighbourhood is so short on home improvement too - we really need a Lowe's to go along with the Rona, the Home Depot, and the Canadian Tire across the street. Thank goodness they've squeezed that in.

42
 
These developers appear to be new to the city. Apparently there is a St. Clair Avenue South.

In addition, they seem to have no problem with tacking on the words "Big Box" onto several of the proposed buildings.

That neighbourhood should rally together to encourage a more dense zone with less car dependancy because that stretch of St. Clair is slowly becoming suburbanized. From what I have seen, it is the only location in Toronto (west of Yonge) to have it's own McDonald's drivethrough, Country Style drivethough, and CIBC banking drivethrough.
 
This is right across from a massive big box centre already - is there really need for further big boxes? I hate the area as it is, this will only add more traffic and make the area, while pumping possibly some jobs into the area, just another bland landscape.

I can't help but think that the only solution developers can ever come up with are: cinemas and/or big box retail as well as themed restaurants -

Mono culture here we come...errr...here we are..we love you!!

p5
 
These developers appear to be new to the city. Apparently there is a St. Clair Avenue South.

In addition, they seem to have no problem with tacking on the words "Big Box" onto several of the proposed buildings.

That neighbourhood should rally together to encourage a more dense zone with less car dependancy because that stretch of St. Clair is slowly becoming suburbanized. From what I have seen, it is the only location in Toronto (west of Yonge) to have it's own McDonald's drivethrough, Country Style drivethough, and CIBC banking drivethrough.

The area is very bland and looks as though it belongs in the 905 region.
 
I hope that the buildings that front on Weston, Keele, and St. Clair West will appear as low-rise multi-use and be pedestrian and transit friendly. Not like those terrible big-box stores to the south, which turn their backs on St. Clair West and ignore transit users.
 
City Council is doing a poor job in addressing the manner in which land use is taxed, and as a result, these big box stores are being encouraged. The city could easily raise property taxes for retail along the St. Clair strip to encourage density and smart growth. Big box sprawl is an enormous improvement over slaughterhouses, but it falls short of its potential.

But taxes are not the only reason for this suburban mess. This area is cut up and cut off from the rest of the city by the railway tracks. Keele Street, between Dundas and St. Clair, has heavy traffic volume. In addition, because the Stockyards are still heavily industrialized, the area does not have enough of a residential population to warrant retail density as most shoppers are car-dependent, therefore lots of parking is needed. South of the tracks, there is a large residential population with only Keele St. and Runnymede as an access point to this area. The city should add another underpass west of Keele to promote foot traffic from Dundas into the Stockyards. Add another TTC route into the Stockyards, perhaps from High Park Station which has sufficient residential density (71 Runnymede buses run every 30 minutes on Saturday, horrible. St. Clair Streetcars provide transportation only to the east, therefore the entire western and southern residential population is cut off from this retail area, unless they drive.)
 
like everyone else here, I fail to see how this development is supposed to be different and progressive... Everything is marketing and hype these days, but saying something doesnt necessarily make it so.
 
The area is very bland and looks as though it belongs in the 905 region.


Its really not all that bland. Any retail built in the last five years is really boring, and any residential built in the last five years is really bad, but it still has that industrial Ring Road vibe pretty much in any direction except west on St Clair from Keele, and south on Keele from St.Clair--but only for a block.

Otherwise its really seedy and bleak in a very late 19th century way. I wouldn't say its charming--its actually incredibly depressing. I mean it was the home of some of the largest slaughterhouses in North America only a few decades ago, and for some reason this fact kind of hangs over the neighbourhood like a bad smell.

canadapackers2L.jpg

Canada Packers, looking northeast along St.Clair Ave.W. from Symes Rd. to Keele St. 1960

On the other hand, its only a few minutes from the Junction, which is an increasingly desirable and funky neighbourhood.

The next big development is almost certain to be just down Keele, across the road from the big box area at West Toronto Street. its a massive almost completely empty industrial plaza. It has a few odd textile wholesalers for tenants in the stretch across from the Staples.

I know of at least a half dozen artists who have cheap studios in that complex--most of them refugees from insane rents downtown.
 
I'm wondering what that long white gridded thing is on the left (around where the Phantom Hosiery HQ is now)--looks real Ford Highland Park or Fiat-Lingotto...
 
within a certain distance of that area, on a warm day with the right wind direction, the air smelled like rotten hot dogs or dirty penis. actually, those descriptions are an understatement. you can't really pinpoint the type of stench it was but it was nasty.

there was also a chute on gunns road where spinal chords, brains, intestines, etc. slide down into a open roof trailer and many, many birds would dive in for a treat.


that area looks like animal hell. can't wait for stem cell meat grown in long trays.

"yes, can i have 5 sheets of medium density beef"
 
there was also a chute on gunns road where spinal chords, brains, intestines, etc. slide down into a open roof trailer and many, many birds would dive in for a treat.

Both Gunns and Glen Scarlett still have remnants of the old slaughterhouse neighbourhood. there are small tanneries, renderers, and many small meat packing companies still in business there. and the birds still come...
 

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