Don't read further if you don't like long posts on supermarket, food, ethnicity,....
I was outside on Yonge Street this morning and I noticed that the "LCBO Opening Soon" sign on the windows fronting Yonge street are being removed. This sign has been up there for over a year now with no stock in the store shelves. There is certainly a message being communicated with the removal of the sign. Anyone care to take a guess?
A more realistic evidence-based view would be the LCBO is likely gone,.... some will say I'm being negative but it's really just honesty with proof and evidence to back it up,....
In the meantime Bazis (same folks who's been promising to complete EmeraldPark TTC entrance and pedestrian tunnel for last 21+ months) is still claiming Metro, Starbucks and LCBO are all coming to EmeraldPark,.... meanwhile Bazis try to off-load the defaulted retail-condo and office-condo units that the original owners couldn't lease or sell.
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-rosario-varacalli.4829/page-134#post-1161460
You already contacted Metro, you know Metro isn't coming to EmeraldPark anymore.
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-rosario-varacalli.4829/page-131#post-1147347
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-rosario-varacalli.4829/page-131#post-1150217
The EmeraldPark "LCBO Opening Soon" sign recently came down,.... so let's look at what we know,....
After Loblaws T&T (Chinese) supermarket bailed EmeraldPark in 2012 due to Bazis numerous construction delivery issues, Metro came in to acquire entire 2nd floor with plans for new format Metro heavy on ready-made food and market-stations all around the perimeter of store - including Starbucks and LCBO,... challenge was how to close off limited hours LCBO within a 24 hour Metro supermarket, hence LCBO is segregated as it's own separate store. Easier since LCBO always operate their own stores with their own unionized employees; there are no real LCBO franchises unless you count "LCBO agency stores" which are regular corner-stores, mini-marts, grocery stores in little towns where the LCBO would have a couple of shelves worth of products in a corner of the store.
In January 2015, the 2nd floor retail space required numerous Committee of Adjustments variances and severances to basically divide the former Loblaws T&T retail space (entire 2nd floor) into 2 separate retail units to host a full Metro supermarket and the LCBO store: loading docks hallways widen and food court washrooms basically eliminated in favour of 2 large exclusive freight elevators for Metro supermarket - food court washroom reduced to 1 toilet and the rest became mall washrooms hidden in hard to find Mezzanine level - between 1st and 2nd floor only accessible via parking-office elevators. Once these variances and severances were granted, LCBO started their store interior construction but Metro didn't.
http://www1.toronto.ca/City Of Toronto/City Planning/Developing Toronto/Files/pdf/J/January-8-2015-NYdecisions.pdf
This 2nd floor site plan shows the "Metro Land" (shaded area) that Metro owns; basically the entire 2nd floor of EmeraldPark except for common areas like stairways, elevators, utility rooms, etc,... Note: Metro also owns some space on first floor (escalator, freight elevator, loading dock space, etc,...)
Thus, the LCBO store would have been a tenant of Metro (landlord).
Notice the address of the LCBO - 22 Poyntz Ave # 201, also notice Owner/Tenant listed as LCBO and Landlord listed as Metro. LCBO 2nd floor retail space along Yonge frontage completed interior construction in Spring 2015 - floors, lighting, shelves, counters, security cameras, even fully furnished break rooms for staff! All collecting dust. "LCBO Opening Soon" signage since then,... 1.75 years already!
This is just the store display area, the walk-in cold beer fridge, office, break-room, storage and utility area doubles the size of this LCBO store.
Even though both Tridel HullmarkCentre and Bazis EmeraldPark started their construction within months of each other,.... Bazis-TMG was so inefficient at construction that,... Metro was observing the completed Tridel HullmarkCentre WholeFoodsMarket (open September 2014) across the street and quickly realize a generic Metro supermarket would be a huge money loser in this area,... favourable density & income level but high & increasing ethnic demographic with high proportion of newer immigrants who prefer shopping at ethnic supermarkets (is LCBO afraid of falling for the same trap? And that they'll just be stealing customers from their other local LCBO stores?). The supermarket part of WholeFoodsMarket (minus it's Cafe) basically has similar number of customers (and lower sales total per customer) as one of the local Korean H-mart mini-marts but the WholeFoodsMarket has 10 times the retail space! Metro tried to unload their EmeraldPark supermarket space on their Adonis (Persian) division which rejected it due to poor parking and poor visibility location.
Delivery of Metro retail space was supposed to be in 2015, but Bazis was still using the 2nd floor Metro supermarket space as a staging area in Spring 2016; so I'm assuming that Metro transaction didn't "close" yet or maybe they had formal permission from Metro to use that space.
All EmeraldPark West Tower residential-condos are assigned 11 Bogert Ave, all East-Tower residential-condos are assigned 9 Bogert Ave, all first floor retail-condo and third floor office-condo are assigned 4750 Yonge Street,.... but the 2nd floor retail is assigned 22 Poyntz Ave. A recent search on 22 Poyntz Ave returns 2 active file with 2016 tax assessments,... thus, the Metro 2nd floor real estate transaction at EmeraldPark finally did close in 2016 since there's no 2015 tax assessments attached to these files. Since the 2nd floor (22 Poyntz Ave) only has 2 retail units (supermarket & LCBO) I expected two files both under Metro since Metro WAS supposed to be the landlord for both units,... instead I found:
- Metro Ontario Real Estate Ltd with 2016 tax assessment value of $2.694million.
- WonMak Inc with 2016 tax assessment value of $1.1718million
Note: Tax assessment value for unfinished units without occupancy is generally about 2/3 of final assessment value which in turn is generally a bit over half of real market price. That would give the Metro space an estimated market value of about $8million and $3.5million for the WonMak space.
Also note, the Legal Description is useless crap based on the old Plan - Lot system of the single residential houses that used to occupy this land. After it gets occupancy permit, the Legal Description changes to the new condo system with TSCP = 2519 Level = 2 and Unit = 1 (LCBO/WonMak?) or 2 (Metro?) which will correspond to the survey of the EmeraldPark development.
Huh? Who's WonMak Inc???
Note: I've blanked out the WonMak Inc mailing address condo unit number for privacy concerns - city records shows that particular residential condo unit is owned by someone with what seems to be a Chinese likely Taiwanese last name and brought it just over a year ago. An internet search of that person's name shows, he *might* be a mid-30 year old academic with wife and toddler,... huh? And he has millions to spend on retail space! Or maybe it's family/parent's money. Or maybe that WonMak Inc mailing address condo unit is among the 35-40% of NorthYorkCentre condo units that are rented out,... and WonMak Inc would be the tenant of that unit. Arghhh,...
Anyways, WonMak Inc. is definitely NOT a Metro subsidiary,... but if Metro is in the habit of putting multi-million dollar real-estate properties in the name of a private individual - I'll be more than happy to volunteer!
The ratio between these two valuation where Metro space assessment is worth twice as much as the WonMak space,... is similar to the ratio of 2nd floor retail space between Metro supermarket area and LCBO retail area,... This site plan shows the supermarket space and the shaded LCBO Store on 2nd floor along Yonge frontage,.... thus, it seems Metro already sold off their LCBO retail space to WonMak Inc,... so now the focus is what's WonMak Inc's intentions?
Continue,.....