Toronto Bloor & Dufferin | 122.35m | 37s | Hazelview | Turner Fleischer

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The Dufferin Mall lands, along with the Bloor CI lands and the former Ursula Franklin Academy/former temporary home of the Royal Conservatory of Music lands, could be used as bus bays for Dufferin station with retail surrounding it and condos above it. This would significantly reduce fare evasion, given that 29 Dufferin is the bus route with among the most fare evasion.
 
I was at Dufferin Mall recently for the first time in a long time and the place was hopping, even mid-day on a weekday. Lots of new stores, some of them higher-end. I don't think it's going anywhere.
 
Starflyer said:
I was at Dufferin Mall recently for the first time in a long time and the place was hopping, even mid-day on a weekday. Lots of new stores, some of them higher-end. I don't think it's going anywhere.
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It's definitely made a comeback along with the new-found interest in downtown life.

When I was a kid, Dufferin Mall was known to me as the run-down place where drug pushers resided. Now, I don't see that at all.

I think it is an indication of the possible attractiveness of the neighbourhood, and of how redevelopment will have little trouble finding potential buyers. Dufferin Mall I think will eventually become too attractive of a site downtown to not want to redevelop, but that might be 20+ years down the line.
 
WislaHD said:
It's definitely made a comeback along with the new-found interest in downtown life.

When I was a kid, Dufferin Mall was known to me as the run-down place where drug pushers resided. Now, I don't see that at all.

I think it is an indication of the possible attractiveness of the neighbourhood, and of how redevelopment will have little trouble finding potential buyers. Dufferin Mall I think will eventually become too attractive of a site downtown to not want to redevelop, but that might be 20+ years down the line.
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They've upgraded a lot - the recently expanded food court is the only one I can think of that actually has booths. Even the Eaton Centre or Yorkdale haven't been that forward thinking despite loads of recent updates.
 
It can be redeveloped along the lines of say The Well. Such a large piece of land smack in the shoulder area is just begging for it. Having said that - it'd probably happen to Gerrard Sq. first.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
It can be redeveloped along the lines of say The Well. Such a large piece of land smack in the shoulder area is just begging for it. Having said that - it'd probably happen to Gerrard Sq. first.

AoD
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Along the lines of The Well sounds excellent to me.

Gerrard Square is probably more ripe for redevelopment than Dufferin Mall. Dufferin Mall has modernized quite a bit while Gerrard Square reminds me of a typical '70s style suburban shopping centre. Not all much better than Galleria Mall.

Plus the DRL will have a stop right next to it.
 
WislaHD said:
Along the lines of The Well sounds excellent to me.

Gerrard Square is probably more ripe for redevelopment than Dufferin Mall. Dufferin Mall has modernized quite a bit while Gerrard Square reminds me of a typical '70s style suburban shopping centre. Not all much better than Galleria Mall.

Plus the DRL will have a stop right next to it.
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The Dufferin Mall site looks large enough to me for a phased approach to redevelopment - build atop the Dufferin frontage parking lot first, then perhaps redevelop the mall proper.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
The Dufferin Mall site looks large enough to me for a phased approach to redevelopment - build atop the Dufferin frontage parking lot first, then perhaps redevelop the mall proper.

AoD
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That's what I think is likely. The parking lot land is valuable now, but the mall is thriving and they have done improvements, so it seems unlikely that they will tear it down anytime soon.

But some re-development along Dufferin and/or Croatia seems likely in a shorter time frame than 10 years, assuming the market doesn't tank.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Are all the parking levels at Dufferin Mall full during the Christmas season?
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Good question. The surface spots seemed very full the other day. Not sure about the underground spots, but probably those too. Any new development would probably include parking for the mall customers too.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Are all the parking levels at Dufferin Mall full during the Christmas season?
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I grabbed an AutoShare car from that lot on Sunday; it took almost 15 minutes just to get onto Dufferin Street. The surface lot was over-full (people double-parked, etc); I doubt the covered lot would have been different.
 
PMT said:
From insidetoronto.com:

Bloordale residents give input on future Bloor-Dufferin community hub
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Thanks for posting this link.

To add to it, there were a number of attendees upset about who was chosen for the Visioning Group. They chose everyone who applied, but a lot of groups were not aware of the call for applications to be involved. Hopefully they will straighten all of that out.

