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Who Will Be Queen of the Portlands?

By David Topping

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Photos by Nick Kozak/Torontoist.


Who is moving into the main space in the development at Queen Street West and Portland, abandoned two months by Home Depot? Torontoist got a tip yesterday afternoon that a new primary retail tenant has been locked down, but according to RioCan, the property’s keepers, that’s just not the case.
Torontoist spoke to Jeff Ross, RioCan’s Senior Vice-President of Leasing, this morning, and he said that there are a ton of companies, in a ton of different retail sectors, “circling” the property. While RioCan, Ross says, hopes to have its star tenant nailed down as soon as possible, it’s still “early on in the process,” and there are “so many variables.” Ross (unsurprisingly) declined to name any of the companies competing right now, but did say that his company has absolutely not settled on who will fill the space that Home Depot left vacant.
The site, meanwhile, is slowly developing: what was a parking lot a year ago is now a flattened, newly walled-in collection of dirt and bricks, with construction crews on-site. Some day, the human tenants of Queen and Portland Loft and Condominium Residences—who paid no less than $326,000 to live there—will move on in. But it looks like anxious current Queen Westers will have a bit longer to wait before they find out which company (you know, other than RioCan) to blame next for the area’s unending gentrification.

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Comments

  • http://null jen_in_toronto

    Fingers crossed for a decent grocery store!

  • http://null Astin

    Fingers crossed that it isn’t Walmart.
    Let’s see… Rona or Canadian Tire?

  • http://null davedave

    Grocery store?
    That would make absolute perfect sense for the neighbourhood.
    However, it would contribute to the evil creeping gentrification/dehipsterization of Queen West. A more suitable tenant for the property would obviously be a used record store.

  • http://null SusanB

    I hope it is Whole Foods.

  • http://null Ben

    Whole Foods is awful. It should be a No Frills.

  • http://undefined Pan Von Sol

    he said that there are a ton of companies, in a ton of different retail sectors, “circling” the property
    The image currently in my mind is a large group of vultures with corporate logos on their wings…

  • http://undefined Amanda Factor

    If it’s not a grocery story, I think I will cry. As a resident of that area, I really think it’s about time. I used to go to the Price Chopper near the Gladstone, then started to find it gross. I tried going to the Loblaw’s in Liberty Village but it is just a pain in the ass to get to. Now I go to the Dominion, sorry, Metro at College and Crawford. It’s pretty good, but a store I could get to in five minutes instead of 25 would be amazing.

  • http://null John Duncan

    The image in my mind is of Jeff Ross frantically talking to tons of companies, trying to convince them to sign on, while his chances for getting an anchor tenant circle the drain.
    It’s a 75,000 sq.ft. multi-level space, designed for a large retailer. It can probably be subdivided and repurposed to an extent, but they’ll still want someone big in it. And while it is needed in the area, an urban format grocery store is not 75,000 sq.ft.
    The recession hasn’t hit the streets of Toronto too badly, but the same cannot be said for many corporate boardrooms. Home Depot is far from the only major retailer that’s backing away from expansion plans and looking to close stores.
    Honestly, I think the best hope would be for a city rec centre. Pool on the ground floor, and gyms, community centre stuff above. It’s a bit close to Alexandra Park, but there has been a residential development further south.

  • http://null maribelle

    someone needs to dig further to this story… this raised more questions than anything.

  • http://undefined Christopher

    Has it only been 2 months since Home Depot backed out of the deal? I could swear it’s been longer, but no.
    I still feel it was a tragic decision by HD, and one they’re going to regret later on.

  • http://undefined Christopher

    I was right!!
    The story was originally announced in January 2009
    http://www.thestar.com/article/575399