I recently asked this on Twitter:
You live in an apartment/condominium. If you could pick one ideal use/tenant for the ground floor of your building, what would it be?
And a number of people responded.
But I suppose I should also answer my own question.
I lean more towards utility. My ideal use — assuming an urban storefront — is not a fancy restaurant or a super cool coffee shop. It would be some sort of quality bodega that:
- Sells essential grocery needs (milk, eggs, toilet paper, etc.)
- Sells wine & beer
- Has a deli/food counter where you can buy a breakfast bagel, a sandwich for lunch, or a quick dinner when you’re in a pinch
- And, yes, has pretty good coffee
It would also need to be open early and late: 7am to 12am, please.
What would you want?
BRANDON DONNELLY 
I think a lot of people would agree with your ideas on this. I, for one, fully agree. But can you name an example of such a bodega? I can’t…
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The model I really like is small shops on the ground floor and large grocery on the 2nd floor. 2nd floor groceries include the Freshco at Bathurst and Nassau, and the T&T on College west of Spadina.
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Bodega, yes! Privately owned rather than a chain, preferred. With some fresh vegetables/fruits, fresh flowers, baked goods and some pre-cooked meals. The closest I’ve seen in Toronto is Marche Leo’s Market. I think it’s run by the LCBO? I go to the one in the Atrium at Bay.
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Well, it is hard to disagree with having the absolute ideal store an elevator ride away. I would however prefer to have a use that was guaranteed to succeed, and if that is not the bodega then whatever is viable. i.e overall I would prefer the ground floors to have the ability to adapt from one use to another (even live/work or shared workspace or…. )so that I was never living in a building with papered-up ground floor windows.
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food uses below residential?? Waste and Vermin are why many condos prohibit food service uses. The plethora of dark retail infesting our city is a tribute to planners who embraced and subverted the “eyes on the street” au courant planning fad.
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What I do NOT want is dark retail. We have a great deal of that in Toronto. Why? Because planners are stuck on this misappropriation of “eyes on the street” which has been subverted into “every single building must have retail at bround floor”. Just to further aggravate that lunacy we have Toronto zoning bylaws that prevent the conversion of that residential to another use, i.e. residential, without a rezoning application with all the expense red tape and paperwork involved. The worst part is the effect of dark retail on the surroundings. It is an urban blight, being visited on locals by our esteemed planners. Does it get more dysfunctional?
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A local developer who did two ‘live/work’ loft buildings advised me he thought it was essential to have a cafe with some outdoor seating or some other kind of business serving food with some chairs and tables on the ground floor facing the sidewalk in each of the buildings he developed.
He thought it important that there was a place for people with businesses living and working in the building to meet co-workers, colleagues, friends or other people living in the building over food and a bevie in a space that was not in their live/work space.
Noticing in our downtowns we have a lot of single people, those opportunities to sit and have a coffee and bite to eat in public also eases social isolation of living alone. Those types of businesses are important for neighbourhoods generally.
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Yes they are important – but our dear city planners have virtually mandated that all of those atrocious condos have ground floor commercial – and food uses are an anthama to residential users for a reason -food waste and vermin – in act many condos prohibit food uses. In any event we have a large oversupply of retail at ground floor that remains dark. For years. That is an urban blight. The problem for both the developer and the community is that the rigidity of the zoning bylaws requires the developer to make a rezoning application to change the use from commercial to residential or even live work. Thus space sits vacant for years. In the midst of a housing crisis. How dead dumb stupid
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