A number of people did not seem to have much faith in the local MPP, Cristina Martins, or in the city councillor, Ana Bailao. Bailao seems to be doing a reasonable job lately, though Martins seems missing in action on a number of issues.

Some pointed out that the planning is happening in silos - the new high school, the community hub, and the other development. Hopefully they will ensure good integration.

Still lots of confusion too about what the hub is vs. the rest of the site, most likely because everything is so vague still.

Lots of great potential here. Hope they don't mess it up.
 
Lots of bits and pieces in Ana Bailao's new newsletter, leading to an Open House at the bottom:

Bloor Dufferin Community Hub Survey and Meeting Summaries
As you may be aware, on December 8, 2016, the Province of Ontario announced $20M in funding to support a new high school and a community hub at the Bloor-Dufferin TDSB Redevelopment Site. To support the community to identify priorities and goals for a Community Hub, the City and Province invited community based organizations to form an independent, voluntary, and time limited "Community Hub Visioning Group". The Visioning Group was established to meet the following objectives:
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    1. Ensure that community groups are meaningfully engaged in the planning for a potential Bloor-Dufferin community hub; and
    2. Develop a vision and governance and service framework for a potential community hub at Bloor-Dufferin.
The Bloor-Dufferin Community Hub Visioning Group process is being run by an independent facilitator and is being supported by City and Provincial staff. I am pleased to share with you three important pieces of information in this community update:
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    • Visioning Group Community Survey (Open until March 25, 2017)
    • Meeting Summary from the February 6, 2017 Public Information Session
    • Visioning Group Meeting Summaries
I look forward to sharing more information with you as I receive it from the Visioning Group. To read my previous updates on the Bloor-Dufferin TDSB Lands, please click here.

I am also asking that you "save the date" for a pre-application community open house meeting that is being organized by the developer of this site that will take place on Thursday April 13, 2017 from 4pm to 8pm at Bloor CI (1141 Bloor St W). This meeting will focus on the future mixed use development of the entire site and I will be sharing more details as they become available.

Community Survey Open Until March 25, 2017

The Bloor-Dufferin Community Hub Visioning Group will work from February-April 2017 to prepare a preliminary Vision for the Bloor-Dufferin Community Hub. This is intended to include: identifying priority community needs and interests; a proposed focus for the hub, programming options and a proposed governance model. The Vision will be based on community feedback collected from prior meetings, new community and stakeholder consultations, and research about hubs in other places.

To gather more input, the Visioning Group is asking for your participation in an online community survey. The survey will be open until March 25, 2017. I encourage you to participate as soon as possible. To fill out the survey please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HubVisioning

Public Information Session Meeting Summary

At my urging, the City of Toronto hosted a public information session on February 6, 2017 to discuss next steps for envisioning a Community Hub for the Bloor-Dufferin Revitalization Site. The meeting was a great opportunity to hear about the process, next steps for developing a community hub vision for Bloor-Dufferin, how the local community can be engaged, and to receive initial ideas from residents about how the community hub and how it should work. City staff have prepared a summary of the meeting that you can download by clicking here.

Visioning Group Meeting Summaries

Please click the titles below to download the meeting summaries from the February 7 and 21, 2017 Visioning Group meetings:

February 7, 2017 Visioning Group Meeting Summary and Terms of Reference

February 21, 2017 Visioning Group Meeting Summary, Development and Planning Presentations to the Visioning Group

Please click the titles below to download the meeting summaries from the March 7, 2017 Visioning Group meeting:

March 7, 2017 Visioning Group Meeting Summary

March 7, 2017 Visioning Group Meeting Background Materials

Bloor Dufferin Pre-Application Open House - Thursday April 13, 2017 drop in between 4pm and 8pm

The purchasers of the Bloor-Dufferin TDSB Lands, Capital Developments and Metropia are in the early stages of planning for the revitalization of the southwest block of Bloor & Dufferin. They are hosting a drop-in Open House on Thursday April 13, 2017 between 4pm and 8pm in the Cafeteria at Bloor Collegiate Institute (1141 Bloor St W) to introduce themselves, meet with you, share their initial thinking for the site and to listen to your ideas.​
 
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