The new owners of The Zen Buddhist Temple at 297 College Street want to redevelop the site into a 15-storey condo and 20,000 sq. ft. retail space. Naturally, neighbouring Kensington Market residents and retailers aren't too keen on the idea.
Even as bars, boutiques and restaurants continue to open in Kensington Market, it’s still very much a fresh-food destination, where locals can buy what they need from small grocers and seldom want for the amenities of a modern supermarket. There isn’t a supermarket in the neighbourhood, anyhow—though that may not be true for much longer.
The Zen Buddhist Temple at 297 College Street, situated on Kensington’s northern border, was owned by monks until May. Now it’s in the hands of Tribute Communities, a developer. The company is proposing a 15-storey condo tower for the site, with approximately 20,000 square feet of retail space, subject to City approval. The rumour currently circulating in the neighbourhood is that Loblaws is in negotiations for the location. Tribute spokespeople say it’s still too early to say who the retail tenant might be.
“We’ve been talking to a whole bunch of different potential retailers to see what would be the best fit for the site,” said Steve Deveaux, vice president of land development for Tribute. “We think a grocery retailer would be a good tenant. Or it could be a drug store, something of that ilk.”
Loblaws’ parent company hasn’t publicly announced any interest in 297 College, and they declined to comment for this story, but it’s easy to see why some of Kensington’s merchants are jittery. There are already two Shoppers Drug Mart outlets within walking distance of the neighbourhood (at College and Markham and Toronto Western Hospital), so a large drug store seems an unlikely candidate for the space. And then there’s the fact that Tribute recently completed a midrise condo development at Queen and Portland streets. The retail tenant is a Loblaws, which had its grand opening on Dec. 2.
Martin Zimmerman, whose Freshmart is currently the closest thing Kensington has to a supermarket, is, like other neighbourhood business owners, nervous. “People who come to Kensington Market know that the market pretty much closes based on sunlight hours,” he said. “The larger grocery chains are open until 11, sometimes 12 [midnight] and, if you’re a student, or if you’re working somewhere, you become trained that you don’t have to rush to Kensington Market.” Business, he worries, would flow to the supermarket, leaving the neighbourhood’s independent grocers to suffer. Freshmart would be in an especially precarious position, because it carries Loblaws’ products. “The larger corporations can afford to do the huge loss leaders,” Zimmerman added. “I think it would be detrimental to the Market.” Even neighbouring Chinatown could be affected.
Yvonne Bambrick, coordinator of the Kensington Market Business Improvement Area, has similar reservations. “I don’t want to see a Loblaws there,” she said. “I think that is extremely bad news for the neighbourhood. I don’t even want to see it being discussed.” The fear is that competition from a large corporate food store would cause Kensington’s small grocers to close down and be replaced by restaurants and bars, turning the eclectic area into yet another party scene reminiscent of Little Italy, to the west.
A second major development project is gestating on Kensington’s western border, where RioCan, a shopping-centre developer, has assembled a large plot of land around—and including—the current site of Kromer Radio, at 420 Bathurst.
The area surrounding Kensington has long been ripe for development of one kind or another. It’s a low-rise strip in an increasingly high-rise city, as Neil Rodgers, vice president of acquisitions at Tribute, is quick to point out. “It really represented a location where there wasn’t a lot of competition,” he said. He compared the area to Queen West before its development boom. “We saw College as having similar up-and-coming qualities.”
Past attempts at introducing corporate chains to Kensington Market have met with resistance from the community. In 2008, when residents learned a realtor was trying to install a Starbucks in a location that had been occupied by a green grocer, it wasn’t long before the vacant storefront was plastered with flyers proclaiming support for local cafés. The Starbucks never materialized, and the space is now a restaurant.
Tribute’s application to develop 297 College will be subject to a community-consultation meeting tonight (Dec. 5) at 6:30 p.m at the Lillian H. Smith public library (239 College).
