My own thoughts, for what they are worth.
If this area is to become a dynamic, heavily trafficked neighbourhood, it needs to become a popular destination for Toronto residents in its own right. "Through traffic" to the Harbourfront, the ACC or the Skydome / CN tower is not enough, being seasonal (Harbourfront) or only during events (ACC and Skydome). In addition, these people would not be spending much money outside of their ultimate destinations. While a lot of people will be passing through this area, few of them will do anything other than transit without stopping, on their way to other destinations.
One way to attract people to the area itself would be for it to become a shopping destination in its own right, similar to a smaller Kensington, Queen Street West or St. Lawrence neighbourhood. But the built form is totally different, consisting of a small number of high-rises instead of a district of low-rise residences converted to shops. I just can't see it easily happening. Perhaps if the ground levels of each of the area's buildings were to be dedicated to a multitude of small shops of all kinds -- not merely the usual dry cleaners / convenience stores that typically occupy what few spaces exist, but a diverse collection of music stores, clothing stores, book stores, cafes, and so on that between them would occupy almost all the available street frontage. However, given the limited number of actually available storefronts, it might make more sense to specialise in some market niche, such as art galleries, the idea being to give Torontonians a positive reason to visit this particular area, instead of some other place.
