For 65 years, Honest Ed’s characteristic signage and flashing lights have been a hallmark of the Annex neighbourhood, but one day its gaudy facade will be another page in Toronto’s history.
Last week’s announcement about the impending sale of Honest Ed’s was a shocker for some, but to the retailers of Mirvish Village it was only a matter of time until it happened. Now, the reality of the disappearance of one of Toronto’s most recognizable buildings is setting in.
“We’ve been here since 1991 and without fail every year people would come in and say ‘So I heard they’re going to sell Honest Ed’s,” says Suspect Video owner Luis Ceriz. “I never really saw it happening, not when Ed Mirvish was alive, and I really didn’t see it happening with David [Mirvish].”
“After the senior died, I kind of thought of Honest Ed’s as being the physical representation of his legacy,” Ceriz says. “It’s almost like this is where it started. This is the stepping stone to everything that the Mervishes built, not just in Toronto but elsewhere, and it becomes a giant memorial to his father.”
Paul Kilthei, assistant manager of The Beguiling agrees. “It seems like something that was going to happen at some point. It’s not too much of a surprise. It’s just a surprise that they announced it [on Tuesday],” he says.
In Toronto there seems to be little room for kitschy relics like Honest Ed’s. The loss of the giant bargain store is reminiscent of the closure of Sam the Record Man, which filed bankruptcy on October 30, 2001, and shuttered its doors for good on June 30, 2007.
“Those buildings were very idiosyncratic,” says Ceriz. “They had big garish signs, and the interiors were not antiseptic, predesigned structures. They are very much different buildings where holes were cut through and cobbled together into this big giant store, ya know?”
When Honest Ed’s finally does sell, and the construction cranes go up to assemble the next big thing at Bloor and Bathurst, David Mirvish has gone on record saying he wants to see a mixture of retail and residential properties.
Right now, Mirvish Village is home to many unique stores. The Beguiling is world renowned for being the go-to place for independent comics and graphic novels. Suspect is one of the few video stores left, and in its shady confines you can find DVDs, VHS, and Blu Rays of everything from recent blockbusters and black and white B-movies.
But it will be three years until anything happens, so the retailers of Mirvish Village have a lot of time to weigh their options. Since all of Mirvish Village is on the chopping block, Ceriz and Kilthei both say they will probably have to find somewhere else to go but they aren’t sweating it right now.
A Different Booklist is famous for contributing a lot to black literary culture in the Annex neighbourhood that has more bookstores than anywhere else in the city. Owner Miguel San Vincente assures us that his store will be sticking around in some form. “We certainly want people to feel that we have a continued commitment to the store, to making a valuable contribution to the community, and to the literary world,” he says.
A recent motion at City Hall to freeze retail developments along Bathurst from Queen Street West to Dupont should not have any effect on the redevelopment. The motion, which passed with a 36-1 vote, puts a moratorium on new retail along that strip for one year, but it will be three years until the Mirvish Village site is redeveloped.
The Mirvishes were regarded as great landlords by their retail tenants. They offered low lease rates that made it possible for such a variety of eclectic independent shops to move into the Annex. Vincente says he’s always had a good relationship with the Mirvishes, and has always found the lease reasonable. If a major corporate developer moves in, those low rates could be a thing of the past.
“We have a couple of leases since we have two stores on the block and have always found it very easy to come to an agreement with [the Mirvishes],” writes Peter Birkemoe, owner of The Beguiling. “In many ways our business has long since out-grown the space on Markham Street (as was obvious to anyone shopping there) but the reasonable rents and being around so many other cool businesses made it unpalatable to look elsewhere.”
Ceriz says that Suspect Video’s lease rate has always been very affordable, although he wouldn’t disclose any numbers. He also says that some artists have studios in Mirvish Village because they only have to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for rent.
Right now, the future looks murky for the tenants of Mirvish Village.
“I’m generally pessimistic when they tear down a landmark and the first thing they say isn’t that they’re going to preserve the neighbourhood as much as possible,” says Kilthei. “Any time there’s a change with the bottom line as the motivating force you can’t help but be a little concerned.”
