UtakataNoAnnex
Senior Member
...and if they all flushed their toilets at once, it would sound like Niagara Falls!
- Thread starter yyzer
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Conrad Bidet
New Member
The Well Is a Beautiful Missed Opportunity | The City Beat | Designlines
The City Beat covers Toronto's newest downtown marvel: a sprawling mixed-use residential complex at Front and Spadina known as The Well.
www.designlinesmagazine.com
Not an unfair assessment in my opinion. But it's early days and retail is naturally in flux.
Northern Light
Superstar
The Well Is a Beautiful Missed Opportunity | The City Beat | Designlines
The City Beat covers Toronto's newest downtown marvel: a sprawling mixed-use residential complex at Front and Spadina known as The Well.
Not an unfair assessment in my opinion. But it's early days and retail is naturally in flux.
The overall tone is complimentary w/the real knocks being that the retail is a bit too ordinary/upper-middle/un-original (ie, curation to deliver some small, independent, non-chain spaces would have been nice.); and that there is no affordable housing component.
On the former, 100% fair, in that, such curation almost always drives higher traffic/footfall and that in turn means the remaining predictable chain stores pay more in rent, making up for any breaks given to start-ups/indys.
On the latter, I certainly support more affordable housing, but if there's neither a statutory obligation to provide it, nor a government inducement, it would seem unlikely that most developers would unilaterally offer such a thing. (be nice if they did though)
Conrad Bidet
New Member
One of the best additions is the health center and Life Labs blood diagnostic clinic. I went there for the first time last week and it's quite spiffy.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Curious where the desired "inexpensive neighborhood cafes" the author describes are located...?
Towered
Senior Member
Groovy is a indie shop.
Northern Light
Superstar
The author is identifying that as being missing from The Well.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
I'm not saying these sorts of places don't exist at all, but that cheap coffee is now essentially the sole purview of Tim's and McDonalds, is my point. Recall my story from last year about $14+ for two coffees at De Mello here in The Well...
The erroneous romanticization of something that's just not a thing hurts the article's overall (correct) thesis about general corporate sterility here.
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egotrippin
Senior Member
Gotta head out to the east end, most options at the Birchcliff are still under 5-6 bucks these days; regular coffee around 3 bucks. That's kind of how it goes though, prices decrease the farther away you are from the core. I imagine the rents at Kingston/Birchmount are a touch lower...
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
This project at Hafencity in Hamburg is in some ways quite reminiscent of the Well:
AoD
AoD
tstormers
Senior Member
From last week that I meant to post.
evandyk
Senior Member
Yeah, you have to go pretty far from the Well to get anything I would describe as an "inexpensive local cafe". I suppose everyone has their own definition of "inexpensive" but if you're looking to pay less than 5 bucks for a cappucino, you're going to have to leave downtown Toronto (or even the surrounding suburbs, even the cafes in Leslieville and Parkdale aren't exactly "inexpensive" these days).
There is some independent retail in the Well. The article even mentions GotStyle, which might not be "inexpensive", but is not a big chain.
Conrad Bidet
New Member
$6 lattes are unironically one of my favourite parts of living downtown. GotStyle is a pretty sold menswear store. Dog and Bowl has some pretty unique items for fancy pooches. I am still pretty optimistic about the future of the retail component at the Well.
rdaner
Senior Member
Fix Bikes + Coffee, La Plume and Got Style are open Thursday. Guess where I’m going on my morning walk?! Lol
karledice
Active Member
Take pics please
