Toronto got an odd new brand of cafe last week, when the ING Direct Cafe opened its doors in the old Pier 1 space at Yonge and Shuter.
With ads up throughout the TTC system and elsewhere,
ING Direct CEO Peter Aceto expects they'll be getting a lot of walk-in traffic expecting a more traditional coffee spot. But, he says, "It'll be obvious to you that it's really not a coffee shop like Tim Hortons or Starbucks or Second Cup."
If you drop by, he says, "You'll be greeted by one of our people who understands mortgages, savings, mutual funds and coffee." The idea is that's it's not the sort of cafe people are used to, and not the sort of bank you're used to.
ING Direct has started up these spaces, which also exist in Montreal and Vancouver, to address the downside of being a mostly branch-free bank: no street presence.
To belay fears that this is a corporate pop-up, Aceto emphasized how much work was done on the heritage building -- the bank spent
about a year renovating the three-storey, 10,000 square foot space -- and that ING signed a 10-year lease, with two five-year extensions.
"This is a very important space for us," he says, "and it's going to be very important for the next 10 or 15 years."
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Aceto
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