Lead82, the information you post is out of date,....
In 2008, all first floor PacificMall type retail space at EmeraldPark sold out to Chinese mom&pop stores and investors when Loblaw's T&T signed up to be anchor tenant on 2nd floor (this would have been a little Chinatown mall for 3rd largest demographic in NYCC); developer promised delivery date in 2011,.... then 2013,... when that didn't happen, Loblaws T&T bailed. Metro came in and developer promised 2015 delivery date (now weird with Metro as anchor and Chinese PacificMall retail on first floor,.. but whatever!). Fall 2014 WholeFoodsMarket open across Yonge Street at HullmarkCentre and Metro saw that it's basically dead business,.... so dividing half of dead business is still half of dead business,... so Metro wants to bail but can't if developer delivers in 2015 (which seems doable), thus Metro tried unloading it onto their Adonis subsiduary since there's a large Persian demographic locally,... but Adonis don't like location, construction and have already rejected it! Hmmm,... Loblaw's T&T bailed in 2013, Metro bailing, Metro's Adonis rejected it in 2015,.... that's already strike 3! Since it seems developer can finally deliver on time - this time (4 years after original promise date!), Metro is stuck with contract so Metro will either pay penalty and bail or rent it out,.... but that will take time to figure out what will eventually go into that anchor tenant 2nd floor supermarket space,.... in the meantime all those Chinese mom&pop stores and retail investor for first floor PacificMall type retail space (released Sept 2015) are left holding the bag since NOBODY will rent their store or open a store there until they know who the anchor tenant will be! Even though the mall is basically ready for stores now! (Heck LCBO store been ready without stock since last spring),.... I can't see this mall filling up in 2016,.... I'd be surprise if anything actually opens,... in the meantime there will be years of people walking/driving by an entirely empty retail mall,....
And as you say,.... it's all about the price,.... yeah, it'll take a while for those PacificMall type stores to go down in rental price,.... until they're low enough to attract the flea-market type businesses.
Look at Yonge&Eglinton area where most of their office were built from 1950's when Yonge subway opened and ended at Eglinton to mid-1970's when Yonge line was extended north - that's the window of opportunity to build office towers in an area on subway line. From mid-1970's (when Yonge subway opened north of Eglinton to Finch) to mid-1990's when office market collapse,... that's when office towers were being built along Yonge from 401 to Finch,.... Thus, the time is NOW to build office towers in North York City Centre,.... once subway gets extended north of Finch,... offices will be built north of at Steeles, Hwy 7, etc,.... and North York City Centre area won't get any more office towers just like Yonge&Eglinton didn't get any more office towers after the Yonge line extended north in the mid-1970s.
Doris is in the process of being extended south to Avondale. Beecroft will NOT be extended any further south from Poyntz; 20 years ago there was talk of extending Beecroft south to Franklin right at the doorstep of Highway 401 but local residents rejected that so Beecroft only goes down as far as Poyntz,... which now lines up with Annedale Drive extension using land from the HullmarkCentre development.
The $50 million southbound Yonge to eastbound 401 flyover ramp will never be built! There are much better cost effective options but the bottom line is after years of studies by city, MTO and their consultants,.... problem is the MTO will NOT participate in anything that will bring more traffic onto THEIR Highway 401,.... and all the solutions to far requires MTO participation since those solutions requires MTO land,.... and as property-owner MTO (not city) calls the shots!
http://files.ctctcdn.com/41699a17201/2843485b-e148-4f65-aa3f-3ca6fedf986e.pdf
