This multi-storey building over the LCBO at Bank and McLeod streets is similar to a proposed development over the Beer Store at Somerset Street.
With plans for a new Beer Store on Somerset Street in the works, Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes is calling for an expanded development to include residential space.
This area needs to be enlivened,” Holmes says. “This is an opportunity to reanimate this part of Somerset Street.”
Current plans for the property being developed by Starbank Development Corp. call for a slightly larger Beer Store with two additional adjacent retail spaces. There are currently no plans for residential development on the property.
“It is a complete underdevelopment of the land in an area where we really need to see some intensification,” Holmes says. “This is an ideal location for a mixed-use development.”
The space across from Dundonald Park is currently home to a single-storey Beer Store outlet with a large parking lot on a mostly commercial part of Somerset Street.
The city-wide land-use plan allows for much taller developments than what currently exists on the property. It recommends four- to six-storey developments with street-front commercial space and residential space on top.
The property is in the heart of Centretown with close access to transit, green space and other downtown amenities. It is a few blocks from Bank Street and the Chinatown business area.
“This is where we want more people to live,” Holmes says. “It’s right across the street from a beautiful park, people can walk to work downtown, this area would greatly benefit from more retail and residential development.”
Holmes says it is unfortunate that Starbank, the Toronto-based development company in charge of the property, specializes in small commercial developments and not residential.
Completed projects on the company’s website are mainly small stand-alone retail and bank locations with larger parking lots.
A Beer Store being renovated by another developer on Bank Street in the Glebe is being turned into a five-storey building with retail on the street and residential above.
Holmes says the city is doing its best to convince the developer to include housing development at the Somerset property.
“We’re all trying to pressure the owner to put residential on this site,” Holmes says. “We can advise and stress the need, but ultimately the city doesn’t have the capacity to make the owner put in residential.”
In an email statement, Starbank owner Dung Lam said the company has filed site plans with the city after consultations with the city planning department and they expect positive feedback.
“It is the opinion of our own planners (Novatech Engineering) that a higher rise building would not be appropriate for a predominately residential area. Indeed local resident owning properties adjacent to the development have filed a written objection to higher rise building,” Lam said in the email.
Stacy Tang, a 21-year-old Somerset Street resident, is skeptical a taller residential building will improve the neighbourhood.
“As long as a Beer Store is there it’s going to attract strange people to this part of the neighbourhood,” Tang says. “I don’t think adding more residents will change that.”
The Somerset Street redevelopment is part of a wider makeover of several Beer Store locations across the province. The new locations feature more modern interior designs, touch-screen displays of products, more refrigerated beer and an updated bottle return area.