Post: Satellite St. Lawrence Market idea for Yonge/Eglinton

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Hey, City Hall, uphere!

Adam McDowell
National Post

Saturday, November 10, 2007


The city, as we've seen in the past couple of weeks, has a growing appetite for market-style alternatives to grocery stores.

First we learned City Hall has begun to approach market stall operators with the idea of setting up a mini-St. Lawrence Market in Union Station (it's just one of many suggestions now in circulation for revitalizing the city's rail hub). Gloria Lindsay Luby, the city councillor sowing the idea at City Hall, said she was inspired by New York's Grand Central Station, which includes space for 13 high-end food retailers that hawk fresh victuals to commuters. "There was lovely fish," Luby said. "We could transfer part of the activity from St. Lawrence Market to Union Station, so people could grab fresh fish on their way home."

Then on Tuesday, a $55-million plan to remake the Don Valley Brick Works included a space for an organic market (as well as a new Jamie Kennedy restaurant).

These are great ideas. The slow food movement is building fast, and Torontonians' hunger for fresher food can only be expected to grow in future years.

So why not think bigger? How about another St. Lawrence-calibre market at the southwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton -- now the site of an ugly, decaying and disused TTC bus terminal. The transit commission owns the land, and it should be issuing a request for proposals regarding its redevelopment next year.

Today, residents of the bustling intersection are faced with a single choice for groceries on the commute home: a crowded, overstrained Dominion in the Yonge Eglinton Centre. Several condo highrises are either planned or under construction within a few hundred metres of the site. The new residents will bring their bellies with them, and the strain on Dominion will only get worse.

The Yonge-Eglinton Centre Review, a 2006 draft study from the city's planning division, suggested the corner be used for residential or commercial development with street frontage no higher than six storeys. The diagrams show towers sitting atop a podium. A market would fit nicely within the podium, and the developer would still have plenty of floors reserved for condos and/or professional offices.

This scheme has the endorsement of those who worked on the study. "I think that's an interesting idea," says James Parakh, a senior urban designer with the city. "The mix of uses is something that would be supported by the plan." Project manager Joe Nanos enthuses, "I think it's a great idea." Furthermore, the planners suggested a market could be set up at the abandoned terminal as an interim use. North Toronto, lovely fish could be closer than you think.

Nice idea, but I would be astonished it it ever happened. The value of that property must be enormous and I don't know if a farmer's market would generate enough revenue to make it profitable. Also, a large scale market like the St. Lawrence needs a lot of space and quite a few delivery bays, such as they have along the Esplanade. I can't see where these would go at Yonge/Eg, and big trucks continually turning in and out would snarl the already bad vehicle and bus traffic in that area even worse.

I'd put my money on seeing another chain grocery in that space in a few years, along with other high end commercial. Maybe a Whole Foods? If the area really is under-served (I agree it is) then Dominion's competitors will surely not let it stay that way for long.

An admittedly long-shot solution would have cargo trams using the Eglinton LRT to deliver goods .

I actually have pictures of what is envisioned for the former TTC bus station. Ill post them tomorrow!

i'd rather they do one down at queens quay east like near the loblaws down there... bring more ppl to that waterfront area

^ Grocery stores are needed where people live - they are not tourist attractions

Also, a large scale market like the St. Lawrence needs a lot of space and quite a few delivery bays, such as they have along the Esplanade. I can't see where these would go at Yonge/Eg, and big trucks continually turning in and out would snarl the already bad vehicle and bus traffic in that area even worse.

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Dominions doesn't seem to have a problem with deliveries so why would this place have problems with it?

Ed007Toronto said:

Dominions doesn't seem to have a problem with deliveries so why would this place have problems with it?

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Dominion orders from relatively few suppliers, and a large variety of products come at once on each truck. A market like the St. Lawrence has many different vendors ordering different products from different suppliers at different times. There are many more vehicles: compare the half dozen bays behind the St. Lawrence Market on the Esplanade, which are almost always busy, to the one or two garage doors you see at your average grocery store which most of the time are quiet.

True but that still doesn't mean they can't supply a market here. How many buses come into this station every day? Hundreds. Ten or 20 trucks a day would be meaningless in comparison.

A market would be a cool idea. Perhaps it could be set up on weekends on the top level of the massive parking garage at Canada Square.