According to its architect, what promises to be a significant addition to the city's collection of streetscapes is just weeks away from getting its building permit.
At the moment, Market Street - the strip that runs from Front to The Esplanade on the east side of St Lawrence Market South -- is negligible. It used to be home to an excellent old-school bar and restaurant called The Fish Market, but now, the heritage designated buildings that used to house it and several other businesses are dilapidated and dis-used. The only visible tenant is the LCBO with its small Front Street frontage.
But Paul Obermann, the man behind the revitalization of the Five Thieves at Yonge and Summerhill, figured it deserved better.
"Our approach with how to keep that existing building, which has been patched and altered over the years, was quite a challenging one, made more challenging made by what
Paul Obermann wanted to do," says lead architect Michael Taylor of
Taylor Smyth. Obermann wants to "open up the whole ground floor of that building, one level below the LCBO, to create a whole new series of storefronts, which he imagines will have restaurants in them."
In this plan, the LCBO will be the major tenant, extending its reach all the way south to the The Esplanade. With them as anchors, Obermann hopes to attract a sort of
Mirvish Village type of tenant collection to make the street a destination.
Taylor hopes to get the hoarding up in October, and to complete the whole project, including an entirely new building built in place of an old auto shop on the Esplanade, by late 2011 or early 2012.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Michael Taylor
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