Two holdouts remain in Honest Ed's redevelopment

Lost in all of the discussion related to the flashy new plans for the Honest Ed's site revealed earlier this week is the presence of two key properties that Westbank was not able to secure when it bought a huge chunk of Mirvish

Village back in 2013.

At present, the plan is to build around the buildings at 756 and 758 Bathurst St. If you look closely enough at the renderings distributed at Wednesday's open house, you can see the manner in which these holdouts have been incorporated into the preliminary site designs. Interestingly, they don't really look so out of place. In fact, they provide a nice little historical element to what is otherwise a hyper-contemporary development.

According to Metro, the reason for the holdouts is pretty straightforward: the asking price was too high for Westbank's tastes. Should the project proceed as planned without these buildings, it would be great to see the properties eventually restored in some capacity. Currently home to A Leg Up Pet Services and Alternative Thinking bookstore, they're not exactly in the best shape.

That said, the bones are there. Normally there's more drama related to holdout situations, but this could be the exception to rule.

Photo via the Mirvish Village BIA

by Derek Flack via blogTO