[URBAN NOTE] "New life for Eglinton Avenue East"
In The Globe and Mail, John Lorinc notes plans for the extensive redevelopment of a stretch of Eglinton Avenue East in Scarborough.
By suburban standards, the 7.7-hectare No Frills property on the north side of Eglinton Avenue East, between Victoria Park and Pharmacy, may not seem like the sort of real estate destined for serious mixed-use intensification.
Situated at the western edge of Scarborough’s Golden Mile, the decades-old shopping centre, anchored by a 55,000-square-foot No Frills, is part of a long stretch of big-box malls, low-slung industrial sites and a few squat office blocks.
But when Choice Properties REIT, Loblaw’s development spinoff, acquired the property four years ago, it identified the shopping centre as a candidate for the sort of big-bang intensification exercise that has few precedents in Toronto’s inner suburbs.
“We looked at that site and said, ‘It’s significantly underutilized,’” Choice Properties chief executive and president John Morrison said. “We want to build a new community where people can live and shop and ideally work as well.”
In what he predicted will be a multiphase project beginning with a redevelopment of the supermarket, Choice will add 2,500 residential units - stacked townhouses, mid-rise apartments and towers - as well as 260,000 square feet of additional retail, green space, private and public community amenities and links to the two LRT stations that will serve the 410-metre-long parcel when the Eglinton Crosstown goes into service, expected in 2023.
By suburban standards, the 7.7-hectare No Frills property on the north side of Eglinton Avenue East, between Victoria Park and Pharmacy, may not seem like the sort of real estate destined for serious mixed-use intensification.
Situated at the western edge of Scarborough’s Golden Mile, the decades-old shopping centre, anchored by a 55,000-square-foot No Frills, is part of a long stretch of big-box malls, low-slung industrial sites and a few squat office blocks.
But when Choice Properties REIT, Loblaw’s development spinoff, acquired the property four years ago, it identified the shopping centre as a candidate for the sort of big-bang intensification exercise that has few precedents in Toronto’s inner suburbs.
“We looked at that site and said, ‘It’s significantly underutilized,’” Choice Properties chief executive and president John Morrison said. “We want to build a new community where people can live and shop and ideally work as well.”
In what he predicted will be a multiphase project beginning with a redevelopment of the supermarket, Choice will add 2,500 residential units - stacked townhouses, mid-rise apartments and towers - as well as 260,000 square feet of additional retail, green space, private and public community amenities and links to the two LRT stations that will serve the 410-metre-long parcel when the Eglinton Crosstown goes into service, expected in 2023.