As rumoured earlier this year, Costco Wholesale Corporation, the famous membership-only warehouse club, has plans to open a store on property now owned by Coca Cola on Overlea Blvd. The plans have become public with the announcement of a meeting on Wednesday June 19, 2013 organized by John Parker (Ward 26) and comments made to the South Bayview Bulldog by Abbas Kolia, head of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association. The meeting is described in the notice from Mr. Parker’s office as an opportunity to discuss “possible redevelopment” of the Coca Cola site. It was vacated this spring by the soft drink maker to move downtown to new headquarters on King Street East. In the meantime, preservationists have persuaded the city to make the 1965 buildings part of the “heritage inventory”. This means the site is effectively frozen until and unless agreement is reached to change it. This move is seen less as an effort to save anything historic or culturally valuable at the site than to control what any new owner may wish to do. The Coke office building is frequently said to exhibit “Mad Men” (Madison Avenue) characteristics in the Mid-Century Modern style. Architects will appreciate this. As to Costco, it is said unofficially by Mr Kolia that the discussion so far suggests a new store with employment for as many as 150 people from Ward 26 (which includes Thorncliffe Park). One hundred of these are said to be planned as permanent jobs, 50 are said to be part time. The meeting is scheduled at the Jenner Jean-Marie Centre at 48 Thorncliffe Park Drive between 7 and 9 p.m. on June 19, 2013.
