sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
Huh? Why would Loblaws T&T do better at Yonge & Finch than Yonge & Sheppard. T&T should do much better at Yonge & Sheppard which has much more density.
Toronto Emerald Park Condos | 128.92m | 40s | Bazis | Rosario Varacalli
- Thread starter AlbertC
- Start date
Huh? Why would Loblaws T&T do better at Yonge & Finch than Yonge & Sheppard. T&T should do much better at Yonge & Sheppard which has much more density.
sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
Not uncommon for developers to do minor redesign during construction,... even if they trigger Committee Of Adjustment variances. Very uncommon during construction for developers do the type of redesign on the fly Bazis did at EmeraldPark:
- cut ceiling height to squeeze in more floors (Oct 2013 - already 8th floor forming)
- basically sell off common areas (loading docks, escalator, main doors) to anchor tenant, convert food court washrooms to freight elevator for anchor tenant (create hidden washroom in Mezzanine level) (Jan 2015,.... condo occupancy started March 2015)
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-rosario-varacalli.4829/page-143#post-1174817
Anyways,..... the answer regarding the other development (which might affect this development) has been posted onto that thread
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-riocan-quadrangle.17901/page-26#post-1249851
Last edited:
amnesiajune
Senior Member
Yonge & Sheppard has more density but not as much Asian population as Yonge & Finch. The area around Yonge & Sheppard is between 35% and 40% "East and Southeast Asian origin" according to census data. The population around Yonge & Finch is 60% East/Southeast Asian.
sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
Which census data? Would you have a link for this data?
amnesiajune
Senior Member
2011 census profiles. The three census tracts at Yonge and Sheppard are 33% (Northeast to Doris & Hillcrest), 34% (Southeast to the 401) and 45% (Northwest to Beecroft & North York Blvd, southwest to Beecroft & Poyntz).
NorthYorkEd
Active Member
If I was the LCBO, I'd be doing my damnedest to move over to the Sheppard Centre. Emerald Park seems to be nothing but a mess.
There needs to be an LCBO at Yonge and Sheppard but does it matter where exactly? LCBO is definitely a retailer that can be pretty much anywhere. It has a pretty dedicated client base
Mint
New Member
The food court is probably in the worst possible location for attracting foot traffic. It's kind of sad.
Suiseiseki
New Member
Yonge/Finch already has Food Basics, and a Galleria/No Frills just a short drive north. All of which reach the pricepoints for all levels.
For Yonge & Sheppard, the only grocery stores serving the area are Whole Foods and Loblaws. 96% of the residents in the area cannot afford to shop at Whole Foods, and Loblaws is only marginally better. Yes I know Loblaws carries a few T&T products such as buns and has an entire aisle dedicated to bottled asian sauces, but that is not what asians are looking for.
T&T would crush Whole Foods on every level. Except maybe customer service.
sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
I think you're really confused by seeing more "East and Southeast Asian" around Yonge & Finch,.... but that's because it's KoreaTownNorth!
Note: Not all "East and Southeast Asian" are the same!!! There are cultural and food/dietary difference between different "East and Southeast Asian" nationalities.
Loblaws' T&T is a Chinese grocery store,... Galleria Supermarket is the Korean equivalent.
A Loblaws' T&T Chinese supermarket at Yonge & Finch would be extremely disruptive to KoreaTownNorth; in that T&T act as a huge magnet that not only draw in a large number of customers,... but also many other Chinese retailers and businesses will set up near T&T. That's exactly what we saw at EmeraldPark first floor retail,... just the rumour (never any "confirmation") of Loblaws T&T Chinese supermarket being the anchor tenant,.... resulted in all the EmeraldPark first floor Pacific Mall type cubicle units being sold out like hotcake to Chinese investors & mom&pop shops via VIP sales before they even officially came to market!
Yonge & Finch - KoreaTownNorth is already a successful retail district,... why mess with it? On the other hand, EmeraldPark retail levels need lots of work,.... including anchor tenant.
Demographically, each of the area's census tract shows for every person of Korean origin there's 2-3 person of Chinese origin. Area condos are always marketed at this demographic, yet,.. there's no area supermarket to service this demographic. If there was,... we'd be seeing a bigger condo boom around here!
Last edited:
sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
The strategy to put food court in the back is to generate foot traffic through the mall for the other mall tenants (problem is most folks don't even realize EmeraldPark has a mall!). Anyways, we've already seen this strategy fail at North York City Centre (open late 1980s) where their original food court was in the lower concourse close to Beecroft,... idea was to force people from Yonge Street to walk through the mall and generate foot traffic for the other mall tenant,... but once EmpressWalk (no food court, just Wendy's, restaurants and Loblaws) open on the other side of Yonge Street in late 1990s the North York City Centre original food court quickly became deserted (recently new food court set up on ground floor middle)!
Hmmm,.... so when is the more food oriented Yonge-Sheppard Centre reopening again,.....
Another reason why this strategy hasn't worked at EmeraldPark, 80% of EmeraldPark Yonge Street frontage units are actually food vendors (with their own tables and chairs!!!),... so why would folks go to the food court in back???
NorthYorkEd
Active Member
There needs to be an LCBO at Yonge and Sheppard but does it matter where exactly? LCBO is definitely a retailer that can be pretty much anywhere. It has a pretty dedicated client base
True, but if I was a retailer, I would definitely opt for Sheppard Centre over the complete cluster(bleep) that is Emerald Park. It'll be the much "sexier" (?) location -- freshly renovated mall, brand new Longos and LA Fitness, closer to the main subway entrance, more foot traffic, etc.
Emerald Park is, for all intents and purposes, a disaster. Which is sad for all the good folks who bought in.
On a positive note, an LCBO at Emerald would draw more people in, who will finally realize that there are more shops and restaurants in there.
amnesiajune
Senior Member
There's no LCBO-sized unit available in the actual mall. The only retail units large enough are on Sheppard, but separated from the rest of the mall.
The other problem is that the LCBO would likely have to pay market rent in the Sheppard Centre. In Emerald Park they would've paid well below market rent because Metro wanted to use them to pull in customers.
sunnyraytoronto
Senior Member
At EmeraldPark, LCBO would be a tenant of Metro (landlord); how often has LCBO been a tenant of Metro???
At Yonge-Sheppard Centre, LCBO would be a tenant of RioCAN who leases out their mall space. LCBO is already a tenant at many RioCAN mall/plaza/properties,... thus, LCBO would definitely NOT be paying market rate. Anchor tenants at multiple RioCAN locations like LCBO gets sweet deals from RioCAN.
