Entertainment District : Development News

The LCBO's latest downtown shop, which opened on Dec. 9 at the southeast corner of King and Spadina on the site of the old Budget car rental lot, is the Board's stop-gap measure to quickly respond to exploding demand in the condo-rich neighbourhood. The deal the Board signed with its landlord on the site includes a provision to move to what LCBO spokesman Chris Layton calls "a higher density location" � probably the bottom of a condo building � as the landlord acquires more properties in the area.

"What our priority was here is that there was such a demand for service in that area that we wanted to get into that particular location as soon as we could," Layton says. "Our market research projects that the area's population will grow by more than 40 per cent in the next 10 years.'

At 11,500 square feet, of which 8,000 is shopping space, the new store is one of the 15 biggest in the city, carrying 2,150 kinds of liquor, including a 500-strong Vintages fine wines and spirits section. The store employs 10 people, and features 6 check-outs in anticipation of steadily high traffic.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: LCBO

Demolition and excavation for the large underground parking lot has begun on the site of the future L Tower, architect Daniel Libeskind's next contribution to the city's cultural landscape.

The tower, at the southeast corner of Yonge and Front and now estimated to be costing $280 million, suffered a major setback late last year when federal and provincial funding shortfalls deprived the design of its planned $75-million heritage and arts complex at the building's base. An abbreviated version of this aspect of the plans will now house condo amenities like an exercise room and pool, along with a public plaza.

According to Sharon Florian of Fernbrook Homes, one of the developers, about 85 per cent of the building's 585 units have sold, including at least one of the penthouse suites, which John Bentley Mays has described as "examples of this artist-architect's handiwork at its most daring."

According to Florian, the project will reach the concrete-pouring stage by the summer.

The project also includes a $30-million refurbishment of architect Peter Dickinson's 1960 O'Keefe-cum-Hummingbird-cum-Sony Centre.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Fernbrook Homes

The corner of Yonge and Front used to be known for two things: the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Shopsy's. A small tremor went through the city when Harry and Jenny Shopsowitz's place closed up shop on the last day of 2008. The space has been vacant ever since, but the Oliver & Bonacini Caf� Grill that's taking its place is set to open in the spring after a $4.5-million renovation that company principal Peter Oliver is referring to as more of a rebuild.

With 230 seats, a bar, a lounge and a wraparound patio facing both Front and Yonge streets (which accounts for $1-million of the renovation cost), the Caf� Grill is set to open May 1. It will employ 80 people and occupy the same footprint as Shopsy's, a surprising 9,462 square feet.

The fifth of what director of marketing and communications Teresa Suraci calls O&B's mid-range brand (the others are in Bayview Village, Oakville, Blue Mountain and Waterloo), the menu is meant to cater to the broadest possible audience.

It is being designed by Lindsay Anacleto of New Toronto's Anacleto Design, a former associate at Yabu Pushelberg, who designed Canoe for O&B. "It's going to be the flagship of this group of restaurants," says Suraci, adding that design is going to be purposefully urban.

And that concrete staircase on the Yonge fa�ade that never seemed to go anywhere? It's finally been taken down.