DSC said:
Though saying "more than half of retail space on King Street East between Yonge and River is vacant" is clearly an exaggeration, it is true there is a lot of vacant retail. There are clearly general explanations for this as the retail and restaurant business everywhere has been massively disrupted by covid. However, there are also local 'reasons". Quite a bit of the vacant retail is new (e.g. 65 King): it takes time to attract good tenants and, in my opinion, better to wait for a suitable tenant than grab at anything that shows up - we really do not need more pot shops or nail bars or dentist offices (yes, 158 Front, I am talking about you!). In other cases the building is about to be redeveloped (e.g. the block between Princess & Ontario) so existing tenants are moving out and new ones are not prepared to sign short leases even if offered. In other cases the block is being assessed for development (e,g. the block on south side of King from Jarvis to George), again. Leases may not be available and if they are they may not be attractive as the term will be short.
Click to expand...
Whether it is exactly 50% of retail or not, what matters is it feels that way (if not more, personally speaking). The reasons above may be valid but it doesn't change the experience at ground level. I wish we would collectively hold commercial landlords more accountable to contributing to a vibrant streetscape instead of explaining away their part in this via various "local reasons". I'm all for better quality tenants which I wish we could control for but there must be a balance if that means blocks become dead for years at a time. Wasn't the city looking at a commercial vacancy tax to perhaps try and make landlords more amenable to compromising for the right tenant, quicker.
 
I'm not sure if any tax tweaks can solve that problem. King East has been pretty sleepy since I worked at George Brown in the early 2000s. It's not just years at a time, it's decades now. There are plenty of good businesses and restaurants that seem to be pretty successful, but vacancies stay that way for a really long time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DSC
evandyk said:
I'm not sure if any tax tweaks can solve that problem. King East has been pretty sleepy since I worked at George Brown in the early 2000s. It's not just years at a time, it's decades now. There are plenty of good businesses and restaurants that seem to be pretty successful, but vacancies stay that way for a really long time.
Click to expand...
there isnt anything east of yonge that can rival the vibrancy of the west. the danforth is probably the closest but the demographic is much older
 
The Leslieville strip along Queen has a lot of great places, but definitely doesn't have the street life/foot traffic of most of the good places in the west side.
 
unrealestate said:
there isnt anything east of yonge that can rival the vibrancy of the west. the danforth is probably the closest but the demographic is much older
Click to expand...
Maybe the new subway line will help with that. If nothing else, it's kickstarting lots of new development in the area. But Yonge st and University Ave are not the most vibrant of areas for nice restaurants/bars/retail so I'm not exactly holding my breath... I don't know what level of rent in the west end it will take to start pushing some of those places to the East. I thought Gusto 501 was a promising sign but not much has followed.
 
The subway will bring lots of high density residential with the usual, bland retail. In fact, I'd argue higher order transit in Toronto's housing market "blandifies" areas because all the local land owners rush to sell and redevelop. So, if anything, the OL will make things worse (not saying we don't build it).
 
The restoration (or rebuilding) of the Tom Jones building proceeds and they have started to install new windows.

IMG_0984[1].JPG


A few days ago they appeared to have restored and rebuilt the stonework surrounding the door, now it has been removed and it's all brick. Will the stone return? I hope so as it actually looked pretty nice.

1660840477069.png
 
3Dementia said:
I'm confused... have they repaired some of the damaged yellow brick with orange/red? Looks like a nasty skin condition in a few spots.

@GabrielHurl (left) @DSC (right)
View attachment 421244
Click to expand...
One must assume it will all be painted because, as you say, it looks as though the building has developed some rather unpleasant skin disease!
 
Northern Light said:
For UT's purposes, yes, it is.

There's still some fit out going and some minor items on the punch list, but this is more or less occupancy ready.
Click to expand...
The offices @ 65 King are certainly partly occupied, of course the 'restoration' or rebuild of the former Grand & Toy building (which is an unofficial part of this thread!) is not yet finished.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top