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What's next for Honest Ed's?
The Mirvish family faces big questions
JAMES RUSK
July 14, 2007
Like many Torontonians, Paul Bedford went to the corner of Bloor and Bathurst this week and took a memorial walk through Honest Ed's. Mr. Bedford - the former chief planner of the city of Toronto - had a nostalgic moment when he looked at the 23,000-light-bulb sign on the corner. Mr. Bedford was city planner for the area when its then-councillor Ron Cantor burst angrily into his office with a picture of the sign that Ed Mirvish wanted to put on his store.
Mr. Bedford looked, leaned back in his chair, and said, "I like it and I think it's fine," he recalled in an interview shortly after his walk down memory lane.
He still likes the sign. "It is so fitting for that corner," he says. Yet with David Mirvish, Ed Mirvish's son, taking sole command of the family business, the sign could be coming down. The omens are there that one of the city's most desirable sites for redevelopment will come into play. David Mirvish sat down "just the other day" with rookie city councillor Adam Vaughan to discuss the family's holdings, Mr. Vaughan said earlier this week.
David has been studying how the family might reconfigure some of its property holdings - both along King Street in the theatre district, and at Bloor and Bathurst - and is "looking for substantial rezoning," Mr. Vaughan said.
But before any development does go ahead, David has to answer some basic questions, the kind of questions that usually accompany the passage of a family business to the next generation.
While David has established himself as a successful impresario running the family theatres, he will have to decide whether he wants to become a land developer.
He might also follow his heart to become more active as an art collector and dealer, a business he first become involved in at age 18, said one observer who has worked with him.
David's one foray into land development, his partnership with Harry Stinson on the condo/hotel project One King West - which ended in acrimony - was a hard lesson in the economics of development.
David, who is constantly getting offers for his lands, could sell property to a developer, bring in an experienced partner to plan and build a project, or go ahead on his own, said the observer, who did not want to be quoted by name.
While the final decision on any site, such as Bathurst and Bloor, will be based on private considerations, such as the tax implications of a deal or the amount of capital David wants to risk on a development, the observer said, "I don't see him developing it himself; that's not his style."
Whatever he chooses to do with the family real estate, David's plans will attract attention. But redevelopment of Mirvish properties on King Street - whether the north-side strip of King Street from the Royal Alexandra Theatre to Peter Street or the old Westinghouse building and adjacent parking lot on the south side - will take place in an area that is already undergoing massive change.
That is not the case with the Honest Ed's store site, which would mean both the demolition of an iconic building and a jump across Bathurst for the development that has been creeping west along Bloor out of the city core.
Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone says that the city has not seen a proposal to redevelop the site. But if it does, he thinks redevelopment should not include Mirvish Village, the retail strip of converted houses along Markham Street, which the Mirvishes turned into arty stores and restaurants decades ago.
Robert G. Brown, a director of the Annex Residents' Association, expects that Ed Mirvish's death brings nearer the day that the store, which he says appears to be a business that time has passed by, will close, and the site, which he describes as "the jewel in the neighbourhood," redeveloped.
The city is in the final phase of a study of potential development sites along the Bloor corridor from Avenue Road to Bathurst Street - the report is expected late this fall - and next spring will start to study the strip from Bathurst to Christie Street, he said.
With its location on the southwest corner of Bathurst and Bloor, the Honest Ed's store site is technically part of the second study area, but because the store is on the border, David Mirvish was invited to attend some meetings of the first group.
Mr. Brown added that, even though he expects change, he does not expect it will come quickly, as he expects David will keep a low profile in the next year while he studies his options.
Mr. Brown said his hope is that, with David's involvement, the redevelopment of the Honest Ed's site could include a cultural component that could be landmark of a cultural strip that runs along Bloor, west from the Royal Ontario Museum.
From the Annex community's point of view, the critical issue is likely to be the height of any new building on the site.
In his view, Mr. Brown said, it would not be appropriate to build a tall tower there, but a mid-rise or low-rise development that also includes a cultural component, street-level retail and some employment space would be acceptable.
As for that sign that Mr. Bedford likes, Mr. Brown predicted there will likely be a move to have it declared historic and included in the façade of any new development.
Unlike Mr. Bedford, he wouldn't care if it came down.
