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Glad to see that finally Spadina is getting to renew itself north of Queen...two new condo projects,high end Starta restaurant open,lots of new small non asian cafes and restaurants south of College,Grossman is trying for a permit to build a new condo/business for its property.
 
The new niche for the north Chinatown section of Spadina will be trendy casual hangouts that cater to U of T students (especially with the Bloor/Bedford strip now displaced with condos). Transition of Spadina is evident in the success of the One Hour Cafe and the Castle board game cafe about to open up. For the most part I'm fine with physical built form. Though neglected, these buildings have good bones that offer retail opportunities. Throughout time we'll see more of the old miscellaneous bead/t-shirt/perfume wholesale shops decline and the overall area evolve with new infill and investment.
 
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There's this three storey commercial building on the west side of Spadina near College that's boarded up and completely derelict. It really surprised me when I saw it; it looks like something out of one of the worse neighbourhoods of a Rustbelt city in the US. You never see multi-storey commercial buildings on major streets in Toronto derelict and boarded up.
 
That was the result of a fire that took out a big chunk of those buildings. There's been for sale signs posted for a while but I guess there hasn't been significant interest. I do remember reading an application for a new 3-storey building though not sure when work will start.
 
You never see multi-storey commercial buildings on major streets in Toronto derelict and boarded up.
It's rare, but it does happen -- there was a multi-storey building on the south side of Bloor in the Annex area that was empty and boarded up for years in the ’90s, perhaps even later. And while it was never truly "derelict", a large restaurant building sat empty on Danforth near Logan for perhaps a decade until its recent redevelopment.
 
It's rare, but it does happen -- there was a multi-storey building on the south side of Bloor in the Annex area that was empty and boarded up for years in the ’90s, perhaps even later. And while it was never truly "derelict", a large restaurant building sat empty on Danforth near Logan for perhaps a decade until its recent redevelopment.

The one really irking me right now is a building near the SW corner of Bloor/Ossington. It's a serious eyesore in an area thriving with renewed activity.
 
That was the result of a fire that took out a big chunk of those buildings. There's been for sale signs posted for a while but I guess there hasn't been significant interest. I do remember reading an application for a new 3-storey building though not sure when work will start.

actually it burnt down because of a illegal grow op and insurance company refused to pay for the claim,owner wanted to build a higher project about 6 stories and was denied by the planning department.So now it sits empty..
 
@ Stephanie, nice article. Quite a shame that those impressive buildings at Spadina/College were demolished. A couple more, west along College, were pretty nice too from other images I've seen.

@ Craig, oh no...the dreaded Kirkor. Explains the uninspiring looking form of that slab.
 
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