Canadian Retail Thread

[MonkeyRonin]

Not too surprising of a result when you look past the hyperbole around new development.

Independent retail still thriving at street level in Toronto: study

If you think new residential development is turning Toronto's ground floor into a sea of Starbucks and Subways, think again.

By: Luke Simcoe
Metro
Published on Mon Jun 27 2016



A Toronto planner is discounting the theory that downtown storefronts are turning into a sea of chains as condos boom overhead.

“I live downtown, and I walk downtown, and that’s not what I see,” said Sean Galbraith, president of the Galbraith and Associates planning firm.

Plus, he’s got the raw numbers to prove it.

Galbraith recently completed a study of downtown Toronto retail, comparing the make-up of stores in older buildings with their newer counterparts. The study catalogued 478 commercial units across 138 locations downtown.

“The results surprised a lot of people,” he said.

Independent retail and commercial stores are still thriving in Toronto’s downtown core, he said. In fact, 64 per cent of businesses located at the foot of mid-rise or high-rise buildings downtown are independent, he said.

Article: http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/201...thriving-at-street-level-in-toronto.html

The study: http://www.galbraithplanning.com/blog/2016/6/16/downtown-toronto-commerical-uses