Empress Walk is a large Canadian

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

and retail complex in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is located at the intersection of

Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

and Empress Avenue in the

North York Centre North York City Centre is a central business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the administrative district of North York. It is located along Yonge Street, between just south of Sheppard Avenue northward to Finch Avenue with its focus ar ...

area of the

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

district It was developed by Canadian-developers Menkes Developments Ltd. Phase 1 was completed in 1997 and Phase 2 was completed in 2000. It became an important retail complex in

following its construction. The podium of the complex is a three-storey retail mall. It covers topped with a dome, that highlights one of the longest unsupported escalators in North America to give access to the movie theatre from the ground floor. There is a 3,035-seat Cineplex Cinemas movie multiplex featuring a state of the art

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

Theatre. The lowest level has underground access to the North York Centre subway station. Above the retail complex are two 34-storey residential towers, known as the Pinnacle and Royal Pinnacle, with a total of 745 units between them. Major retail anchors inside Empress Walk include

Loblaws Loblaws Inc. is a Canadian supermarket chain with stores located in the province of Ontario, and in Alberta and British Columbia under the Loblaws CityMarket banner. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Loblaws is a subsidiary of Loblaw Companie ...

LCBO The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO, ) is a Crown agency (Ontario), Crown agency that retails and distributes alcoholic beverages throughout the Provinces of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It is accountable to the Legislative Asse ...

Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (colloquially Shoppers; named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories. The company was founded by pharmacist ...

, Cineplex Cinemas,

PetSmart PetSmart Inc. is a privately held American chain of pet Big-box store, superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors ...

, and

Dollarama Dollarama Inc. is a Canadian dollar store retail chain headquartered in Mount Royal, Quebec. Since 2009, it has been Canada's biggest retailer of items for five dollars or less. Dollarama has over 1400 stores and is active in all of Canada; Onta ...

History

Since the 1970s, local politician

Mel Lastman Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and the 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to s ...

wanted to turn central North York into a second downtown for Toronto. Until 1998, a separate city from Toronto with the regional government of Metropolitan Toronto. Lastman began a wave of development proposals that eventually led to a large number of high-rise and government buildings being constructed along Yonge Street, leading to the creation of

within the larger existing neighbourhood of Willowdale. Menkes Developments Ltd. constructed many of the condominium complexes in North York Centre including, Gibson Square, Ultima, Broadway. It initially proposed the development in the early 1990s,

Toronto Centre for the Arts Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America. The city ...

and other developments were already underway in North York at the time. In the mid-1990s, Menkes put forward a proposal for a mall and residential complex in the center of North York Centre. This move coincided with the 1998 Toronto amalgamation where the surrounding cities and one

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

became part of the City of Toronto. While controversial, many districts such as North York prospered in the years following the move. Empress Walk was built as part of Mel Lastman's bid to create a downtown in North York to rival

's. Empress Walk remains a hub of activity, while also spurring on new condominium projects being built north and south of it today. Its residential building, which was completed at the same time as the retail complex, was for decades one of the tallest buildings in North York until being surpassed by newer developments such as the Hullmark Centre. Empress Walk and other major developments in the nearby area meant North York Centre became a second central business district for the City of Toronto from the 1990s onwards. The plans for Empress Walk meant that the

North York Centre station North York Centre is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway system. The station is located under Yonge Street, where it is intersected by Park Home Avenue and Empress Avenue. The station, the system's first and only ...

could be integrated with the new mall, giving residents of the towers access to the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rai ...

system.

Nearby

Behind the Empress Walk complex on its east side is Princess Park, commemorating the original sites of the first municipal building and fire hall of North York. It features the façade of the former Township of North York Municipal Offices from the 1940s, while the bell/clock tower from the fire hall has been reconstructed and serves as the centrepiece for the park. Across the street, and connected via the TTC tunnel, are

Mel Lastman Square Mel Lastman Square is a public square at North York Civic Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is named after then North York mayor (and later Toronto mayor) Mel Lastman. It was officially opened on June 16, 1989, by Norman Jewison and Mel Las ...

