Toronto Bathurst College Centre | ?m | 4s | RioCan | Turner Fleischer

Reading back through that article, it's a bit ironic that Martin Zimmerman said that quote, seeing as the Freshmart is a chain owned by Loblaw (which infiltrated the neighbourhood to some opposition, if I recall correctly). Besides, as far as food is concerned the neighbourhood abroad could use a proper grocery store. I love Kensington, and don't want to see it gentrified, but I do like my grocery stores to be modern, clean and competitively priced. Unfortunately the Freshmart is none of these, due to a lack of competition and proper space. To survive solely on a lack of competition isn't right, even in the K-Market.
 
Bathurst-3D.jpg

http://www.trinity-group.com/index.php?q=node/490

147k sqft
 
Marcanadian said:
Good news. Bathurst has a lot of potential. The stretch from Queen to Bloor has more than a few potential development sites, there are still several parking lots. I used to take the 501 streetcar almost daily and would notice the possibilities.
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agree.
Bathurst is strictly "downtown" right, but I never had one singe reason to ever go to that street for the past few years. I guess that's because there is hardly anything there.

Last time I biked along it, it struck me almost like East York. The street has no life, just low rise residential housing and some pizza-pizza and shoppers in between. Very boring looking, almost semi-suburbia like.

I really hope that Spadina can be cleaned up and beautified a bit, and some street life can be injected into Bathurst.
 
Why would a developer not include condos or rental buildings above the retail? I think it's a missed opportunity for the developer and the city. Bathurst could use the density. The houses on that street are some of the most run down houses you will see in Toronto. I say, just bulldoze everything from Harboard to Queen Street.
 
Not impressed. Looks like typical suburban retail boxes but lines up with the street. Hopefully the final, detailed design will be be aesthetically pleasing.
 
I'm a bit shocked that this isn't going a bit higher. There would be no worry about being out of scale or inappropriate if it were just a few floors higher. A mere three or five floors of residential above this would seem to be a natural and good enrichment of Bathurst. It would also be a good way to make an 'avenues' type building that could set something of a standard. Right now, that stretch of Bathurst is in generally bad form.
 
Maybe Rio-Can is waiting for the right opportunity to make this into a residential/mixed use development?

Just keeping the land empty costs money. But building a cheap new building could get a tenant that could generate revenue. OR Rio-Can could be building this so that it could receive a 'residential addition' in the future?
 
I am against building cheap disposable retail buildings, but also don't want to see a massive market-driven condo that overwhelms the area.

I would like to see something similar in scale and massing as Ideal Lofts just around the corner, or B Streets Condo furthur up on Bathurst.
Larger, family-sized condos would be great for this area too.
 
Too bad they couldn't also grab the Beer Store's land, the next parcel to the north. It's one of those lousy, suburban parking lot stores that could be anywhere. Even a larger RioCan development would be better than that.

I think RioCan could do ok, as long as there are a few small stores facing onto Bathurst to eliminate the Shoppers Drug Mart box type fake windows (see former Albany Clinic site on Danforth).

As for Target, it's at least theoretically possible. Target is not unused to multi-floor layouts in urban US locations (I've been inside such stores in LA and Brooklyn), also several former Zellers stores will be similar (Square One, Erin Mills, Bramalea).
 
Ramako said:
At least at 2 storeys it'll be a breeze to tear down 20 years from now when it's time to put up a mixed use tower or two.
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I wouldn't call this development disposable. It's three storeys with three levels of underground parking. I do wish they went a little higher. Office space wouldn't be out of the question with the hospital next door.
 
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