Toronto West Block Est. 1928, The LakeShore, and The LakeFront | 130.75m | 41s | Choice Properties | a—A

khristopher said:
Why do you hope it turns out to be that? I mean other than the name.
We do not have a number of Loblaws stores in the downtown core. There is one at Jarvis and Queen's Quay, but that is NOT the core at all. Nobody even lives down there.
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You don't consider Jarvis and Queen's Quay to be part of the core? I do. For me it's just the variety. I've never been in a real Canadian Superstore, so it's just one more option. By the way, for me the downtown core is from Duffrin, to The Don River and from Davenport to the lake.
 
khristopher said:
Why do you hope it turns out to be that? I mean other than the name.
We do not have a number of Loblaws stores in the downtown core. There is one at Jarvis and Queen's Quay, but that is NOT the core at all. Nobody even lives down there.
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Actually a large number of people live within easy (if not very pleasant) walking distance of the Lower Jarvis Loblaws and it is surprisingly busy. It may not be in "the core' to someone living west of University but I think the core would probably be defined by MOST people as being Parliament to Bathurst and Bloor to the Lake. (And I do not disagree with Torontovibe's expanded core noted in his comment.)
 
I often shop at that Loblaws; a lot of people bike there to shop. And yes, it's often very busy.
 
This morning, when I was coming in on the streetcar, it appeared like they were taking down the backboard on the hoarding (west side of building) that was put up last week. There also hasn't been any visible change in the last week - is this really going to start? It might be another false alarm...
 
Some restorations actually remove brick and reinstall it. I believe this was undertaken with the Gooderham Building, and it's a slow process. It isn't necessarily like the Bishop's Block case, where the building is demolished but the facade is carefully dismantled, restored, and then rebuilt.
 
Loblaw ready to tear down historic warehouse - Thestar.com

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January 12, 2011 17:01:00

Patty Winsa******

Urban Affairs Reporter*****

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Loblaw is preparing to redevelop its historic warehouse on Lake Shore Blvd. W. at Bathurst St., although the city hasn’t approved the grocery giant’s latest plan to build a store.

City planners say they’re baffled as to why the company is erecting construction hoarding along the west side of the Loblaw Groceteria Company warehouse on the intersection’s northeast corner.

“They haven’t contacted us for any permits. We just don’t know what they’re doing.†says city planner Jamaica Hewston. “We don’t know anything about (the hoarding).â€

In December, the company updated its original 2004 rezoning application, but like the first proposal, the new plan calls for a partial demolition.

Loblaw wants to take down the entire warehouse, which was designated as a heritage property by the city in 2001, before restoring the west and south facades, one of the key sticking points for city approval.

The four-storey Art Deco warehouse has been vacant since 2000, when the Daily Bread food bank moved out. The brick exterior is in bad shape and some of the distinctive stone detailing at the top is crumbling.

The city rejected the company’s controversial 2004 proposal to completely demolish it so as to construct a Loblaw superstore.

That decision was appealed to the OMB in 2006, but no hearing took place because the company was still negotiating with the city and got sidetracked by other developments.

Planning staff say they haven’t had a chance to review the company’s latest submission, which, similar to the original proposal, calls for a two-storey grocery store with retail and company offices above.

But dismantling the building is “still considered a demolition,†said Hewston.

“It could be another year or two†before the project is given the go-ahead, she said. Because the building has a historical designation, preservation staff will have to report to council on the company’s demolition plans.

Despite that, Loblaw said in an email Wednesday that it is getting ready to reconstruct the property.

“We are moving forward on municipal approvals for a redevelopment of our Bathurst Lakeshore site, and hoarding has been erected on site in order to prepare for construction at a later date,†said Julija Hunter, the company’s vice president of public relations. “At the appropriate time, we’d be happy to share more information.â€

The warehouse was originally constructed in 1927 as Loblaw’s manufacturing centre and head office. The company, founded by Alliston native Theodore Pringle Loblaw and his partner Milton Cork, ran a chain of self-serve grocery stores. Loblaw died suddenly in 1933 and the company was bought out by Garfield Weston in 1947.

The warehouse was designed by the architectural firm Sparling, Martin and Forbes, who also designed the Masonic Temple.

The appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board, which includes the rezoning and demolition application, remains open.
 
junctionist said:
Wow, that's unfortunate. It's impressive as an Art Deco warehouse with many great details on the interior as well, not just for two facades. Mushroom columns, Art Deco interior trim, train tracks going inside: it makes this fairly large warehouse a substantial and interesting building.
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Yeah, but as it stands now its a piece of real estate junk that has been sitting empty and unattended for the past 10-15 years and deteriorated to the point of having to demolish and rebuild to its original.
 
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Automation Gallery said:
Yeah, but as it stands now its a piece of real estate junk that has been sitting empty and unattended for the past 10-15 years and deteriorated to the point of having to demolish and rebuild to its original.
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Are you sure about that? Maybe Loblaw doesn't have the resources to reuse it given their massive Maple Leaf Gardens undertaking. Someone else could, but they own the property. Maybe they could partner with someone else to repurpose this building. According to this latest news, they're not going to rebuild it to the original; they're going to save a couple of facades, Air Canada Centre-style.
 
A real shame. The only interesting building in this bland neighbourhood. "Restoring the facade" ain't preservation... it's more like creating a faux facsimile.

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I'm not condoning the action for the ownership to let the maintenance slide however, they have tried many times to lease out the space without any success. It's probably the location being in the middle of nowhere compared to other successful class I tranformations but I also remember the interior space being nothing but concrete with far too many columns. It looked like a parkade which is far from a selling feature.
 
This is so unfortunate because although personally I don't care much for heritage buildings even I can say this building would be a great iconic piece to save. That being said though, I would much rather see it demolished and redeveloped then sit there for another 10 years, at some point we have to move on, no one is benefitting from its current disgraceful condition.
 
maestro said:
I'm not condoning the action for the ownership to let the maintenance slide however, they have tried many times to lease out the space without any success. It's probably the location being in the middle of nowhere compared to other successful class I tranformations but I also remember the interior space being nothing but concrete with far too many columns. It looked like a parkade which is far from a selling feature.
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I'm not surprised they haven't been able to lease it, because in its current state of disrepair it isn't really leasable.

It needs restoration to be a viable property. I'm not sure you need it to be Class I space--I would see it more viable as a potential Big Box-type retail space (if they can put that kind of thing in the Roundhouse, surely they could here, too). It'a big place, and I'm a little surprised Loblaw's hasn't figured out a way to get clever about putting in a store (although they're not that far from their Queen's Quay store) and maybe playing up the historical angle. Maybe it does have something to do with all their money going towards MLG.
 
It is actually a ways from their Queens Quay store. 3.5km to be exact. I live in the Fort York area and this is badly needed, especially as there is very little within walking distance. It is also very inconvenient to get to the Jarvis location and takes about 30 mins without a car - you have to take a streetcar and then either walk, or wait for the bus.

Some rough estimates: there are ~7500 condos going up in the Fort York area, there have to be another ~2500 along Queens Quay, and then you have another probably ~4000 units in City Place to the west of Spadina. That probably works out to (at 1.5 people per unit) 21,000 people within a 10 minute walk.

The only real alternative in the area is the Sobeys in Cityplace, and that is really expensive.
 
Depressing, I didn't know they were actually going to demolish it. How much of the facade are they even saving? And will the finished product look at all like the original?
 
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