North York City Centre (Yonge & Sheppard)

taal · Aug 16, 2025

Mind you, I suspect that decision was made prior to wholefoods closing

- not clear to me if that happened more recently they would have considered taking the space and leaving Loblaws.

It'll be interesting to debate what could take the wholefoods space - my prediction - it'll stay vacant for some time !

Northern Light · Aug 16, 2025

sunnyraytoronto said:
T&T bailed on lower level of NorthYorkCityCentre because:
- it would be expensive to repair (water-damage), retrofit (light-retail/office to supermarket) and transferring goods from loading docks would be a crap show,...
- lots of new mid-blocks retail space coming online (Ellie Condo & 90K-sqft at Pearl Place),...
- with Loblaws & ShoppersDrugMart across the street at EmpressWalk - local monopoly forming,... a T&T would really just take business away from the Loblaws,... where customer volume dropped after cheaper FoodBasics opened Oct 2021 at EmeraldPark south of Sheppard which really didn't happen as much when similar price-points Longos (July 2019) and WholeFoodsMarket (Sept 2014) opened at Yonge & Sheppard. This Loblaws store has been under-performing based on sales & profit margin per square footage,...

Now it looks like the Loblaws at RioCan EmpressWalk will close on October 26,... T&T will be taking over the Loblaws EmpressWalk retail space - well, most of it! Aiming to open Summer 2026,... but T&T's opening aim is really pissing in the dark!!!

The Loblaws is about 75,000-80,000sqft plus another 6,000sqft in P1 Parking level. Full sized T&T needs about 50,000sqft (their Urban-Format at 27,000sqft College near Spadina & 31,000sqft Edward near Yonge can't carry full selection/inventory),... so about 30,000sqft left over to divide/sublet for other retail usage.

Oh,... and if you're not a fan of all those little Asian retail shops/restaurants along Yonge,... you ain't seen nothing yet!!! Wherever a T&T opens - it's like the MotherShip, and all these other little Asian retail shop/restaurants/services opens nearby,... to form like a little Chinatown,...

You didn't put this in the Grocery Store thread, did you? Then I would have seen it.

I don't peruse neighbourhood threads that often.

On the size.. the T&T they opened in Washington State is 76,000ft2

sunnyraytoronto · Sep 10, 2025

A couple weeks T&T's application for Building Permits (Building Additions/Alterations, Mechanical, Plumbing, Drain) became public,... see anything wrong?

They all listed the address at 5059 Yonge! CityStaff has fat fingers,...
- 5059 Yonge is the address of the old Michael's store,... and even though the site has flipped a number of times (DeBoer's -> First Capital Realty (didn't like dealing with idiot CityStaff) -> DOV FieldGate Urban -> DOV Sevoy),... it will be Re-Developed - eventually, within the next 5-10 years,.. so why would a T&T pay Double Rent here for ground-floor Yonge frontage without direct Subway access - which they've been searching for the last 16 years for here in North York Centre?

They've now been corrected to 5095 Yonge,.... which is the address of Loblaws at Empress Walk!

sunnyraytoronto · Oct 17, 2025

EmpressWalk Loblaws closing Oct 25 at 6 pm

Northern Light · Nov 6, 2025

sunnyraytoronto said:
The Loblaws is about 75,000-80,000sqft plus another 6,000sqft in P1 Parking level. Full sized T&T needs about 50,000sqft (their Urban-Format at 27,000sqft College near Spadina & 31,000sqft Edward near Yonge can't carry full selection/inventory),... so about 30,000sqft left over to divide/sublet for other retail usage.

On the size....the T&T here will be 66,000ft2 , the largest location to date in Ontario.

Biggest bakery section yet. (Ontario)

Biggest beauty section yet (Ontario)

Specialty items including Peking Duck

chrisw · Nov 6, 2025

Among the store's features, T&T states that this location will feature the largest bakery section in Ontario, offering over 150 varieties of baked goods.

The new T&T location is also set to feature the largest Asian beauty section in the province, offering thousands of cosmetic products from across Asia.

Ontario's largest T&T Supermarket is gearing up to open in a Toronto mall

The biggest T&T Supermarket location in Ontario is gearing up to open in a Toronto mall. The October closure of a longstanding Loblaws location in th…

www.blogto.com

sunnyraytoronto · Nov 22, 2025

All T&T Building Permits granted on October 27,.... 3 months after submission,..... unlike H-Mart at Aoyuan's M2M which took 18-months because they didn't know what they're doing!

Right now, it looks like the Loblaws is responsible for stripping all their fixtures and returning a bare shell,... typically a 3 month job (say to end of January 2026),... then it typically takes 6 months to construct & stock a new supermarket to opening (end of July 2026?),... so T&T's Fall 2026 opening is a bit on long side - then again, T&T's opening at Fairview and Edward St were both delayed! And with all the delays at Aoyuan M2M's H-Mart,... finally getting permits last Summer, and very slow progress, I wouldn't be surprised if this T&T opens before H-Mart!

PL1 · Nov 22, 2025

sunnyraytoronto said:
All T&T Building Permits granted on October 27,.... 3 months after submission,..... unlike H-Mart at Aoyuan's M2M which took 18-months because they didn't know what they're doing!

Right now, it looks like the Loblaws is responsible for stripping all their fixtures and returning a bare shell,... typically a 3 month job (say to end of January 2026),... then it typically takes 6 months to construct & stock a new supermarket to opening (end of July 2026?),... so T&T's Fall 2026 opening is a bit on long side - then again, T&T's opening at Fairview and Edward St were both delayed! And with all the delays at Aoyuan M2M's H-Mart,... finally getting permits last Summer, and very slow progress, I wouldn't be surprised if this T&T opens before H-Mart! View attachment 697755

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T&T is owned by Loblaws... Surely they don't need to have a bare space between the Loblaws closure and the start of T&T fit out!

sunnyraytoronto · Nov 22, 2025

PL1 said:
T&T is owned by Loblaws... Surely they don't need to have a bare space between the Loblaws closure and the start of T&T fit out!

Yes, Loblaws own T&T,... but T&T operates separately, different management, different supply chains,... Loblaws is just a rich uncle who help T&T finance expansions.

Read what I posted about Loblaw's Independent City Market closing November 2020 then having replacement T&T open August 20, 2021,... "it took them 9 months to redo a small UrbanFormat store,.. here, they ripped out the 4 year old *relatively new* black wall tiles and red flooring (Independent City Market colours) to install new green wall tiles and white/cream flooring (T&T colours)",.... they gutted a 4 year old store,... just to change wall tile and floor colours. Here at EmpressWalk, they'll be gutting out a 25 year old Loblaws store,...