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Sears Canada moves base to Eaton Centre



Sep 27, 2007 04:30 AM

Sears Canada Inc. is moving its head office to the Eaton Centre, just a few blocks away from the current Jarvis St. location.

Sears will make the shift to 290 Yonge St., at the corner of Yonge St. and Dundas St. W., from the current location at 222 Jarvis St., east of Ryerson University's main campus, the retailer said yesterday.

The new headquarters will fill the top four floors of the eight floors that Sears occupies at the building.

The four floors have recently sat empty.

"We have surplus space at the Toronto Eaton Centre which has been under-utilized for some time," chief executive Dene Rogers said in a release. "Occupying the top four floors as office space will help improve the productivity of the remaining four floors used for the store."

Sears has already sold its Jarvis St. building to the government of Ontario and is operating there under a lease. No job cuts are planned, the company said.
 
Oooooo I feel queasy.

42
 
The Hotel Warwick

jaborandi said:
I've always had very mixed feelings about this building. It looks great in the photo and one can really appreciate the detailing from a distance, but I have always absolutely hated walking by it, especially the Jarvis Street side. It can feel a bit overwhelming to the point of threatening.

Does anyone remember the name of the hotel (and strip club) which used to be in the parking lot on the south side. I recall it had quite the reputation but the name eludes me.
Click to expand...

The name of that hotel was the Hotel Warwick! I remember that strip club well. Instead of recorded music, they had a two piece band; a guy on drums and a guy playing the accordion. It was torn down about 1978 / 79.
 
fred said:
The name of that hotel was the Hotel Warwick! I remember that strip club well. Instead of recorded music, they had a two piece band; a guy on drums and a guy playing the accordion. It was torn down about 1978 / 79.
Click to expand...

thanks fred- now I can finally get a good night's sleep. Imagine bumping & grinding to an accordian playing Lady Of Spain I Adore You.... Maybe somebody should do that for nuit blanche.

Welcome to UT.
 
Looks like Ryerson might be getting some of this building afterall!

The Eye Opener
Posted on 10/02/07
Written by Eric Lam

The Ontario government is considering sharing some of its newly-acquired property with Ryerson.

In an interview on Tuesday, Liberal Health Minister George Smitherman said the Ontario government has acquired the Sears office building and parking lot on 222 Jarvis St., just south of the International Learning and Living Centre (ILC). Ryerson would be among the first in line to acquire the building.

“I’ve been clear in indicating to the people associated with the government it would be necessary and important to work with Ryerson on making sure they’re considered appropriately as part of the neighbourhood,†Smitherman said.

“I’m in close contact with [Ryerson President Sheldon Levy] about those sorts of matters and publicly I’ve been very supportive of expropriation, if that’s necessary, for the Sam’s site.â€

Smitherman said he was “aware of Ryerson’s necessity to acquire more space.â€

Sears Canada is moving its headquarters to the Eaton Centre, meaning the building will be vacant.

Levy stressed the “preliminary†nature of talks with the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC), an agency that acquires property on behalf of the provincial government.

“I hope the provincial government will see the critical importance of that land and help us to acquire it for the growing number of students,†he said.

He said the university was more interested in the adjacent parking lot than the building, partly because buying the building was “so far beyond our means.â€

Ryerson had submitted a co-operative bid with the city earlier this year to purchase the parking lot. “But the bid was not high enough,†Levy said, and the province bought the property.

“We never thought we’d ever own it, so there was no use in getting your hopes up,†he said.

And Levy still doesn’t expect any motion on the building, at least in the near future.

“I think if the government sees the need for the university to enlarge enrolment then we can talk about a timetable, but we’re not there yet.â€

Linda Grayson, VP administration and finance, said last week that the university has only had one meeting with the ORC.

“The property is on our campus,†she said. “We looked out the window and pointed it out [to the agency].â€

However, Grayson cautioned the ORC can’t make the decision to transfer the property to Ryerson. The ultimate decision would fall to the province, which owns the land.

“It would be like if someone came to Campus Planning and asked for a floor in Kerr Hall. They can’t make that decision. It would have to come from higher,†she said.
Yet Levy is willing to negotiate.

“If the government came and said we’ll help ou out with enrolment and this property will help, I’ll roll over and say fantastic,†Levy said.
Click to expand...
 
that's good news about that parking lot. maybe it will turn into something better than it is now. having studied the area this past month for a studio project (where ryerson could potentially grow in the future aka the grater ryerson area GRA) this parking lot and the lots on the southeast and southwest corners of dundas/jarvis could potentially become a big gateway to the university from the east.
 
smuncky said:
that's good news about that parking lot. maybe it will turn into something better than it is now. having studied the area this past month for a studio project (where ryerson could potentially grow in the future aka the grater ryerson area GRA) this parking lot and the lots on the southeast and southwest corners of dundas/jarvis could potentially become a big gateway to the university from the east.
Click to expand...

Are you in the planning program?
 
Sears could still be costly

Posted on 10/09/07
Written by Grant McDonald

(The Eyeopener) - Ryerson might have to pay some serious cash to acquire the Sears building on Jarvis Street, but the key players in the deal are tight-lipped on the situation.

The Globe and Mail reports the building alone could be worth about $100-million, and that’s not including the land around it.

According to Jim Butticci, a spokesperson for the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) — a company that works in co-operation with the government to make property purchases — Sears has between a year and a half and three years to move out.

Although he wouldn’t go into great detail about the purchase or why the government wanted the building, he said it was a rare situation.

“We don’t go buying buildings in downtown Toronto so it’s a rare opportunity,” said Butticci, a spokesperson for the ORC.

The Eyeopener reported last week that Ryerson has at least one friend in the provincial government who wants to see the school acquire the building.

George Smitherman, the health minister and deputy premier, indicated that he wanted to help Ryerson get their hands on the upside-down pyramid.

The revelation comes on the heels of Ryerson’s bid to expropriate Sam the Record Man.

Like the potential purchase of the Sears building, the possible acquisition of Sam’s hinges on the willingness of the provincial government to pony up and help Ryerson acquire the building.

Vincent Power, a Sears spokesperson, said that once the building was sold, the property was out of their hands as to who would be potential buyers.

“Because the building is sold to the government of Ontario, they [potential buyers] would have to be getting it from the government, not from Sears,” Power said.

Gerald Swartz a Ryerson business professor and economist says Ryerson should be very interested in this potential purchase because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

“The first thing is, you can’t build land, and we’re not York, we don’t have acres we can move into,” Swartz said.

From a business perspective, Swartz thinks the purchase would be positive for the Ryerson community if the price were right.

Now that the government has bought the property, there may be a creative way for Ryerson to pay for the building over an extended period of time, he says, which would be harder if it were owned by a private group.

But Swartz also says if Ryerson were to purchase the property; it would benefit both the government and the university.

“I think it would be ideal for both parties, and ideal for the government because they are saying they are supporting post-secondary education more than just giving money, but also in a way that is creative,” Swartz said.
 
The Ryerson student news paper (Ryersonian) is reporting that the site would be the ideal location for a new arena for their hockey team.

new_building_1.jpg


http://www.ryersonline.ca/articles/1919/1/Bringing-an-arena-to-campus/Page1.html
 
/\ And so would Maple Leaf Gardens. It would be great if Ryerson bought that from Loblaws (who many not be interested in using it) and used it for both their arena and classrooms.
 
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