blahblahblah
Active Member
Well that is good news.
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The Beach(es)
- Thread starter christiesplits
- Start date
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Well, looks like Bussin's antics in getting Foulidis a 20 year lease are coming back into the news.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...-boardwalk-resto-now-home-to-tim-hortons.html
I remember the Beach(es) as a lad in the 1970s and 1980s, before the on-beach restaurants, volley ball tournaments, festivals, etc., when it was just the rec space of an otherwise quiet neighbourhood. I miss those days.
Skeezix
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That's just sad.
flonicky
Senior Member
You could argue that attempts to preserve things the way they were are at the root of why the Beach feels like such an underachieving part of the city (and especially weak compared to other beach communities both inside and outside of Canada). But there's some hope: http://www.beachmetro.com/2016/04/05/queen-street-restaurant-rules-reconsidered/
taal
Senior Member
How's retail doing on this stretch of Queen I know last year there were quite a few new for lease signs in various stores for whatever reason, still the case ?
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Tons unfortunately, but not to be unexpected when retail beyond coffee shops, the Beach(es) has now mostly become about attracting outsiders, not the locals.
grey
Senior Member
The restaurants and cafes that have managed to stay in business are famously mediocre. I think this quote from Mary Margaret McMahon nails it (from the community newspaper article flonicky linked above):
taal
Senior Member
That's sad; I know that wasn't the case 3/4 years back; But maybe even then the writing was on the wall, that's when it had transitioned into appealing to outsiders so to speak, which I don't view as necessarily bad in moderation; Anyway, I think for a year everything looked good, a mix of old and new; But then both started to disappear.
Folks claim Queen W has went through that but Queen W honestly has very little vacancy even with all the talk, I'm talking about the entire stretch from University to the Gladstone; Of course there are some parts that are a bit worse vacny wise but for the most part that's not the case for some reason; Mind you its not apples to apples at all; Queen W gets a ton of outsiders all the time and has much denser neighborhoods adjant
Folks claim Queen W has went through that but Queen W honestly has very little vacancy even with all the talk, I'm talking about the entire stretch from University to the Gladstone; Of course there are some parts that are a bit worse vacny wise but for the most part that's not the case for some reason; Mind you its not apples to apples at all; Queen W gets a ton of outsiders all the time and has much denser neighborhoods adjant
Torontovibe
Senior Member
This night time walk through The Beaches contains a few new condos going up.
Torontovibe
Senior Member
This is one of the newer residential streets in the Beaches but it's looking good!
Torontovibe
Senior Member
AlbertC
Superstar
'Who the hell is going to pay that?': Longtime Beach business owner blasts rising commercial rents
Harold Weisfeld takes CBC Toronto on a tour of The Beach's empty storefronts and blames 'piggy' landlords
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/...wner-blasts-rising-commercial-rents-1.4127804
Harold Weisfeld takes CBC Toronto on a tour of The Beach's empty storefronts and blames 'piggy' landlords
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/...wner-blasts-rising-commercial-rents-1.4127804
Skeezix
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It's the same thing on the Danforth and Queen Street West. More vacancies than ever.
christiesplits
Senior Member
That's a good point. I always felt like the Beaches were a streetcar suburb that had the sensibility of a modern suburb. I reckon most families in the Beaches shop at the big boxes on Leslie or Laird rather than support what remains of the small businesses on Queen.
I had dinner recently at Carters Landing, a creation of one of the many 'premium casual' hospitality groups that have taken over suburban power centres. At my table I felt like I was in Oakville or Vaughan, not the old quaint Beaches I recollect from as recent as the 90s.
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GKW
Active Member
By Sammy HudesStaff Reporter
Fri., May 26, 2017
While high rents may have led to empty storefronts aplenty in the Beach, new businesses continue to spring up just north on the Danforth.
Dozens of properties which once housed grocery stores, restaurants and shops now display “for rent” signs in the windows along Queen St. E between Woodbine and Victoria Park Aves.
