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When a new condominium tower rises in a city, it doesn't just bring new homes to a neighbourhood. It brings new people, and people need more than just their suites where they will nest. The City of Toronto makes sure that when these new buildings appear on a main street that some of those other needs of the new residents are taken care of by including commercial spaces at ground level, namely the shops, services and restaurants that are accessed from the sidewalk just outside the condo's lobby door.
Developers have to decide how they are going to handle these commercial spaces. Some opt to sell the retail units as condominium spaces as well, while others will retain ownership of them. The latter option is what The Daniels Corporation is doing at the HighPark Condominiums project on Bloor Street in Toronto's West End, as they believe that will give them the best ability to bring high quality retailers and restauranteurs who will enhance their development and the lives of both the residents and people who come to the area. We are right across the street from Toronto's most magnificent park after all.
At the HighPark Condominiums there are several thousand square feet dedicated to retail space that will face Bloor Street right across from High Park, on either side of the building's central courtyard. While it is not known yet how many units the space will eventually be divided up into, one name has been announced, and Daniels knew that more than just a press release was the way to do it.
To let their purchasers know what they will be able to enjoy as residents, Daniels invited them to an event at the HighPark presentation centre a couple of blocks down the road in Bloor West Village. It turns out that anyone moving into the building will be just steps away from the second location of a wood-oven Italian pizza and pasta restaurant from Oakville called 7 Enoteca.
That name may not be familiar to Torontonians, but Oakvillers know that 7 Enoteca serves wood oven flash-cooked pizzas made with "00" flour imported from Naples, along with full menu of rustic Italian specialties. Along with the famous Neapolitan pizza dough flour and the know-how, they restaurant imports highest quality Italian foods (and even delectable Spanish Iberico), but they make everything else from scratch or buy the very best locally produced artisanal products. On hand to impress guests were some of 7 Enoteca's local suppliers including Dolce Lucano of Woodbridge who produce superb Italian-style meats, and the Fifth Town Artisanal Cheese Company products of beautiful Prince Edward County.
Guests got a chance to talk with the food producers while sampling, and touring destinations like Fifth Town no doubt ended up with a long list of people adding them to their next PEC weekend getaway itinerary. A few lucky guests also won some dinners out at 7 Enoteca to tide them over until the building and the restaurant open here many months away still.
Can the evening be taken as a good sign that the rest of the retail units at HighPark Condos might offer the level of quality that was on display at the event? Here's hoping so, as there will be a lot to look forward to here, for residents, locals, and visitors to High Park alike once all is ready.
Want to know more about Daniels' HighPark Condominiums? We have plenty of information and renderings of the building in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to talk about the project? You can join in on the conversation by chooses either of the associated Forum thread links, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
| Related Companies: | Diamond Schmitt Architects, Isotherm Engineering Ltd., Land Art Design Landscape Architects Inc, The Daniels Corporation |
