Thanks. My source has that the other way round, so maybe they're both coming at it from the other side of the equation, so to speak.
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Toronto Galleria On The Park | 154m | 48s | Almadev | Hariri Pontarini
- Thread starter Solaris
- Start date
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ponyboy
Active Member
Any idea how much was paid for this property? Hopefully high enough that we can safely say that this redevelopment will be better than a new smart centre. I'm assuming there will be a large residential component integrated with the retail. Will the developers go upscale of nearby Dufferin Mall as a competitive strategy? How upscale of retail can be supported by this surrounding community? Perhaps the Dufferin mall will expand to try to match upscale offerings of this new development?
Marcanadian
Moderator
My second year planning class actually had a project where we created a concept plan for this site. Straightening Dupont was on almost everyone's plan, so I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes a reality.
jcam
Active Member
That 407 freight bypass to free up a mid-town GO line is more and more appealing.
AlbertC
Superstar
Lots of childhood memories with the Galleria having grown up in the area just north of there. It's a truly unsolvable enigma, being a place forever trapped in the past but holds something very quintessentially '70-90s West End to it. However with the steep decline it's been on within the last decade especially by the loss of Zellers, this place has finally run its course. I'll still oddly miss it but this is definitely a move in the right direction. Look forward to what they have planned.
Tuscani01
Senior Member
Every second year project was that site it seems. lol
Froggy
Active Member
Living nearby, I am pretty (extremely) happy to see this mall being redeveloped, especially the huge parking lot/waste land around it - try walking across it on an extremely cold winter day or hot summer day, with cars not paying attention to you and an army of seagulls fighting over some Mcd's trash and your 10 bags of groceries... I hope this project will help the neighbourhood get rid of its not-so-justified suburban, post-industrial, Buffalo-like image because it is actually a really nice place to live. Also, the Galleria is essential to the community since it is our town centre, sort of. It has a grocery store, an LCBO, a pharmacy/post office, a Bank, a Dollarama, a pet store, a gym, a hair salon... So I hope this city centre spirit is kept when the site gets redeveloped.
Transit is often an issue when talking about this development, I agree, but if only the TTC were to restore full service on Dupont and Davenport: both take you to Dupont Station in 15 minutes during rush hour - with possible connections with the Bay/Christie/Bathurst/Ossington Buses, Spadina Station and even St George -, many commuters would probably use these routes over the crowded Dufferin bus to get to and from work. If you plan your trip properly, it only takes slightly over 30 minutes to get from Dupont and Dufferin to downtown. However, those buses are kinda useless now that they come every 20 minutes at best... It also is a 10 minutes walk to Dufferin Station, and there are bike lanes on both Davenport and Hallam that connect with Shaw and take you DT. It's a long shot but in a few years, the Eglinton Crosstown will have a stop at Dufferin, too.
Also, interesting to look at is this Toronto Staff Report from 2004 about a redevelopment proposal designed by Quadrangle Architects for this site. It mentions a mixed-used and phased development, 1,600 units in 6 buildings ranging from 6 to 19 storeys in height, townhouses, a few new streets, an extended Wallace-Emerson park, etc:
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2004/agendas/committees/ts/ts040608/it004.pdf
Finally, it seems like the northeast corner of the intersection (knock off furniture store) was sold a few months ago and should be redeveloped with commercial spaces (apparently of Tim Hortons and a Burger King). I also read somewhere on Twitter that The Brick, just north of the rail tracks, was sold (which could explain why everything has been on sale for months).
I'll try to post some pictures of the Galleria land this week, and also of the renovations they did these past few months (new entrance on the south side).
Transit is often an issue when talking about this development, I agree, but if only the TTC were to restore full service on Dupont and Davenport: both take you to Dupont Station in 15 minutes during rush hour - with possible connections with the Bay/Christie/Bathurst/Ossington Buses, Spadina Station and even St George -, many commuters would probably use these routes over the crowded Dufferin bus to get to and from work. If you plan your trip properly, it only takes slightly over 30 minutes to get from Dupont and Dufferin to downtown. However, those buses are kinda useless now that they come every 20 minutes at best... It also is a 10 minutes walk to Dufferin Station, and there are bike lanes on both Davenport and Hallam that connect with Shaw and take you DT. It's a long shot but in a few years, the Eglinton Crosstown will have a stop at Dufferin, too.