The commercial vacancy rate in the area has risen from about four per cent to 10 per cent during the past five to seven years, according to Suzanne Beard, chair of the Beach Village BIA.
She said more than 30 of the 300-plus commercial properties currently sit empty.
Ken Galbraith has owned Buds Coffee Bar at the corner of Queen St. and Elmer Ave. since 2014. But with his rent set to double from its current rate of $3,000 per month under a new landlord, he’s now looking to relocate.
“We make a living with the current rent but doubling with no improvements would just eat the whole profit,” Galbraith said. “The Beach is a great place to do business, it’s just some landlords are greedy and they do want to get the most they can and they don’t care if their space is empty because they’re waiting for, say, a big corporation to come in.”
Galbraith’s current landlord Harold Weisfeld has owned Ends, a discount clothing store, since 1982. Having sold his Beach properties, Weisfeld is retiring and closing up next month.
He said rents in the neighbourhood have “gone crazy,” but that’s not the only reason so many businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
“Number one: online, online, online,” Weisfeld said. “The traffic isn’t there like it used to be. People are using online, especially younger people.”
Whereas Ends might have brought in $10,000 on a typical Saturday five years ago, Weisfeld said he made about a fifth of that last Saturday.
“There’s no people,” he said. “A few come here on a Saturday, where you used to see it jammed. It’s a great area . . . but it just isn’t what it was. The last five years have been very hard.”
But not far from the Beach, the past half-decade has been very different for local businesses.
The Danforth’s vacancy rate has dropped to just six per cent from 17 per cent in 2012, according to Oliver Hierlihy, manager of the Danforth Mosaic BIA, which serves the area that spans from Jones to Westlake Aves., along the Danforth.
“The Danforth was kind of a forgotten neighbourhood for a while,” said Hierlihy. “What’s really happened is you have a number of businesses who are looking for a reasonable rent, a place where they can open up their mom and pop shop and they found Danforth.”
Michelle Belisle, owner of Sauce on the Danforth, a bar just west of Monarch Park Ave., recalled opening five years ago when there was little else to do in the neighbourhood.
“We were kind of first on the block to open up,” said Belisle, also vice-chair of the BIA.
She said cheap rent at the time and being along the subway line made it an easy choice to move in.
“This block that we’re on was much less developed 10 years ago. There really wouldn’t be a reason to come on this block,” she said. “In terms of foot traffic, there’s definitely more people from other areas of the city that are coming to this block and that probably is in large part to all the other businesses that have opened since we opened. There’s more for people to choose from.”
The average cost to rent a commercial property is about $2,500 per month, according to Gay Stephenson, a board member of the Danforth East Community Association.
Stephenson cites another major reason for the neighbourhood’s success. Five years ago, as dozens of storefronts sat empty, the community association began a pop-up shop project to fill them with temporary businesses at a discounted rent cost.
“These new businesses were often starting up, (owners were) moving the business from online or just had a new idea to try out and wanted to test the market,” she said.
Volunteers would clean up and beautify the spaces, where new businesses would move in anywhere from a weekend to six months.
Stephenson said the hope was that these businesses would stay on permanently. Some, like The Handwork Department, a handmade and vintage goods store, did just that.
“This neighbourhood, when we were opening, didn’t really have very many interesting little shops,” said Maggie Krawczyk, owner of the store. “Mostly it was just coffee shops and bars, nothing really very fun.”
Krawczyk said she initially planned to stay open for three months in 2015, but decided to stay, having moved a couple doors down, because of the new opportunities that the Danforth East presents as it continues to grow.
“People don’t really think of the Danforth as being a cool place to shop,” she said. “The Danforth is how you get to where you’re going. We’re trying to make something here where people can shop and enjoy the neighbourhood.
“The other stores kind of help to bring more diverse crowds to even our store. It’s becoming more of a community, I’d say.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...h-close-danforth-east-businesses-prosper.html
Fri., May 26, 2017
While high rents may have led to empty storefronts aplenty in the Beach, new businesses continue to spring up just north on the Danforth.
