The downside of all the roadwork that's been going on along Roncesvalles is that it's tipped a few businesses out of business.
The upside is it's made room for new ones. Like the newest addition to the
Fresh Collective mini-chain of clothing stores.
"A lot of our customers were already there," says owner
Laura-Jean Bernhardson, who has two other locations in Kensington Market and on Queen Street West, but they'd only come in occasionally, because, she noticed, Roncesvalles Village residents tend to shop local. "So I figured if we moved there, they would come in more frequently."
Bernhardson was lucky enough to be given what she calls a "clean box," the approximately 750 square foot space at 401 Roncesvalles, occupied for almost 50 years by High Park Tailor, having been thoroughly renovated by landlord Michael Reis including new floors, exposing a brick wall, and removing an unsalvageable tin ceiling.
"I hired a store designer," Bernhardson says, referring to Rob and Susan Whittaker's
RLW Design. "I wanted to take it up a notch."
Though much got finished later than scheduled, and much more was still unfinished, the store opened on April 9, just a little over a month after Bernhardson took possession.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Laura-Jean Bernhardson
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