ScubaRoomba
New Member
Agreed and may be harder for the smaller stores to compete with a big one like Metro in a prominent building.
Frontier | 30m | 8s | Truman | S2
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
trtcttc
Senior Member
As part of the project, they’ve widened both the E and W sidewalks on 18th street on the North side. This is great as that’s a popular route to the school nearby and had a number of collisions in the past. And I think this is the first permanent infrastructure for the Kensington lane reduction, which is still in “pilot” with the temporary blocks.
trtcttc
Senior Member
The FreshCo signs are up! Similar size to the No Frills in WVT
Zoom
Active Member
Another inner city grocer opens up!
trtcttc
Senior Member
What still surprised me is the lack of grocery in Bridgeland. With the LRT and the new condos there, very surprised nothing has opened. I know there is Bridgeland market, but that’s smaller and not really a full service grocery store
I think Bridgeland is close to critical mass for a grocery store. Aside from some of the bigger projects, there have been a lot of smaller multifamily infills. I would love to see an urban grocer on the north side of 1st ave with 5 storeys of residential on top.
trtcttc
Senior Member
Also the official opening is Aug 14.
AK452
New Member
I didn't understand how the FreshCo would be situated. The photo from trtcttc was the first to give an idea, but I was still confused. See below, but basically each side of the building is a two-way drive-in/out to access FreshCo parking, which is a huge hangar-like bay taking up the entire rear. There is indeed some frontage area and a door, dwarfed by the Metro next door, but at least offering some pedestrian appeal. But the larger entrance is actually accessed from the parking bay, probably mostly by people driving in.
It's an interesting layout. An issue with urban groceries is blight, say from an ugly parking lot and from featureless outside walls. Here the parking is covered and easy to get to. Not huge, but seems decent for a small-for-FreshCo store. It's better than our urban Safeways, which are highly accessible from surface lots but also unattractive. The University District NoFrills solved it with a surface lot not far away, plus a massive underground parkade. But those parkades are a bit off-putting if you just want to pop in quickly. Here, FreshCo parking is very easy to get to, with an entrance right there. It also appears separated from the main parkade, which is accessed from rear alley. So they stand a good chance of reserving the parking for FreshCo customers only. A nice touch is that the entire back of the building is styled consistently with the rest, rather than featureless brick. The rear is heavy on the green spandrel, but there are a bunch of doors (not sure what if anything they access) that make it almost lived in.
It should successfully cater to car culture, where realistically even locals will often drive next door for groceries. I suppose there's some rush hour traffic on Kensington, which despite traffic calming measures, is a main artery for people leaving downtown. Now they can very easily pop in and pick something up. Maybe the huge Metro is also part of the same calculation that says cars will come?
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with how they tucked in a real grocery store in a walkable area without destroying the atmosphere, AND providing accessible parking. I'm very optimistic.
Each side has a two-way drive-in/out: This is the west side, and right next door will be the new Crave cupcake/coffee shop.
And other side, at an angle where the "main entrance" is visible:
It's an interesting layout. An issue with urban groceries is blight, say from an ugly parking lot and from featureless outside walls. Here the parking is covered and easy to get to. Not huge, but seems decent for a small-for-FreshCo store. It's better than our urban Safeways, which are highly accessible from surface lots but also unattractive. The University District NoFrills solved it with a surface lot not far away, plus a massive underground parkade. But those parkades are a bit off-putting if you just want to pop in quickly. Here, FreshCo parking is very easy to get to, with an entrance right there. It also appears separated from the main parkade, which is accessed from rear alley. So they stand a good chance of reserving the parking for FreshCo customers only. A nice touch is that the entire back of the building is styled consistently with the rest, rather than featureless brick. The rear is heavy on the green spandrel, but there are a bunch of doors (not sure what if anything they access) that make it almost lived in.
It should successfully cater to car culture, where realistically even locals will often drive next door for groceries. I suppose there's some rush hour traffic on Kensington, which despite traffic calming measures, is a main artery for people leaving downtown. Now they can very easily pop in and pick something up. Maybe the huge Metro is also part of the same calculation that says cars will come?
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with how they tucked in a real grocery store in a walkable area without destroying the atmosphere, AND providing accessible parking. I'm very optimistic.
Each side has a two-way drive-in/out: This is the west side, and right next door will be the new Crave cupcake/coffee shop.
And other side, at an angle where the "main entrance" is visible:
trtcttc
Senior Member
For context, this is the interior layout. From top left to top right, it goes - Crave Cupcakes, Sinatras Pizza, Club Pilates, Freshco, Metro Liquor, Kensington Tailor, for lease. The Metro space has a large frontage, but it's not as deep as the Freshco.
