![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI learned from Torontoist's Steve Kupferman that the World's Biggest Bookstore--a huge bookstore in downtown Toronto at 20 Edward Street, just north and west of Yonge and Dundas--is set to close. Bert Archer at Yonge Street seems to have been the first to carry the news.
Wikipedia's potted summary of the store's history may not quite communicate the centrality of the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto. Suffice it to say that it's been Toronto's largest retail space for books in three decades, with sixty-four thousand square feet devoted to bookselling.
Over at Torontoist, commenter CRS suggests that this news item doesn't quite get the whole story, that this is instead a sort of a negotiating tactic adopted by the owners in response to the request from the World's Biggest Bookstore's owners for lower rent, in the context of the general decline of bookselling.
It's not spun that way in the Toronto Star, though. It looks like the huge real estate potential of the site, located literal steps away from Yonge Street in the middle of downtown Toronto, is key.
The current lease on the building, held by Indigo Books and Music, runs out at the end of 2013 and is not being renewed. The owners, the family of the late Jack Cole, co-founder, with his brother, Carl, of Coles Books, still own the 64,000-square-foot building they converted from a bowling alley in 1980.
According to Stuart Smith, a VP at CBRE Commercial Real Estate Services, who is handling the account, the owners would like to rent it to a single tenant. “It’s the rarity of an envelope of this size in an area this far downtown that makes it so unusual,” he says.
Wikipedia's potted summary of the store's history may not quite communicate the centrality of the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto. Suffice it to say that it's been Toronto's largest retail space for books in three decades, with sixty-four thousand square feet devoted to bookselling.
The store was started in 1980 by Jack Cole and Carl Cole, former owners of Coles Bookstore.
At the time of its opening in 1980, in a converted bowling alley, it went unchallenged in its claim as the biggest bookstore in the world. Although it retains the name today, the Guinness Book of World Records currently lists a Barnes and Noble outlet in New York City as the world's largest bookstore based on floor space, although Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon is usually considered the largest based on shelf-space. Nevertheless, World's Biggest Bookstore still claims the title on the basis that it depends on how "biggest" is defined: while Barnes and Noble has more floor space, World's Biggest Bookstore carries more titles.
The World's Biggest Bookstore was the first of the book "superstores", and was purchased from Coles by Chapters Inc, which itself was formed from the merger of the Coles bookstore chain and SmithBooks. Although it retains its unique name, its stock, distribution and advertising are closely integrated with the Chapters and Indigo chains.
It is noted for its bright lights and over 20 kilometres of bookshelves.
Over at Torontoist, commenter CRS suggests that this news item doesn't quite get the whole story, that this is instead a sort of a negotiating tactic adopted by the owners in response to the request from the World's Biggest Bookstore's owners for lower rent, in the context of the general decline of bookselling.
Hold your horses, kids! From what I've heard, Mrs. Coles, widow of Jack Coles and who owns the property and is in her nineties, has stipulated that as long as she is alive the property must be a bookstore out of respect for her husband's accomplishments. The property is not up for sale, but rather the building is for rent. It is much more likely that Indigo will renew the lease on a year by year basis, as it would be simplest for everyone involved. It would be difficult to find a company financially confident enough to pay for the overhaul and rebranding required to transfigure a space like that without the knowledge that they own it. WBB will be around for a little while longer - no fear.
It's not spun that way in the Toronto Star, though. It looks like the huge real estate potential of the site, located literal steps away from Yonge Street in the middle of downtown Toronto, is key.
“The existence of a large retail space like this, just steps from Yonge and Dundas is the hen’s tooth of all hen’s teeth — incredibly rare,” said broker Stuart Smith, vice-president of the urban retail group for commercial real estate company CB Richard Ellis.
“I’ve had the biggest of the big (retailers) looking at it from all over the world.”
The big draw is location, location, location. The store sits in the epicentre of a condo boom that’s added tens of thousands of shoppers to the downtown.
While it may not have a door on Yonge St., the property is within steps of some pretty major downtown developments.
They include a major expansion of the nearby Ryerson University campus and, just around the corner, construction of Canderel’s 78-storey condo and retail complex, the tallest residential condo in Canada. Those projects, and others, are expected to kick-start a major remake of Yonge St.
The two-storey building also offers bargains of another kind: Leasing costs that are almost unheard of downtown at roughly $25 per square foot, plus $8 per square foot in operating costs and taxes. (Yet for a property that size, the rent is $1.5 million a year.)
For property right on Yonge St., costs are a combined $150 to $200 per square foot, said Smith.
“It’s a suburban site (in size) with suburban taxes in a completely urban environment,” said Smith. “It’s the biggest thing to come up for rent downtown since Maple Leaf Gardens,” now a bustling Loblaws.
