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St Lawrence Market

Great article and pictorial.

I was aware that there was some planned redevelopment and that the LCBO would be expanding into the second floor of the old fish market. But I think it was incredibly thoughtful to focus on restaurant tenants for the ground floors of the two buildings. A string of cafes and restaurants with patios is a perfect fit here in what is literally the centre of the St. Lawrence Market and will increase it's liveliness and character.

The article is correct in stating that making it pedestrian-only shouldn't be difficult at all. As lively as this neighbourhood is, Market St. is naturally a walkway more so than a traffic throughfare. I would argue that most that use it are in the know and take it as a short cut or for loading/unloading at the market. It's almost instinctive to just walk down the street as though it were a walkway, but then strange to shift to the side onto the sidewalk.

I know some people may be surprised that a low rise building will be developed where the garage currently is. I think we've become used to towers popping up all over the place. But I think this is testament that the developers are trying to enhance the neighbourhood thoughtfully as opposed to "going big" with a substantial building. At first glance, I can't help but think that the building in the render looks boring. However, this development may end up being more about substance rather than form. Now in that particular render we don't see a pedestrian-only Market St nor any patios. So I'm sure there's more to it than what we see here.

If they do make it pedestrian-only and add charming cafes/restos with patios then it would be a world class improvement to St. Lawrence Market.
 
Ah yes, the Front Street LCBO. A great place to line up for a bad selection of warm beer. Back in the late '80s/early '90s there was a Brewers' Retail in the basement of the South Market fronting onto Market Street, but it was closed down. It seems the "Beer Store" prefers to have people residing in the Market area getting in cars to go to the River Street Beer Store or the Queen's Quay LCBO rather than walking for a cold round of beer. A change will be welcome.
 
Gregory Graham said:
Ah yes, the Front Street LCBO. A great place to line up for a bad selection of warm beer. Back in the late '80s/early '90s there was a Brewers' Retail in the basement of the South Market fronting onto Market Street, but it was closed down. It seems the "Beer Store" prefers to have people residing in the Market area getting in cars to go to the River Street Beer Store or the Queen's Quay LCBO rather than walking for a cold round of beer. A change will be welcome.
Click to expand...

I never knew that SLM Beer Store ever existed, must have been good times. The biggest kick in the arse for me, as a car-free person living in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood, is that I can walk to 4 LBCO locations to purchase beer but I am unable to walk to any Beer Store locations to get the deposits back on the bottles I buy. Sure I could take a $10 cab ride to River Street to get my $2 in deposits back, but oddly enough I never do that. So they all go into the recycle bin and the government keeps my deposits. Good scam.
 
I hear you CityPainter. I think the whole BeerStore/LCBO monopoly still assumes that people live an automobile-centred lifestyle. Time for them to wake up. Clearly, it is inconvenient for the LCBO to allow people to return even wine bottles to the LCBO, but this forces people to drive to the Beer Store or to forego their deposits. I'm resisting the urge to start to vent about the LCBO. If I start, I'll never stop.

As a neighbourhood though, St. Lawrence is the only area in the city I'd live in. And it is getting better all the time :)
 
Vu Retail

Does anybody know what retailers are moving into the spaces along Adelaide? I think I saw drywall deliveries the other week.
 
I noticed today that most of the first floor of The Sun building fronting onto King is for lease. Was there a tenant there before or was it offices of The Sun?
 
Jonny5 said:
I noticed today that most of the first floor of The Sun building fronting onto King is for lease. Was there a tenant there before or was it offices of The Sun?
Click to expand...

The whole building was occupied by the Sun. Apparently George Brown College has leased space in the building but I think it is on the upper floors so the King Street frontage will, eventually, be retail..
 
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Jonny5 said:
I noticed today that most of the first floor of The Sun building fronting onto King is for lease. Was there a tenant there before or was it offices of The Sun?
Click to expand...

The Sun, they squished all their offices on higher floors so they could attempt to lease some other areas.
 
Jonny5 said:
I noticed today that most of the first floor of The Sun building fronting onto King is for lease. Was there a tenant there before or was it offices of The Sun?
Click to expand...

The building used to belong to the Sun, but they sold it a year or two ago to a developer (First Gulf) and now the Sun only leases some office space on the upper floors. Their printing presses have not been in the building for a number of the years, so most of the ground floor was vacant. The southern side of the building is currently being converted to a large No Frills store which looks like it will be opening fairly soon. A while back I heard that the northwest corner will be a Vintages wine shop, but I'm not sure if that's confirmed. The rest of the retail is still waiting for tenants.

There is more info on the First Gulf site for the building, here: http://333kingstreet.com. There's also a UT thread specific to this project here.
 
CityPainter said:
The building used to belong to the Sun, but they sold it a year or two ago to a developer (First Gulf) and now the Sun only leases some office space on the upper floors. Their printing presses have not been in the building for a number of the years, so most of the ground floor was vacant. The southern side of the building is currently being converted to a large No Frills store which looks like it will be opening fairly soon.
Click to expand...

The No Frills is opening very soon. They have put up posters that they are hiring staff now.
 
Market Street makeover

Here are some photos I took from the roof of my building, looking down onto the old Fish Market restaurant across from St Lawrence Market (on Market Street) as they gut the building getting it ready for its makeover
 

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Real excited about this.

I think this small lane in the very centre of the heart of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood is Very Important. The plans are for restaurants and cafes along Market Street and to provide extra space for patios they would like to make Market Street pedestrian only. This is something that I really hope the city gets on board with. A cobblestone walkway, or something similar, with the Market on one side and cafes and restos on the other would be gold.
 
I also think this redevelopment is long overdue and makes so much sense it hurts. This street needs to be pedestrianized south of Front, as it is north of Front. Already it's pretty much impossible for cars to get up and down there anyway, so I don't think it would hurt traffic flow much, for those who worry about that. Cafes and patios would be perfect here. This area is already crushed with pedestrians on Saturdays, it could be so much more of a destination.

BlogTO posted some interesting renders of this project last year. I'm not sure how "for sure" these are but it's definitely encouraging:

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/09/market_street_gets_a_much-needed_makeover/

Additionally, The Bulletin posted an article that gave some more insights into the redevelopment.

http://www.thebulletin.ca/cbulletin/content.jsp?ctid=1000151&cnid=1002686
 
"While the BIA was less receptive to that no-traffic notion, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association general meeting a few days later was almost unanimous in favour of a completely traffic-free zone. Oberman won their applause"

Glad to hear that the neighbourhood is in unanimous agreement. This will take the area to a whole new level.
 
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