The white panels with the down arrows will be removed, I think they just didn't do it in time. One of the windows not pictured on the left is a staff rest area, so that'll remain covered. The parking was originally for all retail, but I guess Freshco paid for it to be only for them, or as a condition for the lease. There's some vocal people in the community about parking, and the parking design faces a back street that was hard to utilize. This was the best outcome, originally Sunterra was looking at moving their location West of Crowchild, then Blush Lane, then Sauce Italian Kitchen, and finally Freshco. I was a bit doubtful given the two Safeways already nearby, but I think Sobey's is pushing small format grocery like the Loblaw's No Frills downtown (there's many of these "newer" type No Frills in Toronto downtown). Great addition to the area and I think isn't going to drive any problematic amount of traffic.
AK452
New Member
Haha, I'm in the community but missed the public engagements altogether. People would normally complain about traffic from a parkade, but I agree this was a good outcome. For FreshCo, better than surface and better than underground. Not sure about how the other retailers will feel, will people park underground to get a cupcake? Or maybe there's enough street parking.
I'm theoretically a supporter of small, local boutiques and do shop at Sunterra, but in reality will have more use for walkable FreshCo
. (I'm also theoretically anti-NIMBY but would protest say a Boston Pizza in Kensington.)The management did a nice job signing a mix of local and chain, while nearby storefronts go empty.
trtcttc
Senior Member
There's also a bit of surface parking to the right in that short street between Legion and Frontier. There's also underground in the Legion, not sure if it's paid or free though.Haha, I'm in the community but missed the public engagements altogether. People would normally complain about traffic from a parkade, but I agree this was a good outcome. For FreshCo, better than surface and better than underground. Not sure about how the other retailers will feel, will people park underground to get a cupcake? Or maybe there's enough street parking.
I'm theoretically a supporter of small, local boutiques and do shop at Sunterra, but in reality will have more use for walkable FreshCo
The management did a nice job signing a mix of local and chain, while nearby storefronts go empty.
I think popularizing these lower cost grocery stores in urban settings would actually help local businesses. Instead of having a fancy grocery with butcher and seafood counter, now there's a Freshco for basics and small business can open for those specialized needs (specific meats, ethnic cuisine, etc.)
There's not a lot of vacant storefronts in the area. The one by Amato could use a bit of a refresh though. 226 new households is a pretty big increase in customers too.
AK452
New Member
FreshCo has decent frontage, which wasn't apparent until quite recently.
The sidewalk is nice and wide with bench seating, and there's some street parking. As @trtcttc mentioned, there are also perpendicular spots around the corner, handy for picking up a cupcake at Crave.
This door suggests there will be commercial parking, although the parkade entrance doesn't have signage yet.
Metro isn't as big I originally expected, turns out it's not that deep:
The nearby neighbors see this in back. Not bad. Apparently there's a little bit of depth before hitting the parking bay,, so those doors may lead to something.
Here's the underground parkade entrance. Again, probably commercial friendly.
View at northwest corner, with some landscaping.
This little area has been revitalized quite quickly. Go down to 19 St NW and there's a coffee shop, bubble tea, hamburgers, ice cream, eyeglasses, dry cleaner, Vietnamese food, coffee, diner, paint store. Some of them have been around a long time, and there have been regular line-ups at Made by Marcus for a few years. But I mark Pocket Coffee as the point of critical mass, when people would stroll by and run into neighbors. Frontier is a massive building yet somehow integrates with the neighborhood well.
The sidewalk is nice and wide with bench seating, and there's some street parking. As @trtcttc mentioned, there are also perpendicular spots around the corner, handy for picking up a cupcake at Crave.
This door suggests there will be commercial parking, although the parkade entrance doesn't have signage yet.
Metro isn't as big I originally expected, turns out it's not that deep:
The nearby neighbors see this in back. Not bad. Apparently there's a little bit of depth before hitting the parking bay,, so those doors may lead to something.
Here's the underground parkade entrance. Again, probably commercial friendly.
View at northwest corner, with some landscaping.
This little area has been revitalized quite quickly. Go down to 19 St NW and there's a coffee shop, bubble tea, hamburgers, ice cream, eyeglasses, dry cleaner, Vietnamese food, coffee, diner, paint store. Some of them have been around a long time, and there have been regular line-ups at Made by Marcus for a few years. But I mark Pocket Coffee as the point of critical mass, when people would stroll by and run into neighbors. Frontier is a massive building yet somehow integrates with the neighborhood well.
trtcttc
Senior Member
The underground is also resident parking. I'd think it's similar to some of the condos in Kensington. CPA/Impark, etc. on P1, with a separate gate for resident access. the plaza on the NE side of Kensington/19th also has a deceptively high number of businesses, mostly professional services. Once West Nineteenth is built, I think it'd really become a node of its own, rather than just "a bit West of Kensington".