Also, interesting to look at is this Toronto Staff Report from 2004 about a redevelopment proposal designed by Quadrangle Architects for this site. It mentions a mixed-used and phased development, 1,600 units in 6 buildings ranging from 6 to 19 storeys in height, townhouses, a few new streets, an extended Wallace-Emerson park, etc:
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2004/agendas/committees/ts/ts040608/it004.pdf
Finally, it seems like the northeast corner of the intersection (knock off furniture store) was sold a few months ago and should be redeveloped with commercial spaces (apparently of Tim Hortons and a Burger King). I also read somewhere on Twitter that The Brick, just north of the rail tracks, was sold (which could explain why everything has been on sale for months).
I'll try to post some pictures of the Galleria land this week, and also of the renovations they did these past few months (new entrance on the south side).
AlbertC
Superstar
Not everything necessarily needs to be upscale in order to add value to an area. Dufferin Mall gets a mixed reputation but in reality they do quite well in serving the needs of the local mid-market community, young families, teenagers, and newcomers, etc. In terms of tenant base they are anchored by Wal-Mart and No Frills with majority of the other retail spaces always occupied. There's also been a gradual rise in larger and well known brands opening up here in recent years such as H&M, Forever 21, etc. I don't see an immediate demand for expansion but I am in favour in such a movement if they eventually do. Let the market decide.
investican
Active Member
Considering they paid 71 mil, for sure will be mixed use with some decent density.
agoraflaneur
Active Member
The Well on Dupont? Would love to see something innovative on this site. It will be very interesting to see the way in which plans for this site interact with Dufferin Mall. Will they try to compete with the middle class market? Go upscale? Discount? Dufferin Mall has improved markedly in the last five years as was mentioned, with lots of brands moving in, and it would be very hard to compete with the Subway traffic it enjoys. But both malls are a planning disaster totally disconnected from the (walkable) neighbourhood around them. Designed only for the car, they basically give the middle finger to the surrounding areas. From the earlier plan posted above, we can expect an enlarged park and much better integration with the street and the lane ways adjacent to the property - which seems obvious enough, but the insane planners of the time saw nothing wrong with it. As long as there is substantial residential and it isn't a "smart" centre, it will be a great addition to the 'hood, which has been itself gentrifying lately. Galleries are starting to move to Dupont and Dufferin, and there is a bit of a scene on Geary.
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muller877
Senior Member
What really kills Dupont is the strip of old car repair shops on the north side of the street. It would be hard to convince someone to open up something nice across the street from this.
If the developers could purchase these and straighten out Dupont there could be a row of condo's on both sides of the street. If not, the lots are too narrow for much.
A dream and won't happen but wanted to share the thought.
junctionist
Senior Member
If a developer wanted to do that, the car repair shop properties would probably be cheap. The land has limited development potential unless Dupont is straightened.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
Very true AC.....................
Galleria Mall, recently sold, harks back to a neighbourly era
Mall, one of the first of its kind in Toronto, remains an old-fashioned community gathering place, but probably not for long.
Walking into Galleria Mall feels a bit like stepping into a time capsule that was filled but not quite sealed in the 1970s.
There’s the pebbled finish on the exterior, of the type you don’t really see anymore, the polished floor that’s a shade of beige you might have seen on a Howard Cosell Wide World of Sports blazer, the arched stucco ceilings, the letters above the computer store written in that old-fashioned font that was used for futuristic tech stuff at the dawn of the personal computer era (the one that looks like the numbers printed on the bottom of cheques).
The building, at Dufferin and Dupont Sts., doesn’t appear to have seen many updates since it was opened on Aug. 15, 1972, but it’s still going, for now, and has some eccentric charms.
More................http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...d-harks-back-to-a-neighbourly-era-keenan.html
AlbertC
Superstar
Interesting to see the poll results in that article. The "never been/don't care" option is logical since most people in the GTA actually haven't been there before or interact with the area. But that's still a fairly large amount of people who chose the definite "Certainly would miss it".
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No doubt some of those voting mean "I will miss a shopping centre here" as opposed to simply "I will miss Galleria Mall", and we have no way of knowing how many are saying that. Once plans are finalized and renderings come out showing what will replace it all, and people realize that they're replacing the commercial space, then redo the poll and see what the results are.
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