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Parkway Mall Redevelopment (Credit Suisse, multiuse)

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Northern Light

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Hope I didn't miss a pre-existing thread on this.

From the latest Scarborough Mirror...an article (linked below) indicates that Credit Suisse is set to finance a major redevelopment and intensification of this lackluster urban mall.

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/article/59176
 
Excerpts from above article posted here in case the article is taken off-line:

Village centre development envisioned for Parkway Mall
Credit-Suisse representative says company is committed to plan

By MIKE ADLER
November 13, 2008 12:23 PM


Building apartments and offices on the site of Scarborough's Parkway Mall will create a "village centre" where people can live, work and shop, a representative of the property's Swiss owner says.

Zurich-based Credit-Suisse Real Estate Asset Management is planning to rezone and redevelop the Victoria Park Avenue shopping centre with around 2,000 residences and "a smaller mall with the shops you need for the day," fund manager Rainer Scherwey said in an interview.

[...]

Though the team is still in talks with the city placement of buildings, the proposal is said to call for nine buildings, including one of 21 storeys, plus 100,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of retail to replace the existing mall.

According to Thompson, who has called the plans "excessive" for the 18-acre site, Credit-Suisse is offering to build 40,000 square feet of community space and create a public park on the property.

Thompson will lead a working group of councillors from wards around the mall in considering the city's response.

Last week, Ward 40 (Scarborough Agincourt) Councillor Norm Kelly said Credit-Suisse's plan for Parkway seems "out of whack" with surrounding communities. "While I can support intensification, I can't support it to this extent," Kelly said Friday.
Click to expand...

It's a small community mall without much going for it, except it does have all the basics for the neighbourhood - like Shoppers, LCBO, banks, Tim Hortons, medical offices. I especially like the domed Dominion store and would suggest that it should be a heritage structure.
 
Interesting idea, Shon. There are no large grocery stores on the inventory, and it would be cool to preserve one.
 
I kind of wonder why it seems to be so under used. I grew up near the area and there's a high school there. Seems to be a lot of houses in the area, but not that many people at the mall. I wonder if it's the type of stores inside the mall.
 
The proposal seems to call for pretty intensified development, in this neighbourhood which consists mainly of single family homes with a few lower-rise apartments.

The mall is not a "destination", and would serve the immediate area only. It's less than 1 km. to another plaza on Parkwoods Village Drive, and less than 2 km. to the much larger "Victoria Terrace" plaza at Vic. Park and Lawrence. It's probably ripe for some kind of redevelopment, just not to this extent.
 
I think maybe malls in the area just don't work in general? I don't go to Parkwoods Village much if at all so I don't know how well it does there. But Parkway Mall seems kind of dead sometimes. Victoria Terrance Plaza seems pretty dead too. I live near it and I seldom see the parking lot full except at no frills sometimes or when there was a theatre there and it was busy years ago.
 
I grew up a little east of there too. It would be great to see the former Miracle Mart arch incorporated into whatever changes take place. For Scarborough, it's rather iconic.
As I recall, this was a larger than average strip mall anchored by Miracle Mart at one end, and K-Mart at the other. A few years after Scarborough Town Centre was built the mall was enclosed and expanded.
 
Observer Walt said:
The proposal seems to call for pretty intensified development, in this neighbourhood which consists mainly of single family homes with a few lower-rise apartments.

The mall is not a "destination", and would serve the immediate area only. It's less than 1 km. to another plaza on Parkwoods Village Drive, and less than 2 km. to the much larger "Victoria Terrace" plaza at Vic. Park and Lawrence. It's probably ripe for some kind of redevelopment, just not to this extent.
Click to expand...

That makes no sense considering the area is filled with apartment buildings, including a 21 storey tower one block north at York Mills & VP (which is where the 21 storey figure proposed for Parkway's tallest tower comes from).

There are absolutely no downsides to redeveloping plazas and mini-malls (Don Mills Centre, Shoppes on Steeles & 404, etc.) this way.
 
Archivist said:
Interesting idea, Shon. There are no large grocery stores on the inventory, and it would be cool to preserve one.
Click to expand...

Local councillor: Michael Thompson. I *believe* he's on the Toronto Preservation Board, and must certainly be aware of local phenomena like 54East. Maybe he'd be supportive...
 
That's good to hear. Perhaps someone familiar with the domed store should get in touch with him. It would be terrible if a unique architectural feature dating back to the early days of the postwar community was demolished.
 
Just as redevelopment MAY happen to help rejuvenate the Victoria Park / Ellesmere interesection ... the City of course puts in road blocks such as this "Inclusion on Heritage Inventory" whereby preventing the existing Dominions/Metro grocery store from any redevelopment ~ sigh :rolleyes:

Report to be considered by Scarborough Community Council on January 13 2009:

Staff Report
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17615.pdf
Attachment 1 - Map
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17616.pdf
Attachment 2 - Photographs
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17617.pdf
Attachment 3 - Reasons for Listing
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17618.pdf
Letter from Toronto Preservation Board
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17613.pdf
 
The city has actually been quite pro-active in heritage, which is great. I'm thrilled to hear this, even though (I'll admit) to not really having seen the building.

Now if only they would declare a chunk of Don Mills and save us a bunch of modernist buildings from the invasion of the chipboard chateaus.
 
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