Re: PCL: Metropolis Update June 1/06
here it is:
Yonge-Dundas Square coming into its own despite some rough times
JOHN BARBER
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It could be that the closing of Olympic Spirit Toronto, a brand-new tourist attraction in the heart of what is supposed to be the action in this burg, is the latest disaster in the ongoing urban tragedy that began with an infectious disease and, most recently, led to the premature closing of The Lord of the Rings.
On the other hand, it could just be a blip in an otherwise sunny story of steady recovery.
Both theories are credible.
Bobby Sniderman, who owns the Senator Restaurant two doors away from the now-shuttered Olympic Spirit, stands by the former. "The Toronto tourist industry is a disaster," he said yesterday. "It hasn't recovered since SARS, quite frankly. . . . It's a very difficult time for a lot of businesses in downtown Toronto."
There are few better witnesses to the tangled, often tawdry history of the Yonge Street strip than Mr. Sniderman. His father, Sam the Record Man, helped invent it. While his brother, Jason, ran the fabled record store, he branched out in the same neighbourhood and was a leader of the lobby that ultimately achieved, at vast public expense, Yonge-Dundas Square. He also helped develop the expropriated site that became the $42-million Olympic Spirit.
Since then, however, Mr. Sniderman has shrunk his restaurant and survived the bankruptcy of the family record business, which has since undergone a shaky revival in a diminishing market.
Now the Olympic Spirit is closed. Live theatre in general, not just Rings, is suffering. "And when you have shootings on the street," he said, "it doesn't really help."
This is not what anyone envisaged when the old city initiated the grand revival more than a decade ago. Even so, it's impossible to ignore the progress.
The square is a marvel, finally coming into its own as a generous and popular gathering place. The largest and most important development on the expropriated land -- the cinema and shopping complex on the square's northern border -- is finally under construction, for real this time, and due to open in the fall of 2007.
That will change everything, according to Ron Soskolne, a real estate consultant and chairman of the board that oversees the square. "The big factor in the whole piece is the cinemas," he said. "That's going to add a tremendous range of activity to the area."
Canadian Tire will soon open a flagship store in the new Ryerson University building at Bay and Dundas, returning hardware downtown after a decades-long absence. At the same location, electronics chain Best Buy is building its first non-suburban outlet in the region.
It won't be long, Mr. Soskolne predicted, until the Olympic Spirit building is repurposed.
"There are many models, particularly south of the border, for stores which are that size and are attracted to that kind of location."
James Robinson of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area is even more bullish, despite the closing of the Olympic Spirit. "It's unfortunate, but it is a new opportunity for us," he said, touting the site as a potential bookstore or as the "front door" Ryerson is looking for.
Then there is the tantalizing possibility of using the building to house the archives of the Black Star photo agency, a collection of iconic 20th century photographs, valued at $100-million, donated anonymously to the university last year.
If the right people get on the phone today, Toronto could see the creation of a genuinely popular museum of international stature within months.
The building is already there. It's empty. And Ryerson has a pressing need to find a new home for the spectacular collection. . .
Ahh, but dreams are dangerous in this terrain. Construction starts, then it stops. New stores open, then close. Attractions fail. Yonge Street is fun street, but never sentimental.
jbarber@globeandmail.com