Scores of restaurants and residential developments have arrived in Little Italy over the years, however, according to the Preston Street Business Improvement Area the growth has been uneven and has left the growing community vastly underserviced.
In response, the BIA has hired consultants and is currently undertaking a study to find out what kind of businesses residents want and need to attract to the street.
Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street BIA, says Little Italy desperately needs a grocery store and could use businesses such as a liquor store, women’s clothing and accessories shops and book stores.
“We are having trouble attracting retail to the street; organically it’s not coming on its own. So we’re trying to develop a tool set that will help us actively seek retailers from the street,” says Mellor.
She says time and time again she hears from residents who say they can’t get and shopping done and have to drive everywhere.
“We’re aiming for a sustainable community where you can walk to all the amenities,” says Mellor.
Phase one of the project was hiring John Blatherwick a consultant specializing in statistics.
He’s been examining the immediate and greater Preston Street area to determine how underserviced the community is and what specifically it needs.
Blatherwick’s analysis of Preston Street shows that the neighbourhood’s core population comprises 8,600 households that posess $677 million in disposable income. Beyond the tw-km radius around Preston Street there is a larger market of 30,000 households.
To meet those residents’ needs, Preston Street needs to attract 125,000 sq. ft. in retail space in addition to the 121,500 sq. feet the street already has.
While Preston Street is designated a traditional main street in the city’s official plan, Blatherwick says the street never had the mix of businesses that usually defined traditional main streets like Bank Street and Wellington Avenue in Westborough.
“Traditionally, Preston Street was defined by warehouses and manufacturing but it has transformed from what it was and slowly but surely becoming a more mixed street, from Queensway to Carling Avenue,” says Blatherwick.
Having complete phase one, gathering statistics on Little Italy’s market and its business profile, Mellor says that she has now distributed more than 1,000 surveys to residents and local businesses to find out exactly what sorts of retail they would like to attract to the neighbourhood.
The survey, which is also available on the BIA’s website asks people how they get to Little Italy, how often they come, what they come for, and what sorts of businesses they think the neighbourhood needs.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she thinks the BIA is doing a good job of trying to attract more retail but warned that the street will need to balance their work to attract retail with some willingness to curb the often lucrative restaurant establishments.
Holmes says that restaurants can simply afford to pay higher rent and will often approach building owners and offer them double the rent to lease their buildings.
“It has to work economically as well, that’s what happened to Elgin street, restaurants offered more rent and so in went another restaurant,” says Holmes.
One course of action Holmes says that could help diversify Preston’s businesses is if council, or the committee of adjustments refused to grant restaurants waivers for the high parking requirements as required by city bylaws.
“It could work, but it takes discipline to say no to some of the offers that come along,” says Holmes.