Dwt Toronto has lost its position as retail mecca to 905

[newearthling]

Target would rather build a new one at St. Clair and Weston instead, essentially serving the same area, just slightly over two kilometres away.

Not for people without cars! St Clair and Weston is hard to get to if you rely on the ttc and live down by the lake. (Like me.)
The location on Roncey was great because it only took a 10 minute street car ride, or the same amount of time on my bike.
I guess Target doesn't care about people in that demographic.
And maybe that is the crux of the matter. Perhaps big box retailers want to focus on people with cars, because they are perceived to be more of the 'consumer' mindset, more addicted to shopping, richer, etc.?
edit: except that Walmart doesn't discriminate. lol

 

[W. K. Lis]

Good question about that old Dundas/Roncesvalles location. I don't know - I haven't been by there for a long while, but I do know Target didn't take that lease over.

The Bloor-Dundas area is undergoing an "Avenue" study, for redevelopement.

See link. There are several PDFs.

The Bloor Dundas 'Avenue' study will make recommendations for implementing the policies of the City of Toronto Official Plan. Recommendations may include area wide zoning changes, urban design guidelines and other area specific planning tools. City Planning staff will be responsible for developing new policy, zoning and urban design guidelines as appropriate to implement the recommendations.

 

[Johnny Au]

Not for people without cars! St Clair and Weston is hard to get to if you rely on the ttc and live down by the lake. (Like me.)
The location on Roncey was great because it only took a 10 minute street car ride, or the same amount of time on my bike.
I guess Target doesn't care about people in that demographic.
And maybe that is the crux of the matter. Perhaps big box retailers want to focus on people with cars, because they are perceived to be more of the 'consumer' mindset, more addicted to shopping, richer, etc.?
edit: except that Walmart doesn't discriminate.

...and there is a Wal-Mart on St. Clair and Runnymede.

To be fair, the new Target would be quite a walk from the hipster part of the Junction (Keele and Dundas).

 

[newearthling]

The Bloor-Dundas area is undergoing an "Avenue" study, for redevelopement.

See link. There are several PDFs.

Very Interesting!

 

[canarob]

Which makes it all the more frustrating that the condos under construction in the city centre area have no retail facing Highway 7. And the commercial development anchored by Whole Foods is a glorified single use power centre. They're trying to create a high density, walkable, mixed use city centre and they're screwing it up.

According to this, the Uptown Markham condos will have "live/work units [that]will front onto both Highway 7 and Birchmount Road extension"
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...ham-(Markham-Ctr-Times-Group-2x-20-7s-Kirkor)

 

[canarob]

This thread has made me realize that Highway 7 (the York Region section), is probably untouched in Canada in terms of the sheer amount of square footage devoted to retail and restaurants, and much more retail will be on the way with RHC, Langstaff, VCC, Markham Centre, Cornell Centre, etc. There's pretty much everything: old main streets, traditional malls, Chinese-focused malls, old school plazas, live-work units, big box retail, etc.

 

[taal]

I don't see it ... you see that repeated in MANY MANY suburbs ... check out Yonge near Newmarket ... or check out south Barrie ... that's just examples in Ontario.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Canarob you are also talking about a 35km long road from Donald Cousens to the 427, of course it has lots of stuff on it. compare it to Yonge running from the lake to King city..

 

[canarob]

I know it's a long road, but I would think it has far more square footage of retail than that stretch of Yonge. North of Bloor, there's really only small storefronts and then medium-sized clusters at some of the major nodes. The Eglinton Centre and Sheppard Centre are tiny compared to some of the big box complexes on 7.

 

[MisterF]

According to this, the Uptown Markham condos will have "live/work units [that]will front onto both Highway 7 and Birchmount Road extension"
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...ham-(Markham-Ctr-Times-Group-2x-20-7s-Kirkor)

That's true but live/work units generally don't make for very good retail units or a very engaging streetscape. They share traits of at grade residential and commercial with none of the advantages of either. They're a cop-out that residential developers offer up because all they know is selling homes. At grade residential or live/work is fine on side streets, but as others have mentioned, Highway 7 is a major commercial street. The city should have mandated proper commercial units along that frontage.

 

[taal]

I know it's a long road, but I would think it has far more square footage of retail than that stretch of Yonge. North of Bloor, there's really only small storefronts and then medium-sized clusters at some of the major nodes. The Eglinton Centre and Sheppard Centre are tiny compared to some of the big box complexes on 7.

I mean yes there is a lot ... particularly if you venture a little south / north on some major streets right off 7 (e.g. Woodbine / Warden / ...) lots of Asian centers.

 

[W. K. Lis]

It used to be that when someone wanted to open a business, they'll set up shop in an store and put their name on an overhead sign. Not these days. Instead, they sign a franchise business under someone else's name and open up, with the exact same goods and methods as someone else.

It also used to be that only one store was expanded and expanded, in one location. Maybe they'll open another store in a city in another province, but never within the same city limits. Not so today. Branch stores open up, with the same goods pop up close by not even in different cities.

The same stores and the same goods. No differences. Sometimes it comes to the point the the stores run out of the same goods in each store at the same time, so there's never what you need.