Beyond Aesthetics: Assessing the Value of Strip Mall Retail in Toronto

Abstract

Many city planners are increasingly focusing on urban design guidelines to shape future growth. However, the social implications of this type of planning rarely appear in city plans. Toronto's new planning policies are shown to establish a polarized view of the city, focusing on aesthetic concerns rather than the use and users of spaces. Interviews with small business owners and local planners were used to establish the benefits of, and threats to, strip malls. The findings reveal that strip malls provide affordable retail space for small businesses not available elsewhere and the spaces are seen as highly desirable by many ethnic business owners. This paper highlights some of the problems associated with design-centric planning.

Notes

1. Affordability is used here to refer to the cost of rental space for business owners, rather than for consumers.

2. Arterials are defined by the City of Toronto's road classification system (2002) as streets where traffic movement is a primary function, speed limits are between 40–60 km/hr and streets accommodate more than 1500 bus passengers per day. This definition of arterials is used by city policies to classify streets for the Avenues redevelopment strategy.

3. While the majority of Toronto's subway system was completed by the late 1970s, new stations were added in 1987 (North York Centre), 1996 (Downsview Station), and 2002 (Sheppard Line). These later stations are all in North York and noted in Figure 2.

4. Interviews with two residential developers confirmed development pressure along these arterials, especially for sites located adjacent to subway stations.

5. While not a comprehensive study, retail real estate professionals interviewed confirmed significantly lower lease rates for strip mall units compared to other retail forms. For example, in 2009 newly constructed strip mall units averaged $18–24/square foot while street front units averaged $20–90/square foot (Cushman & Wakefield, 2011). Although data were not available for the type of older construction discussed here, it was estimated that rates could be as low as $9/square foot (Interview with Cushman & Wakefield representative, 2011).

6. Total leasable area is another important factor, as retail leases are usually assessed by the square foot. While most units constructed between 1950–1970s have similarly modest leasable areas, units in new mid-rise buildings have a much larger footprint.

7. A further issue that was not raised in discussion with business owners but was mentioned in interviews with retail developers is the requirement of 10-year leases in many larger shopping malls.

8. As those interviewed identified themselves and the community they served as ‘Persian’ rather than ‘Iranian’, this term has been retained in this discussion.

9. Toronto's ‘Mixed Use Area’ zoning allows for commercial, residential and institutional uses (City of Toronto, 2002). While retail uses are considered a subset of the commercial designation (which also includes the office designation), the Avenues Strategy is explicit in preferring retail uses for street-level units. The strip malls studied here had mainly retail ground floor uses, with office space on the second floor, if present.