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Rumours have been swirling for months now in the commercial real-estate world of a downtown location for big-box retailer Target. In an interview with the Toronto Star today, Tony Fisher, President of Target Canada, broke the news that Target will indeed be locating a 145,000 square-foot store at Harbour Plaza, saying “It will be one of our largest stores in the entire country." The store will occupy two storeys and of the city block-sized new complex located between the Gardiner Expressway and Harbour Street east of York Street. Along with a total of 200,000 square feet of retail space, the Menkes-developed complex will include a 35-storey office tower named for its lead tenant Sun Life Financial, and two condominium towers of 62 and 66 storeys known as the Harbour Plaza Residences.
The massive big-box store, slated to open in October of 2016, will fill a void in the downtown retail market, which has a sizeable new residential component with the growing cluster of condominium towers spreading throughout Downtown. The Harbour Plaza Residences themselves will add 1,250 condominium units with direct indoor access to Target.
The whole complex will also be connected to the PATH system, soon to extend south from the Air Canada Centre via Harbour Plaza to RBC WaterPark Place III, another office complex now under construction directly to the south. The PATH system will cross streets on second level bridges in this area. Target will connect within the complex via a branded corridor, allowing direct indoor access from Union Station and the rest of the PATH network. Prominent Target signage will be displayed on the north side of the complex along the Gardiner Expressway, guiding potential customers to the store.
With an already large and still expanding untapped marked of downtown condo dwellers, and ever more office workers in the area, Target sees this location as a huge opportunity for growth despite the company's difficult entry into the Canadian market last year. In the Toronto Star interview Fisher stated “We know this is going to be successful [in the] long-term”.
Construction on the complex itself is making big steps forward. Work is currently underway on the project's ground floor, and concrete and steel will soon begin rising from the site.
We will return with more updates as construction progresses. In the meantime, additional information and renderings can be found in the project's dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.
