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Metropolis centre to be unveiled this fall
After a seven-year delay, Toronto's 'Times Square North' will be completed; Now 'Toronto Life Square'
Ian Munroe, National Post
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007
After a seven-year delay, one of the final obstacles to completing Toronto's "Times Square North" will be cleared this fall.
The hoardings will come down at Yonge and Dundas streets to reveal the much-awaited Metropolis, a 500,000- square-foot shopping, entertainment and office complex. The building was yesterday renamed Toronto Life Square, after magazine publisher St. Joseph Communications bought naming rights for an undisclosed amount.
PenEquity Management, the project's developer, announced yesterday the mall will open this fall, nine years after PenEquity bought the land and 13 years after the city began its revitalization project for the intersection now known as Yonge- Dundas Square. Once it opens, the city will put up for sale a final parcel of land just east of Toronto Life Square -- which includes 277 Victoria St., 38 Dundas St. E. and an adjacent parking lot.
The Metropolis complex, pictured at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas streets yesterday, will make its debut this fall. PenEquity bought the land nine years ago.
"There's still a piece to finish," said city councillor Kyle Rae. "[The properties] are part of the redevelopment that we waited to finish -- the north side -- because then the value of those properties will be worth more."
The delays stem from PenEquity's difficulty in locating tenants willing to pay the neighbourhood's high rents.
"There's been multiple versions and changes to the project along the way," said Neil Miller, a spokesman for PenEquity. "There has been lots of different dates, but yes, there has been a change in tenant mix and other aspects of the project."
Fluctuations in the demand for retail goods may have worked against the company, Mr. Rae said. "Roots was going to go in there, then they didn't. Then Virgin was going to go in, 9/11 happened and they walked away. What has happened is that the market forces in retail have played out its volatility on this project."
Toronto Life Square will house several large spaces for companies such as Adidas, Future Shop, AMC Theatres and Shoppers Drug Mart. It will also host students from Ryerson University, who will use 12 of the building's 24 movie theatres as lecture halls on weekdays.
St. Joseph Communications will also move a broadcasting centre into the building. The first and second floors are due to open this fall, with the rest of the building slated to open by April, 2008.
Early this summer, 20,000 square feet of digital signs should line the outside of the building, including a massive 30-ft.- by-50-ft. video panel, billed by the company as the largest in the country.
The neighbourhood was plagued by drug dealing in the mid-1990s, and some crime remains, including the Boxing Day, 2005, shooting of Riverdale schoolgirl Jane Creba on Yonge just north of Dundas. But local businesses dismiss critics who say the new Yonge-Dundas Square is too gaudy, and say they are largely happy with how the square has transformed.
"It's very much a bright lights, bigcity feeling, and we are encouraging of that very animated atmosphere," said James Robinson, executive director of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area.
© National Post 2007
After a seven-year delay, Toronto's 'Times Square North' will be completed; Now 'Toronto Life Square'
Ian Munroe, National Post
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007
After a seven-year delay, one of the final obstacles to completing Toronto's "Times Square North" will be cleared this fall.
The hoardings will come down at Yonge and Dundas streets to reveal the much-awaited Metropolis, a 500,000- square-foot shopping, entertainment and office complex. The building was yesterday renamed Toronto Life Square, after magazine publisher St. Joseph Communications bought naming rights for an undisclosed amount.
PenEquity Management, the project's developer, announced yesterday the mall will open this fall, nine years after PenEquity bought the land and 13 years after the city began its revitalization project for the intersection now known as Yonge- Dundas Square. Once it opens, the city will put up for sale a final parcel of land just east of Toronto Life Square -- which includes 277 Victoria St., 38 Dundas St. E. and an adjacent parking lot.
The Metropolis complex, pictured at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas streets yesterday, will make its debut this fall. PenEquity bought the land nine years ago.
"There's still a piece to finish," said city councillor Kyle Rae. "[The properties] are part of the redevelopment that we waited to finish -- the north side -- because then the value of those properties will be worth more."
The delays stem from PenEquity's difficulty in locating tenants willing to pay the neighbourhood's high rents.
"There's been multiple versions and changes to the project along the way," said Neil Miller, a spokesman for PenEquity. "There has been lots of different dates, but yes, there has been a change in tenant mix and other aspects of the project."
Fluctuations in the demand for retail goods may have worked against the company, Mr. Rae said. "Roots was going to go in there, then they didn't. Then Virgin was going to go in, 9/11 happened and they walked away. What has happened is that the market forces in retail have played out its volatility on this project."
Toronto Life Square will house several large spaces for companies such as Adidas, Future Shop, AMC Theatres and Shoppers Drug Mart. It will also host students from Ryerson University, who will use 12 of the building's 24 movie theatres as lecture halls on weekdays.
St. Joseph Communications will also move a broadcasting centre into the building. The first and second floors are due to open this fall, with the rest of the building slated to open by April, 2008.
Early this summer, 20,000 square feet of digital signs should line the outside of the building, including a massive 30-ft.- by-50-ft. video panel, billed by the company as the largest in the country.
The neighbourhood was plagued by drug dealing in the mid-1990s, and some crime remains, including the Boxing Day, 2005, shooting of Riverdale schoolgirl Jane Creba on Yonge just north of Dundas. But local businesses dismiss critics who say the new Yonge-Dundas Square is too gaudy, and say they are largely happy with how the square has transformed.
"It's very much a bright lights, bigcity feeling, and we are encouraging of that very animated atmosphere," said James Robinson, executive director of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area.
© National Post 2007