, the

North York Civic Centre The North York Civic Centre is a municipal government building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened in 1979 as the city hall of the former city of North York. It is located in North York City Centre. Designed by Adamson Associates Architects, ...

, the

North York City Centre North York City Centre is a central business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the administrative district of North York. It is located along Yonge Street, between just south of Sheppard Avenue northward to Finch Avenue with its focus aroun ...

office tower and

Novotel Novotel is a French midscale hotel brand owned by Accor. Created in 1967 in France, the company grew into what became the Accor group in 1983, and Novotel remained a pillar brand of Accor's multi-brand strategy. Novotel manages 559 hotels in 65 ...

. Next door, and connected via a passageway is the 5075 Yonge Street tower, with

Scotiabank The Bank of Nova Scotia (), operating as Scotiabank (), is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada's Big Five (banks), Big Five banks, it is the ...

and Upper Madison College. In 2000, the property was acquired by RioCan REIT, a Canadian real estate investment trust.

Tenants

Anchor tenants

* Cineplex Cinemas (originally Famous Players SilverCity &

Empire Theatres Empire Theatres Limited was a movie theatre chain in Canada, a subsidiary of Empire Company Ltd., the holding company of the Sobey family conglomerate. In June 2013, Empire announced it would exit the movie theatre business, selling the vas ...

) (Cineplex had merged with Famous Players in the 1990s and sold its Empress Walk location as it had a nearby Cineplex Sheppard Grande theatre at Sheppard Avenue and Yonge Street. In 2013, when Empire Theatres exited the Ontario market, Cineplex reacquired and renovated the Empress Walk location, while the Cineplex Sheppard Grande was demolished in 2016 as part of a major redevelopment Yonge Sheppard Centre. *

(formerly part of

Indigo Books and Music Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten Provinces and territori ...

then converted into a multi level retail space, now a one level

) * Loblaws Empress Market (this is the first time Loblaws operated an underground store)

List of current tenants

Shinhan Bank Shinhan Bank Co., Ltd. () is a South-Korean bank headquartered in Seoul. It was founded under this name in 1982, but through its merger with Chohung Bank in 2006, traces its origins to the Hanseong Bank (est. 1897), one of the first banks t ...

Wendy's Wendy's International, LLC, is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (businessman), Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of D ...

(formerly Fabricland and originally

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchising, franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when ...

) *

(formerly Solutions, Staples, prior to that;

originally) * F45 Training * The Second Cup * RBC Meeting Place (formerly

Milestones Grill and Bar Milestones Restaurants Inc. (doing business as Milestones Grill and Bar) is a restaurant chain owned by Foodtastic. There are over 40 locations across British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. History The fir ...

) * Shinta BBQ (formerly

) * Petit Potato (formerly

) * Real Fruit Bubble Tea *

(formerly Best Buy Canada re-branded from

Future Shop Future Shop was a Canadian electronics store chain. It was established in 1982 by Hassan Khosrowshahi. By 1990, the chain had become the country's largest retailer of computer and consumer electronics. In October 2012, the company operated 149 l ...

, prior to that

Sport Chek Sport-Chek International 2000 Ltd. (doing business as Sport Chek) is the largest Canadian retailer of sporting clothing and sports equipment, with 191 stores throughout Canada as of 2020. It is the only national big box sporting goods retailer i ...

). Shoppers Drug Mart had a smaller store south of Empress Walk at the base of the Ultima Condominiums which was part of the Broadway by Menkes project in 2004-2005 * The second floor also includes a dance studio and many health clinics.

References

{{Shopping Malls in the Golden Horseshoe Buildings and structures in Toronto Residential condominiums in Canada Residential buildings completed in 1997 Residential buildings completed in 2000 Cineplex Entertainment Shopping malls in Toronto North York Toronto Transit Commission 1997 establishments in Ontario