By Zenab Bagha
The Preston Street Business Improvement Association’s efforts to revitalize the street are finally starting to get a boost from local developers.
Over the last few years, the association has made a number of proposals to beautify the street to attract more business to the area. This fall, the association expects to have an archway up at the intersection of Preston and Carling. The archway has been five years in the making. The hope is that once it is completed, it will attract people travelling from Dow’s Lake and the proposed light rail station on Carling.
“If we don’t act now to improve our street, the value of our properties will go down,” says Mario Giannetti, the association’s president and owner of Preston Hardware.
But Giannetti says the BIA hasn’t been able to do as much as it would have liked to do.
“We have lots of ideas to improve the area. But you can’t do much if you don’t have the money,” he says.
Joe Cotroneo, owner of Pub Italia on Preston Street, agrees.
Cotroneo was the first on the street to construct a sidewalk patio in front of his property, in a pilot project that was approved by the city two years ago. The idea was to make the street look more inviting to pedestrians.
Cotroneo says the success of his patio, which opened last summer, drew “a lot of interest (from merchants) on the street.” But he says it might be some time before the other businesses follow his example.
“A lot of people are positive about this. They saw that in the short time that my patio was open, it was packed with people. But setting up a patio is expensive. Costs can run up to between $20,000 and $25,000, and that’s money from your own pocket,” he says.
However, Giannetti says business has improved thanks to local land developers such as Teknicity Inc. and Sakto Development Corporation. Both are eager to cater to professionals such as Caroline Thompkins, who want to live and work closer to the city’s core.
Thompkins recently moved into one of Teknicity’s loft apartments on Beech Street at Preston. Her loft is one of 30 apartments constructed in what was originally an old factory. The apartments, aimed at professionals between the ages of 25 and 40, quickly sold out.
“The construction on Beech and Preston has helped business on the street dramatically,” says Giannetti. “When these buildings come up, people start coming to the core. The success of our businesses is in people coming to the street and I think this will entice businesses here to cleanup and maybe expand.”
Brian Murray, Sakto’s director of marketing, says the company’s new mixed-use project at the intersection of Preston and the Queensway will do more than just increase business in the area. “(It) will change the face of Preston Street. It will add an extreme amount of value of existing businesses in the area, and if businesses do well then property rates in the area will go up,” he says.
Construction of the $60-million project, which includes 150 residential units, retail space and a 16-storey office tower, is set to begin this spring, next to the Xerox tower, also owned by Sakto.
According to Murray, most businesses on Preston Street welcome the project.
“I can’t wait to see this,” says Tony Rota, who owns Nikkitinna’s Café and Deli on Preston. “This will have an immediate impact on business once it’s completed and occupied. All these people who will come in and reside here, will have the opportunity to explore this area and come down to the stores and restaurants here. That’s going to be a plus. A big-time plus.”