Why retailers should learn to love condos
Bisnow
06 Jan 2015
Condo projects along the city’s avenues offer solid ground-level retail
opportunities with thousands of captive customers living above. But it
can be tough to convince vendors to pioneer these spaces in places
where they, and their customers, are used to strip malls you can park
in front of.
“A lot of the original urban plazas are being redeveloped with the new
vertical high-rise projects,” says The Behar Group EVP Greg Evans,
shown here at left with colleague Robert Eklove, who's handling sales
for Treviso, a Lanterra Developments mixed-use condo at Dufferin and
Lawrence that’s a good example of what Greg's talking about.
In an area
populated by dreary old-school strip malls, pull-up parking has been
ixnayed at Treviso in a bid to foster street life at the base of the
complex, which will have 45,000 square feet of retail space—plus, Greg
points out,
"an abundance of underground parking.”
Despite Toronto's condo boom, some retailers, particularly outside the
downtown core, still have reservations about locating at the base of
residential towers. They shouldn’t, Greg tells Bisnow. “You have to
look up and realize this is the new neighbourhood plaza."
At Treviso,
for example, there are 1,500 units, with an average of 2.5 people in
each "living on top of your store.” The Behar Group is involved with
many mixed-use projects on redevelopment corners, he says, “and we want
retailers to see and believe that they can thrive there.”
Robert understands concerns retailers may have. “It’s tough to compare
this to Yonge and Bloor, where there are five existing residential
towers on either side of a project.” (Indeed, here’s a shot of what it
looks like across the road from Treviso.)
In the long-term, though, as
the city continues intensifying, “that’s exactly what’s going to happen
in this node,” Robert says, noting there are proposals in place for
additional mixed-use development along Dufferin and Lawrence. And you
can bet most won't have pull-up parking. “So retailers have to think
like pioneers.”
top contents appendix previous next