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The Junction

Economic Downturn

I'm curious to know what people think about the economy these days and what effect this might have on our neighbourhood. The McBride Cycle lot remains vacant. New restaurants like The Foundation appear to be on hold. The Health Food store on the south side of Dundas recently closed. And, the building where Urbanscape Gallery is housed is up for sale:
http://www.junctionrealty.ca/index.php?io_listing=452446&io_section=details
The listing says the main floor is owner occupied (could this mean Urbanscape is closing too?)

Also, many condo projects in the city are going bust. I wonder how secure developments like the Options For Homes one at the old Can Tire store are? Should we start a countdown marking the end of Giraffe Condos at Dundas & Bloor?

Finally, will people be as keen to live in the Junction if properties in other neighbourhoods are more affordable? Lots of questions...
 
Even with the economic downturn, there are still brand new businesses popping up in the Junction, I know at least 3 more will be opening their doors in a few months, the McBride lot is in litigation and can not be sold at the moment, I hear a few builders are interested in it.

The Options for Homes development is going very well, the financing has been secured, we bought a large unit there, it's 90% sold and is priced very reasonably. The Giraffe development is priced idiotically high, why would anyone pay a million dollars for a small condo when they can buy a bigger house for a lower price in a better location just down the road, they are having problems selling their units.
 
I'm curious to know what people think about the economy these days and what effect this might have on our neighbourhood. The McBride Cycle lot remains vacant. New restaurants like The Foundation appear to be on hold. The Health Food store on the south side of Dundas recently closed. And, the building where Urbanscape Gallery is housed is up for sale:
http://www.junctionrealty.ca/index.php?io_listing=452446&io_section=details
The listing says the main floor is owner occupied (could this mean Urbanscape is closing too?)

Also, many condo projects in the city are going bust. I wonder how secure developments like the Options For Homes one at the old Can Tire store are? Should we start a countdown marking the end of Giraffe Condos at Dundas & Bloor?

Finally, will people be as keen to live in the Junction if properties in other neighbourhoods are more affordable? Lots of questions...

I love what Urbanscape did to restore that building. From what I know about store front businesses, many fail after 2 years in operation because new storefront businesses get a break form paying PST for 2 years. Then it kicks in, causing some businesses to close.

I have no idea why Urbanscape would want to close, they still need a space in which to run their architectural company anyway.

There's gotta be a story as to why the health food store closed, I heard vaguely that the owners retired they had run it for 30 years and were just tired....

As for McBride Cycle.....well, I predict condos in the future, but now since the market for condos has slowed, maybe we can slip in a park !!!

Options for Homes is a done deal. It's going up. Giraffe on the other hand, well, I saw one of the white exterior panels had been graffitti'd with: "we need affordable housing". I heard in the news yesterday that many condos that are currently being marketed are not going to be built, maybe Giraffe is one of them (crosses fingers). It's truly awful.

The Junction can only go up despite the economy (which feels to me like hysteria anyway). Why do you think the Dufferin Mall is packed and Yorkdale Mall is empty. People are being frugal it doesn't mean they stop spending altogether.
 
Purple Onion

We just had lunch there, why do I keep on going back to this restaurant I have no idea... oh yes, I thought they were the only ones open today. The service was terrible, there was only ONE waitress for the whole restaurant (I counted 28 people, all staring at her with a mixture of hope and hostility), she worked really hard and we left her a good tip, but the food was burnt and disgustingly greasy, the toilet was revolting, don't they ever clean??? We were one of the first customers there today, the place was dingy and our table was sticky.... yes, we got a high chair, but that was the only positive part.

There was another couple with a small child, they came in 20 min after we did and got to order first, I actually reminded the waitress that we were there first, which was pathetic, I wish I didn't do that, but my kids were very hungry by then...

Was AXIS open today? I should have went there...
 
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AXIS has amazing brunches with live music, I'm not sure whether they were open on boxing day though.
I don't care whether the breakfast or brunch is organic either, It has to be satisfying though :)

You know, the Grenadier Cafe in High Park offers a $2.99 breakfast mon-fri 9-11 am, I hear it's good.
 
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If you like Axis you may want to check out the owner/founder John Ward's most recent baby: Gourmet Burger Company, with Australian-style burgers (beets, fried egg, pineapple etc on the burger==yummi!) on Parliament St just north of Carlton in Cabbagetown. Worth the walk/ride/drive.
 
So are there longtime junction residents here (like people that lived in the area when canadian tire was actually functional) i dont even know when the canadian tire was no longer operational. I was reading on a different forum about a lot of interesting stories on Heintzman street, the place sounded wild in its day. i've learned about the early history of it(early 1900s), but suspect it was a rambunctious place in the 80s? i have no idea what the junction was like from the 70s to say 2 years ago. can someone share some insight? how did a buddhist temple end up there, supposedly it was a hall or something before?...what were the immigration patterns like, and how did it become a little malta? im really curious about that stuff but dont hear as much of the recent history prior to the revamp/gentrification.
 
(a) The Canadian Tire was operational up to about 2000 or so, or whenever the new big-box Crappy Tire in the stockyards zone opened.

(b) Yes, the Buddhist temple used to be Heintzman Hall, a venue for events and rentals, etc

(c) If Heintzman was "wild" in the 80s, maybe having a shelter at its base had something to do with it. (Believe it or not, said shelter was built as a hotel in the 1960s; sure didn't last long as such...)
 
(c) If Heintzman was "wild" in the 80s, maybe having a shelter at its base had something to do with it. (Believe it or not, said shelter was built as a hotel in the 1960s; sure didn't last long as such...)

See, that's what I'm talking about. I find things like that interesting....thinking about when i walk up keele just a little bit past dundas, looking into the east of i think the first alley that has one of those old fashioned fire-escapes with some faded writing on the brick...and now im just wondering if that's remnants of the hotel? maybe not, but its an interesting spot nonetheless.



i dont know if this was posted in this thread already, but i found this interesting; a thread from another forum regarding a sort of junction tour (that old canadian tire site "artwork" looked really interesting depending on where your tastes lie...)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=193253

and here's another sort of junction related thread from there
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=390500
 

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