Just as holiday season shopping is about to set in, Bloor Street retailers have received a gift of their own: for the first time in more than two years, there is no construction on the strip of Bloor between Avenue Road and Church Street.
David Markowitz, the president of Davids shoes, said he is looking forward to seeing business return to normal and said he believes the holiday season will bring a resurgence.
“The place is going to be illuminated with all sorts of holiday spirit,” said Markowitz, who added that the local tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 17 will also help make the area more attractive. “It’s coming back to being the place to shop, the place to be seen.”
The reason behind the construction is the Bloor Street Transformation Project, a $20 million effort to upgrade the streetscape. Construction began in 2008, but plans for the project started a decade earlier. Briar de Lange, general manager of the Bloor-Yorkville BIA, said there were several challenges from the beginning, such as putting together a viable plan and finding funding.
“There was lots of legwork, lots of studies had to be conducted, many preliminary designs had to be done,” said de Lange.
She said one of the most noteworthy improvements to the area has been the planting of 54 trees. She added that there is still some more work to do before the project is officially complete, including planting more trees.
“We still need to put the icing on the cake, so I don’t want to paint a false impression,” she said.
However, the upgrades have not been without some expensive hiccups. Construction was slated to end last year, and city council had to approve $4 million in overrun costs after running into some construction surprises, such as a $2.1 million invoice for work by Toronto Hydro.