Toronto King East Centre | 140m | 39s | First Gulf | WZMH

Towered said:
Is this going to be built right to the sidewalk?
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No, take a look at the photos on previous page. The entrance is through/across the former (and future?) exterior car parking area and their loading docks are where the Sun printing plant was, in the building behind the wall with the mural.
 
JasonParis said:
Moved!
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Thanks!

DSC said:
No, take a look at the photos on previous page. The entrance is through/across the former (and future?) exterior car parking area and their loading docks are where the Sun printing plant was, in the building behind the wall with the mural.
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Wait... so this is going to be set back on a parking lot? In this location?! Ugh.
 
SP!RE said:
Wait... so this is going to be set back on a parking lot? In this location?! Ugh.
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It certainly seems that way. Also, from what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a way to get to the store without crossing the parking lot. I thought, perhaps, they would build direct pedestrian access from Princess St. It appears the planning failed in the same way it did by permitting the Staples at Berkley St with a giant parking lot encircling it.
 
Just when you think progress is being made, this area keeps getting screwed over. A suburban format No Frills in an already lacklustre building, right after the mirror copy Porsche dealership relocation, which presents the corner of King and Parliament with a parking lot. Disgraceful.
 
Too bad the setback isn't going to be public space, or even filled in as a building.

It's weird to see this happen when First Gulf did such a great, urbanist job in Uptown Waterloo.

I am more shocked than disappointed with this though, because, well-- who in this area will drive to get groceries? (Commuters on their way into the city from neighbouring cities after work?)
 
Certainly not No Frills regulars. I mean, if that's your home base for groceries, chances are you're not a car owner. Perhaps I'm just generalizing senselessly though.
 
Here we see what the plans are for the ground floor.

333KingEGroundFloorPLan.jpg


Here's an intriguing look at what might come in the future to the parking lots surrounding the east side of the existing building.

333KingEOfficePLan.jpg
 
There has to be an entrance from a sidewalk. It would be to dangerous to expect people to walk through a parking lot. I can't think of any other store in this city that doesn't have an entrance from a sidewalk. If someone got hit by a car, they would sue the ass off No Frills. There has to be an entrance on Princess Street or a sidewalk from there to an entrance. Having a parking lot on Front Street is rather unfortunate. That Staples has to go.
 
This is nothing like the Porsche dealership which is in the business of selling cars. As Ed has said, it is a repurposing of any existing structure. A suburban store won't survive a day on so few parking spaces either. This is more in line with the ownership of the No Frills taking advantage of cheaper spaces behind the prime King Street frontage.
 
Torontovibe said:
There has to be an entrance from a sidewalk. It would be to dangerous to expect people to walk through a parking lot. I can't think of any other store in this city that doesn't have an entrance from a sidewalk. If someone got hit by a car, they would sue the ass off No Frills. There has to be an entrance on Princess Street or a sidewalk from there to an entrance. Having a parking lot on Front Street is rather unfortunate. That Staples has to go.
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There will be an entrance from Princess Street, NoFrills is building it as part of their construction.
 
Homer said:
There will be an entrance from Princess Street, NoFrills is building it as part of their construction.
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Yes, if you refer up to the floor plan diagram in Ed007Toronto's post from yesterday so can see an entrance at the very left, opening on to Princess. The doors are already there, I suspect they will just change them to glass instead of the solid fire exit types that are there now.

I too was a bit disappointed that there was going to be a parking lot, but the one for No Frills will be extremely tiny compared to the size of the store, especially when you consider the delivery trucks coming in and out taking up space in front of the bay doors (the Sobey's Urban Fresh to the southeast has a similarly small parking lot but it's not even open to the public during regular delivery hours).

It is my understanding that the parking lot over on the other side, fronting Berkeley, is being marketed as a spot for development of new building(s), as you can see in some of the renders on the website. I imagine that it's only a matter of time before that lot, as well as the Staples building and lot across the street, are redeveloped. The Staples is perfectly convenient, but there's no reason it couldn't be on the ground floor of a larger mixed-use building with underground parking.
 
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