Toronto King East Centre | 140m | 39s | First Gulf | WZMH

[junctionist]

The property values aren't there to justify the additonal costs of underground parking or off site warehousing. Too often urbantoronto can't see past their idyllic dreams and accept that reality just isn't there yet.

The Mini Dealership on King made use of the parking lot next door (site of Victory Condos)

We want to see great city building. A lot of effort has been made to restore and repurpose great heritage buildings and the area is much cleaner today. Being close to downtown, it seems like the area is undervalued. Sometimes, you just have to take the lead, instead of relying on the belief that the market is bound to make an underinvested area expensive in a generation or two.

It's not just a matter of the market, either. There's no culture of selling cars in North America beyond the suburban lot format and chain grocery stores assume a greenfield business model of building a cheap structure and a surface parking lot on some suburban lot and then look for ways of having the same format in the city. It doesn't mean it has to be that way.

 

[chriskayTO]

I just happened to be walking by the site with my camera and took a few shots. From what I can tell, the main work of gutting the interior to prep it for a new tenant is complete, and the exterior seems mostly done with new cladding on the Front St side, and provision for signage. Now there's work being done on the parking lot - they've ripped up all of the old asphalt. Contrary to other posts on this thread, it really does not appear that there will be a Princess St entrance. Yes, there are some doors, but they seem to be emergency stairwell exits. I hope I'm wrong, but it does not appear to be so at this point.

 

[DSC]

I just happened to be walking by the site with my camera and took a few shots. From what I can tell, the main work of gutting the interior to prep it for a new tenant is complete, and the exterior seems mostly done with new cladding on the Front St side, and provision for signage. Now there's work being done on the parking lot - they've ripped up all of the old asphalt. Contrary to other posts on this thread, it really does not appear that there will be a Princess St entrance. Yes, there are some doors, but they seem to be emergency stairwell exits. I hope I'm wrong, but it does not appear to be so at this point.
]

I was there about an hour earlier and thought exactly the same, no Princess St entrance - though one leading to a short 'bridge' over the garage entrance and then leading to the front (and apparently only public) doors would have seemed both possible and a good idea.

 

[chriskayTO]

The bridge idea crossed my mind, too, but I think the possibility of that is quickly fading since they built the main entrance facing west with no opening towards the east. Also the inclusion of lots of finishing work around the windows and the cladding indicates to me that the exterior is basically done.

Again, I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

[inside_man]

I was there about an hour earlier and thought exactly the same, no Princess St entrance - though one leading to a short 'bridge' over the garage entrance and then leading to the front (and apparently only public) doors would have seemed both possible and a good idea.

I don't understand, why you guys are worried about Princess street entrance?? How is it even relevant ???? I am so glad that No Frills is finally going to open in the neighbourbood. Oh man.... You guys have nothing else to do I guess..

 

[DSC]

I don't understand, why you guys are worried about Princess street entrance?? How is it even relevant ???? I am so glad that No Frills is finally going to open in the neighbourbood. Oh man.... You guys have nothing else to do I guess..

I am not 'worried' but it does seem a bit odd that people coming to the No Frills from north of Front Street will need to walk down Princess and along Front when they could have gone across some kind of bridge from Princess. If I were No Frills I would want to make access as easy as possible but ...

 

[inside_man]

I am not 'worried' but it does seem a bit odd that people coming to the No Frills from north of Front Street will need to walk down Princess and along Front when they could have gone across some kind of bridge from Princess. If I were No Frills I would want to make access as easy as possible but ...

They are not dumb man....They will consider everything and will have best solutions about basic things...Does anyone know when they are gonna actually open ?

 

[chriskayTO]

They are not dumb man....They will consider everything and will have best solutions about basic things...Does anyone know when they are gonna actually open ?

Who exactly do you mean by "they" and these "best solutions"? Are you implying that community members shouldn't be concerned about what decisions are made locally because "they" know best?

 

[androiduk]

`

 

[Homer]

The bridge idea crossed my mind, too, but I think the possibility of that is quickly fading since they built the main entrance facing west with no opening towards the east. Also the inclusion of lots of finishing work around the windows and the cladding indicates to me that the exterior is basically done.

Again, I'd love to be proven wrong.

Once again... there will be a Princess streat entrance, but it will be built by NoFrills when they do there interior.

 

[CityPainter]

I walked past a couple hours ago and all the asphalt paving of the lot is nearly complete. Looks pretty good.

I am still holding out hope there will be a Princess entrance as Homer describes. The inset area with the two fire doors could easily be knocked out and replaced with glass doors, I think. It would be very convenient for those pedestrians coming from King.

 

[CityPainter]

Once again... there will be a Princess streat entrance, but it will be built by NoFrills when they do there interior.

Today I noticed they have removed a vent and section of brick from one section of the wall on the Princess St. side of the building, approximately the size of a set of double-doors. They *could* be just replacing the vent with glass, but the fact that they also removed brick down to the street raises hope that it will in fact be the long debated mythological additional entrance.

Also, they've put up big signs advertising for an employment job fair scheduled for next week, so this is probably a pretty good sign that the grand opening is not too far away!

 

[299 bloor call control.]

Not sure if this has been posted (I've looked a few pages back), but it's now confirmed that a LCBO and Dollarama will be occupying the retail spaces adjacent to No Frills on the Front Street side of the building. It'll be interesting to see what this does to fill in the retail spaces fronting on King Street.

http://firstgulf.com/pdfs/333-King-Site-Plan.pdf

 

[Tee]

Thanks for the update. I love the fact that we're getting more retail in the area. I'm psyched!

 

[CityPainter]

Not sure if this has been posted (I've looked a few pages back), but it's now confirmed that a LCBO and Dollarama will be occupying the retail spaces adjacent to No Frills on the Front Street side of the building. It'll be interesting to see what this does to fill in the retail spaces fronting on King Street.

http://firstgulf.com/pdfs/333-King-Site-Plan.pdf

Really? Is this confirmed to be a full LCBO or just a Vintages/Wine Rack wine-only store as rumoured earlier? I'd love a full LCBO here, but I must admit I'm less enthused about the Dollarama. Sure I'll probably shop there for odds and ends but I'm not sure a big dollar store is really going to send surrounding property values skyrocketing, for those who care about that sort of thing.