Proposed Promenade redevelopment to add hotel tower, apartments

'It’s a significant commitment to keep the mall'

Yorkregion.com
September 10, 2018
Tim Kelly

Your visit to The Promenade Mall may radically change if a proposed redevelopment becomes reality.

“It’s a vision for an extraordinary property that will be much more relevant and attractive,” said Coun. Alan Shefman. “It’s a significant commitment to keep the mall. These guys are making the investment. It’s a huge commitment to the community.”

The redevelopment was proposed by Promenade Limited Partnership, the owners of The Promenade (including the Serruya brothers, known as the Yogen Fruz brothers, and Liberty Development).

The development plan includes 1 Promenade Circle (the shopping mall) and 180 Promenade Circle (the LCBO in the Bathurst and Centre Streets area).

The plan includes:

• Demolishing the vacant Sears store.

• Creating new retail space, three residential towers, an office/hotel tower, an outdoor urban square and a new street called High Street. This street would come from the north, and then join up with Disera Drive and head south, then east to wrap around the mall entrance.

• Three apartment buildings would range from 28 to 35 storeys. A 28-storey building would include 14 office storeys and 14 hotel storeys.

• Three levels of underground parking.

• A boulevard of shops and walkways going into the property.

• Less concrete and more green space with a road of little parkettes and trees to wrap around the eastern face of the mall.

• A glass dome over the mall’s roof.

Some of the changes are meant to encourage walking to the mall rather than driving.

This is a large project that will take place over “many years”, Shefman said.

Change is necessary because malls all over North America are closing, he said. One reason for the mass closures is the proliferation of online shopping.

The partnership applied for the first phase of redevelopment, which would permit the revitalization of the mall (through demolition, renovation and expansion) and the addition of residential, office and hotel uses, all of which are intended to ensure the mall’s continued health.

The mall is vital because it is one of the few places within Thornhill that provides jobs, Shefman said.

The mall is also an important source of commercial taxes which subsidizes residential taxes, Shefman said.

Developers met with condo residents who live at the edge of the mall property.

They complained they were nervous about crossing the parking lot to get to the mall. So, the redevelopment will include building pathways from the condos to the mall.

Some nearby residents who were asked about the changes coming to the Promenade were not so rosy as Shefman in their opinions.

"It's going to be so bad, it's going to be a smaller mall, it will be very sad," said longtime local resident Judy Wasserman, who lives just across the road from the Promenade.

She worries about increased traffic with the new condo towers being constructed on the property.

"It's the traffic, it's the congestion and what about the pollution when you add the cars?" she complained.

"It's (already) a hazard trying to cross (the road) here," Wasserman said.

Added Irene, who asked that her last name not be used, "it doesn't matter what anybody thinks they've (developers) made a decision.

"I would like a nice mall, a nice shopping centre," she said. "When it's more traffic, nobody's happy about it."

The Promenade development plan includes about 52.3 hectares of land bound by Centre Street to the north, Bathurst Street (east), Clark Avenue West (south) and New Westminster Drive (west).

Areas where growth could be accommodated are limited to:  7700 Bathurst St. (Torgan Lands), The Promenade Mall Site and The Promenade Transit Terminal.

Developer Torgan had wanted to build seven 27-storey buildings to replace The Promenade Village Shoppes at 7700 Bathurst St., just south of Centre Street.

Shefman says the planned building of these towers is no longer on the horizon. They’ve decided to scale back plans.

“It’s a relief”, he said. “I told them you better change that. There’s no way that’s going to happen.”