Dozens of properties which once housed grocery stores, restaurants and shops now display “for rent” signs in the windows along Queen St. E between Woodbine and Victoria Park Aves.
The commercial vacancy rate in the area has risen from about four per cent to 10 per cent during the past five to seven years, according to Suzanne Beard, chair of the Beach Village BIA.
She said more than 30 of the 300-plus commercial properties currently sit empty.
Ken Galbraith has owned Buds Coffee Bar at the corner of Queen St. and Elmer Ave. since 2014. But with his rent set to double from its current rate of $3,000 per month under a new landlord, he’s now looking to relocate.
“We make a living with the current rent but doubling with no improvements would just eat the whole profit,” Galbraith said. “The Beach is a great place to do business, it’s just some landlords are greedy and they do want to get the most they can and they don’t care if their space is empty because they’re waiting for, say, a big corporation to come in.”
Galbraith’s current landlord Harold Weisfeld has owned Ends, a discount clothing store, since 1982. Having sold his Beach properties, Weisfeld is retiring and closing up next month.
He said rents in the neighbourhood have “gone crazy,” but that’s not the only reason so many businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
“Number one: online, online, online,” Weisfeld said. “The traffic isn’t there like it used to be. People are using online, especially younger people.”
Whereas Ends might have brought in $10,000 on a typical Saturday five years ago, Weisfeld said he made about a fifth of that last Saturday.
“There’s no people,” he said. “A few come here on a Saturday, where you used to see it jammed. It’s a great area . . . but it just isn’t what it was. The last five years have been very hard.”
But not far from the Beach, the past half-decade has been very different for local businesses.
The Danforth’s vacancy rate has dropped to just six per cent from 17 per cent in 2012, according to Oliver Hierlihy, manager of the Danforth Mosaic BIA, which serves the area that spans from Jones to Westlake Aves., along the Danforth.
“The Danforth was kind of a forgotten neighbourhood for a while,” said Hierlihy. “What’s really happened is you have a number of businesses who are looking for a reasonable rent, a place where they can open up their mom and pop shop and they found Danforth.”
Michelle Belisle, owner of Sauce on the Danforth, a bar just west of Monarch Park Ave., recalled opening five years ago when there was little else to do in the neighbourhood.
“We were kind of first on the block to open up,” said Belisle, also vice-chair of the BIA.
She said cheap rent at the time and being along the subway line made it an easy choice to move in.
“This block that we’re on was much less developed 10 years ago. There really wouldn’t be a reason to come on this block,” she said. “In terms of foot traffic, there’s definitely more people from other areas of the city that are coming to this block and that probably is in large part to all the other businesses that have opened since we opened. There’s more for people to choose from.”
The average cost to rent a commercial property is about $2,500 per month, according to Gay Stephenson, a board member of the Danforth East Community Association.
Stephenson cites another major reason for the neighbourhood’s success. Five years ago, as dozens of storefronts sat empty, the community association began a pop-up shop project to fill them with temporary businesses at a discounted rent cost.
“These new businesses were often starting up, (owners were) moving the business from online or just had a new idea to try out and wanted to test the market,” she said.
Volunteers would clean up and beautify the spaces, where new businesses would move in anywhere from a weekend to six months.
Stephenson said the hope was that these businesses would stay on permanently. Some, like The Handwork Department, a handmade and vintage goods store, did just that.
“This neighbourhood, when we were opening, didn’t really have very many interesting little shops,” said Maggie Krawczyk, owner of the store. “Mostly it was just coffee shops and bars, nothing really very fun.”
Krawczyk said she initially planned to stay open for three months in 2015, but decided to stay, having moved a couple doors down, because of the new opportunities that the Danforth East presents as it continues to grow.
“People don’t really think of the Danforth as being a cool place to shop,” she said. “The Danforth is how you get to where you’re going. We’re trying to make something here where people can shop and enjoy the neighbourhood.
“The other stores kind of help to bring more diverse crowds to even our store. It’s becoming more of a community, I’d say.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...h-close-danforth-east-businesses-prosper.html