Category: Uncategorized

Grocery start up firm Urbery seeking shoppers

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The growth of downtown high-rise living has begun to reveal that home delivery of groceries may be more than a mere solution looking for a problem. Such a to-your-door Toronto start up is Urbery (cute name) which is said to be run by Mudit Rawat, a graduate of the Schulich School of Business. Urbery will shop at any local grocery store — Loblaws, Sobey’s, Longo’s or, one supposes, Summerhill Market — and deliver it within three hours. Dreamy if you need such things but don’t start calling because things are not quite in place yet. The company is searching for people who are mad about shopping to provide a level of service that might build a moneyed clientele. Delivery fee is based on the order size and can run from $9.99 for an order between $0 – $34.99 all the way down to $0 for orders over $99.99. In New York the established service Instacart has a reputation for service such as texting a customer to see if she wants the Expresso beans ground or not. That’s what you call service and it is not easy to achieve. Urbery’s online catalogue is said to offer over 3,000 products but we’re not sure how that works since they are shopping at somebody else’s store. The Wall Street Journal story linked below written by Anna Kadet is very entertaining and has a lot of detailed information like prices and things that can go wrong. She says AmazonFresh is terrifying. It has 500,000 items to choose from or be speechless over. Delivery is frequently in the $4 to  $6 range. Kadet makes an amusing note that her Whole Foods delivery did not cost her the locally-whispered Whole Cheque but in fact was quite  reasonable. Good luck.  Wall Street Journal  Urbery

Disabled man may have been seeking refuge in car

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Police are dealing with a tragic case of exposure to the cold in Etobicoke. A young man, apparently confined to a wheelchair, has been found without vital signs. He was discovered on the driveway of the home where he lives with his mother. The man is in hospital in grave condition. The area had been hit by a power outage and a neighbor, Steve Hurej, speculated that the man may have been trying to get to a car to keep warm. The wheelchair (left) had a heavy blanket or insulating material on it in this picture tweeted by Jeremy Cohn of Global Television.   The address is on Allanhurst Drive. 

Crazy for Cricket underway Saturday on Overlea

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It’s biting cold outside but the auditorium of Valley Park Middle School is warming up Valentine’s night as residents from Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park crowd in to watch tonight’s India-Pakistan match at the 2015 World Cup of Cricket in Australia. These shots were taken about 9 p.m. and there was already a goodly crowd for the game, which was set to start 10.30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field Project. It is the second annual Crazy for Cricket Sleepover Event to be held at the Valley Park Middle School (VPMS) at 130 Overlea Blvd. People are encouraged to bring blankets and pillows and stay the night. There is entertainment and food. 

Crazy for Cricket underway Saturday on Overlea

by  • 

It’s biting cold outside but the auditorium of Valley Park Middle School is warming up Valentine’s night as residents from Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park crowd in to watch tonight’s India-Pakistan match at the 2015 World Cup of Cricket in Australia. These shots were taken about 9 p.m. and there was already a goodly crowd for the game, which was set to start 10.30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field Project. It is the second annual Crazy for Cricket Sleepover Event to be held at the Valley Park Middle School (VPMS) at 130 Overlea Blvd. People are encouraged to bring blankets and pillows and stay the night. There is entertainment and food. 

Rio.Can ponders the departure of Target as tenant

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Rio.Can says it’s monitoring the long-term impact of Target’s closure of its Canadian stores. The real estate trust is owner of local properties at Sunnybrook Plaza, 1860 Bayview at Broadway (the new Whole Foods) Rio.Can Centre at Laird Drive and Eglinton Ave. E. as well its huge complex at Yonge and Eglinton. The only Target store locally was at the East York Town Centre owned by Morguard Invesmtent. But Rio.can has Target as a tenant at 26 locations across Ontario and Canada.  The property manager and developer said Friday it’s not sure how other tenants and prospective customers will react to Target’s closure of 133 stores across Canada. “Demand from tenants in the near term is expected to remain steady with continued upward pressure on rental rates within Canada’s major markets. It remains uncertain, however, what the full impact of Target’s announcement to discontinue its operations in Canada will have on rental rates and tenant demand,” the company told Canadian Press said.

RioCan ponders the departure of Target as tenant

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Rio.Can says it’s monitoring the long-term impact of Target’s closure of its Canadian stores. The real estate trust is owner of local properties at Sunnybrook Plaza, 1860 Bayview at Broadway (the new Whole Foods) Rio.Can Centre at Laird Drive and Eglinton Ave. E. as well its huge complex at Yonge and Eglinton. The only Target store locally was at the East York Town Centre owned by Morguard Invesmtent. But Rio.can has Target as a tenant at 26 locations across Ontario and Canada.  The property manager and developer said Friday it’s not sure how other tenants and prospective customers will react to Target’s closure of 133 stores across Canada. “Demand from tenants in the near term is expected to remain steady with continued upward pressure on rental rates within Canada’s major markets. It remains uncertain, however, what the full impact of Target’s announcement to discontinue its operations in Canada will have on rental rates and tenant demand,” the company told Canadian Press said.

Crazy for Cricket Sleepover on Overlea tonight

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Cricket enthusiasts are invited to gather at the Valley Park Middle School at 130 Overlea Blvd. this evening for the stay-up-all-night watching of the India and Pakistan World Cup match from Australia. See details in  our previous post. And for those who want to know more about cricket, there’s this freshly-released BBC quick-study video. It doesn’t help much but it’s fun. 

Architect’s proposal for Sunnybrook Plaza site

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These images show a proposal for two towers containing residential and commercial units for the site of Sunnybrook Plaza. The South Bayview Bulldog reported on January 14, 2015  that the 1952 plaza was nearing its end. The property is owned by RioCan REIT which has commissioned Turner Fleischer Architects to make these depictions. According to Urban Toronto, the proposed development would feature 13 and 19-storey towers with a combined 426 residential units, made up of 71 one-bedroom, 201 one-bedroom plus dens, 56 two-bedroom and 98 two-bedroom plus dens. Rising to respective heights of 216.5 feet and 164 feet, the two towers would step back from a base building with a predominant height of eight storeys, articulated with stepbacks and setbacks at various heights. The base building would contain residential units on floors 2-8, second floor green roofs flanking a 707 square-metre outdoor amenity area and a 1,014 square-metre indoor amenity space on levels 2 and 3. At ground level 24,929 square feet of commercial retail space would address the Eglinton Avenue and Bayview Avenue frontages. Midway along the Eglinton frontage a sheltered walkway 5.49 metres wide would provide pedestrian access through the building to the north side of the development where vehicular access and the residential lobbies are located. Urban Toronto doesn’t mention parking although there would have to be an underground facility.