A number of proposals for condominium towers to be built in the Eglinton Avenue West and Bathurst Street area following on the heels of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit line could make for major change in this sleepy main street shopping district.
Jeff Pinksy, owner of Browser’s Den of Magic at Bathurst and Eglinton, said he was told he will have to close up shop at his current location after 26 years. “Certainly, it’s scary to move in a sense,” said Pinksy. “I’ve met a lot of nice people in this area over the years.”
Upper Village Investments Ltd. has put in a city application to transform the site — on the southwest corner — into an 11-storey residential building with ground-level retail.
At 935 Eglinton Avenue West, the Toronto Parking Authority has entered into talk with the BSAR Group of Companies, which wants to purchase the site as well as the neighbouring site currently home of China House Restaurant. On the two lots, the developer is proposing a nine-storey condominium also with ground-level retail. Tarek Sobhi, a principal of BSAR, said it’s an underutilized area and that the forthcoming LRT line only increases attractiveness. “There have been no buildings built there in the last 15 years. It seems right for intensification of some sort,” he said.
Local resident Patrick Smyth of the Avenue Road Eglinton Community Association said, with the LRT there is great potential for the area. However, he fears the chance to improve parking, traffic and the streetscape will be lost if the city does not create a comprehensive plan for the area. “With a subway going in, if intensification just sneaks by and a lousy job is done, then shame on Toronto for letting it happen.”
Steven Petroff, chair of the local business improvement association, said increased development will be a welcome boon for the area regardless: “It’s my understanding these condos will be high end. They’re going to be good clients for this neighbourhood.”