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| Queens Quay at Freeland Street in Downtown Toronto. Image: Hariri Pontarini Architects |
Downtown Toronto will be getting another large retail development, this time at the base of an impressive multi-tower proposal a the foot of Yonge Street near Lake Ontario. Ground-floor retail is proposed for what will include four residential towers up to a whopping 98 floors in height.
We are told that one of the retail tenants may be a larger-format grocery store, while one retail analyst speculates that a large format fashion retailer could also move into the retail portion of the project. Vancouver-based Pinnacle International is building the project on a city-block bound by Yonge Street on the East, Queens Quay to the South, Freeland Street to the West and Lake Shore Boulevard to the North. (see diagram, below).
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| Diagram of Pinnacle proposal. Image: Hariri Pontarini Architects |
Urban grocery stores are being built quickly across the country. Downtown Toronto already has a substantial number of grocery food retailers, and will be opening many more (including a new Whole Foods West of Downtown Toronto and a few others we will reveal in the coming weeks). We previously wrote an article on similar downtown retailers opening in ‘Downtown Canada’.
Readers should note that this project is only a proposal but nevertheless, a substantial retail development is guaranteed for this site.
A commercial real estate broker has told us Target is looking for more than one Downtown Toronto location, and that this site could be desired but for the fact that retail on this site won’t be available for a few years. Nevertheless, the density and vibrancy of the ‘South of the Gardiner’ section of Downtown Toronto is ripe for retail development at a scale previously unheard of.
This retail project joins a growing number of other Downtown Toronto retail projects we’ve reported on, including Oxford Place and the new Globe & Mail Centre complex.
[Source: Forum member @ UrbanToronto.ca]
