Peterson’s Mirvish Village development in Toronto is ready to take the neighbourhood into its new era. 

Located at the site of the famed, former Honest Ed’s department store at Bloor St. W. and Bathurst, Mirvish Village has been welcoming residents to its first rental towers and the project will soon see the first businesses start operations in its various commercial spaces. 

Mirvish Village is a mixed-use project with just under 900 residential rental units and 200,000 square feet of commercial space including a grocery store, LCBO, the Toronto School of Management and The Kitchen — a food hall inspired eating and dining space. It also has a park and restored heritage buildings. 

Barrett Sprowson, senior vice president, residential with Vancouver-based Peterson, said they first bought into Mirvish Village as a partner roughly 10 years ago with developer Westbank. Peterson took over the entirety of the project earlier this year. 

Ambitious project for former home of Honest Ed's

Before Mirvish Village, Honest Ed’s operated in the neighbourhood for 68 years, until 2016, as a popular discount department store initially led by Ed Mirvish. 

The residential/commercial project, once fully activated, will help the West Coast company deploy capital elsewhere in its growing portfolio, Sprowson said. 

"It's an extremely ambitious redevelopment," he told RENX in an interview. "You've got a city block of space, and so, very complicated and extremely ambitious, and certainly great to see it coming to life now."

Sprowson said the three main segments of the project beyond the rental residential buildings includes Honest Ed's Alley — a “Tokyo-inspired micro-retail segment." The second part, The Kitchen, will be a food hall format with various food, beverage and bar options.

Sprowson said the third component is a section of refurbished heritage homes on Markham St. that will house new businesses. Among the independent retailers and shops in those spaces will be a pizza restaurant, a bakery and a bookstore/lounge space. "Those different components that all fit together and really create a full community," he said.

Toronto represents expanding element of Peterson’s portfolio 

While Toronto is not a new market for Vancouver-based Peterson, it's a burgeoning one in their portfolio. Peterson had previously partnered with Westbank to develop the Shangri-la Toronto. 

"We have other partnerships in the works, but really this is our main focus in Toronto at the moment," Sprowson said. 

"Through the summer we plan to open up the different areas of the commercial retail… experience," he said. In mid-July, they expect to hand over the park to the city. "Markham Street zone is actually already open," he said, noting many tenants there are now finishing the build-out of their spaces. 

Honest Ed's Alley is expected to open later this summer. 

Sprowson said the first two rental buildings are now renting. He said 748 Bathurst is about 85 per cent leased. 

He said the next building, the largest in the community, has 428 homes across three addresses in two towers attached by a podium. That complex is about 80 per cent leased and occupied. 

The next building at 589 Bloor has 68 homes and should receive its occupancy permit soon. 

The remaining two rental buildings on Markham St. should be ready for residents later this summer, or early September. 

Rental pipeline a clear priority moving forward

Sprowson said the company is in the process of assessing their portfolio and stabilizing their assets and process. 

"We're looking at our overall portfolio and prioritizing (and) kind of stabilizing things, so that we can redeploy capital," he said. "At Mirvish Village, we want to get that stabilized and be able to get into (a) position of being able to finish the construction, pay down the loan… so we can go and take that capital and continue with other development projects that are in the pipeline."

He said they're also focused on a development in Kelowna’s Dilworth area. Now under construction, the first phase of the two-building rental project will have 238 homes. Sprowson said that the building should be leasing by this time, next year. 

He said they have several other rental residential projects happening in Vancouver. 

With Mirvish Village’s residential components complete, Peterson will have roughly 2,000 rental homes in their portfolio. “We have approximately another 2,000 units spread across the rest of our B.C. portfolio that are all in the pre-development stage,” Sprowson said. 

"We definitely see the value in staying the course, and there's a lot of developers who are struggling to kind of figure out how to move through this time," Sprowson said. "We've been around for almost 70 years... we'll continue doing what we do... evolving with the market."