The reconstruction of Market Street is right on schedule.
The block-long street that runs along the west side of the
St. Lawrence Market was the next big thing heritage redeveloper Paul Oberman had on his plate when he died in a plane crash last March.
The man responsible for the
Summerhill LCBO, the renovation of the Five Thieves (with the addition of
a thief or two), and the longtime owner of the Gooderham building (aka the Flatiron) had envisioned giving the city a Market Street that lived up to its name, instead of the desolate little nothing it had become.
And his widow, Eve Lewis, founder of
Urbanation, who took the reins of
Woodcliffe Properties and as president and CEO, is making sure Market Street turns out just as Oberman had envisioned.
"Everything is going according to Paul's original design," she says, "and we have gotten the approval for the sidewalk widening, which is the first private initiative [like that] that's ever been done in the city."
The small LCBO that had been on the corner of Front has already been moved into temporary space on Market, and construction will start on its vastly expanded space, that will take it from Front almost all the way back to The Esplanade, when the weather turns in spring. When completed, the street, with its newly expanded sidewalks, will be home to the longest stretch of bar and restaurant patios in the city.
"The model is the Summerhill plan," says Lewis, "except with a higher density of restaurants."
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Eve Lewis
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