Toronto Westlake | 153.31m | 48s | Onni Group | P + S / IBI

[Filip]

The retail is not done 'properly.' I can think of any number of retail outlets (Shoppers and Metro included) that feature two entrances. It wouldn't have been hard and would have gone a long way towards humanizing this long-neglected stretch of road.

How? You'd need to have cashier lanes on both sides of the store - significantly reducing the sqf (and they're 'smaller' stores than usual)

The general rule with retail is there's one way in and out - exceptions happen but they're very rare for a good reason.

 

[maestro]

Well, take off the condo towers on top and it sure looks like a strip mall to me. I thought this area was going to have more of an urban vibe with all the tall towers and high density. You have 60 story towers going up in this district, so it's not what most people think of, when they hear suburbia. Aren't we trying to move away from that old suburban model? I'm really disappointed to see this turning into the suburban style I hate.

Why not take the opportunity to turn both Lakeshore and Park Lawn into destination shopping streets? Give the area a central meeting space and focus retail development around it. I don't understand how they are creating a successful retail area by building retail that can't be accessed from the main streets. That intersection should be a focal point, not a dead zone. I think that's just really bad planning on the part of the city. A whole area plan should have been done before they allowed condos to go up. So what is the retail focal point or gathering place of this area? (besides the water)

Removing the residential towers off of any development would make the ground floor retail look like a strip mall. The city can only do so much. They can encourage developers to include retail along streets and install street facing entrances but, it's up to the tenants whether they will use them.

Seen quite a few big box developments with additional entrances. The local Canadian Tire has a main entrance facing the parking lot but, a single cash setup at the street entrance on Danforth. The hours of operation at the street entrance has greatly improved over the years. This is not difficult to arrange for two large outlets like Metro and SDM

 

[Filip]

Removing the residential towers off of any development would make the ground floor retail look like a strip mall. The city can only do so much. They can encourage developers to include retail along streets and install street facing entrances but, it's up to the tenants whether they will use them.

Seen quite a few big box developments with additional entrances. The local Canadian Tire has a main entrance facing the parking lot but, a single cash setup at the street entrance on Danforth. The hours of operation at the street entrance has greatly improved over the years. This is not difficult to arrange for two large outlets like Metro and SDM

The Metro is about 20k sqf and the SDM about 16k. A Canadian Tire is usually over 40k.

You are significantly reducing the sales floor by this setup, these are smaller stores than usual. They could have put doors on Park Lawn, but I bet SDM/Metro said no. There will be two retail spots fronting Park Lawn (one only accessible from this street) - so I fail to see the concern.

NB: Westlake Encore, 43 Park Lawn, and obviously South Beach have their retail components facing Park Lawn.

 

[maestro]

Shifting one checkout station to another entrance from conception would make a negligible dent in the usable square footage. Most concerns over additional entrances is exclusively related to security. Other concerns amount to whether staffing the second entrance over a shift is economical. Both SDM and Metro usually have multiple cashiers at any given time.

 

[Keyz]

 

[blur]

The Metro is about 20k sqf and the SDM about 16k. A Canadian Tire is usually over 40k.

You are significantly reducing the sales floor by this setup, these are smaller stores than usual. They could have put doors on Park Lawn, but I bet SDM/Metro said no. There will be two retail spots fronting Park Lawn (one only accessible from this street) - so I fail to see the concern.

NB: Westlake Encore, 43 Park Lawn, and obviously South Beach have their retail components facing Park Lawn.

If the developer really wanted to create a pedestrian friendly retail podium, it would have happened already. Having two retail entrances is nothing new and isnt a big burden on retailer. Sure, some extra security and monitoring would be required within the store but that should be the cost of business in any urban environment. The City should have forced the developer and the tenants through an agreement of some sort to facilitate a continuously active street frontage. The dead walls along Park Lawn do nothing for this intersection and create a rather insular development, which is ironically very suburban in nature ( Many fake frontage big box stores in the suburbs look like this). I'm sure the City at least had a vision of having retail windows facing Park Lawn, but this is also ruined by those big ads posted on the windows which closes off the active component of the frontage entirely.

Through the development process, the developers should have been forced to include on street parking spots on Park Lawn Road. This would have at least provided some sort of feasible opportunity to have an active entrance on the road.

 

[maestro]

Most of the retail being built is sold off as a whole to one of the real estate groups specializing in retail. I don't see any developer signing some sort of agreement that restricts how the retail is organized. That these residential developers are including retail in their developments is already a big step forward. Good luck on forcing them to do anything more.

 

[TOBoy]

Westlake 2 to be registered with the city mid to late August.

 

[Amare]

Westlake 2 to be registered with the city mid to late August.

Westlake 2 as in Westlake Encore? I really hope that you mean Westlake Encore because I dont think we can handle another Westlake project in this area.

 

[NBGtect]

Westlake 2 as in Westlake Encore? I really hope that you mean Westlake Encore because I dont think we can handle another Westlake project in this area.

Westlake Encore is the last and final phase. Like an 'encore,' it's the end. Westlake 2 would be the second building completed. Westlake Encore is just starting construction so no one lives in it yet. At least legally.

A similar member brought up the same thing weeks ago and I had to explain it to him in easy-to-understand terms what 'encore' means so he could understand it. I still don't think he got it. There are 4 buildings total if that helps people to wrap their heads around the project in its entirety. Encore is the last and final phase here. So Westlake 2 is just the second building that will be registered soon. So in a nutshell: Westlake 2 will be registered soon. Westlake Encore under construction. The other Onni plans to develop in the area are not official yet, so rumours of more Westlake towers are unfounded.

And please don't ask about the handle on the roof! That's over and done with and people need to move on with their lives and get over it. It's a touchy subject with residents here I'm told and they hate always reading the whiners complain all the time, "where's the HANDLE"? Like they know where the handle went! It's in the Humber.

 

[WiddleBittyKitty]

NBG, the rant is not necessary. Amare obviously simply doesn't know what registration means.

Registration is when the condo becomes a corporation, with ownership passing over to the condo owners from the developer.

 

[Amare]

NBG, the rant is not necessary. Amare obviously simply doesn't know what registration means.

Registration is when the condo becomes a corporation, with ownership passing over to the condo owners from the developer.

Thanks for the clarification Widdle and NBG, I had no idea what it meant so I definitely just learned something new.

And dont worry NBG, I wasn't going to ask about the handle. That's the last thing that worried me after the completion of this project.

 

[ProjectEnd]

NBG, the rant is not necessary. Amare obviously simply doesn't know what registration means.

Registration is when the condo becomes a corporation, with ownership passing over to the condo owners from the developer.

'Handled' with care. Cheers Kitty.

 

[interchange42]

Let's start with one of the retail entrances on Park Lawn, and then swing 'round and through the Westlake site and view it from the surroundings:

the Park Lawn frontage:

facing Lake Shore Boulevard:

facing Lake Shore Boulevard:

looking up through the middle of the site:

looking out from the centre between towers 1 and 2 towards the Mimico Creek and Beyond The Sea condos:

looking south beside the Mimico toward Lake Shore:

looking north beside the Mimico:

looking back into the site between 1 and 2:

beside the Mimico Creek:

from across the Mimico:

through Beyond The Sea condos:

from Humber Bay Park West:

up the Mimico Creek:

42

 

[Marcanadian]

A couple shots of the Metro interior:

I'm guessing this is supposed to be a roundabout, though the drivers weren't treating it like one:

Westlake Condos by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr