Costco offers to include 1965 Coke building in new store

Proposed Costco looking southeast with 1965 office seen on left facing Overlea

Costco Wholesale Corporation has changed it plans for a store at the site of the former Coca Cola bottling plant and office building at 42-46 Overlea Blvd. to include the main part of the 1965 office building in its new store. This is a change from plans published last year which called for the demolition of the old Coke headquarters. The City has placed the office on its heritage list but there was an open debate among architects as to its actual value in historic terms.  But now Costco has proposed to retain it in the plans for a warehouse store. A small original addition to the office building will still be demolished under the plan.

In announcing this Monday night at the William Lea Room, Toronto chief planner Steve Forrester said there would be many people, including city employees, who did not know of this change. It had been made only within the last few days, he said. The meeting was held to hear public input on a request by Coscto to build what it calls ancillary parking to the north and west of the proposed store beside a little used portion of Thorncliffe Park Drive.

The land is owned mainly by Ontario Hydro, which is agreeable to leasing it as parking. A smaller parcel is owned by the City of Toronto. In total it would accommodate 124 cars and be used by employees only, the meeting was told. The need for more parking comes about as result of the decision to retain the old Coke office building, which would now form the portion of the Costco building which faces Overlea. The store and the parking in the original plan have been swapped so that parking is now at the northeast end of the property at 42-46 Overlea. The retention of the office building reduced planned parking from 655 spaces to 548. The additional 124 spaces across Thorncliffe Park are required to meet the expected demand. The new store will be 160,000 square feet with the main door on the east of the building facing the parking lot. The Walter Yarwood Coca Cola sculpture will be retained in its present position in a small square on Overlea. The square now sits below grade and Costco proposes to raise it and the sculpture to ground level for ease of access to the building .