This topic is #Trending!  Geez, I can’t believe I went there…

But regardless of the medium in which you’ve heard the news, this story truly is everywhere!

I’m almost 33 years old, and I have never been inside Honest Ed’s.  At least, not that I know of…

Perhaps at some point, on a school trip twenty-five years ago, I ventured into the Toronto landmark.  But no part of me in my adult life has said, “Hmmmm…..I think this Saturday afternoon, I might go look for a pair of 99-cent pants.”

I love Mirvish Village though.  It’s full of unreal restaurants and bars; Southern Accent playing the home to several pretty important events in the lives of my close group of friends.  There’s also a great Korean BBQ place on the north side of Bloor, that we refer to as “The Place,” for lack of a better description, since we don’t know the name, or the address, but we know where it is.  Aren’t those restaurants the best?

But alas, this might all come crashing down.

By now, you have all heard through Twitter, Facebook, every Toronto newspaper, and CP24 playing over and over in your dentist’s office that the corner of Bloor & Bathurst is up for sale, and there certainly can’t be doubt in anybody’s mind that this thing WILL sell!  If Scotia Plaza can sell for $1 Billion in only a few months, then surely Honest Ed’s will be gone even quicker.

I have yet to find any identifiable asking price for the property; just speculation.  I’m sure there’s no set price, and the Mirvish family will hold an auction/tender, but I’m curious as to people’s guesses on price.

The parcel of land is a whopping 4.45 acres (by my calculations), and an acre of prime downtown Toronto real estate these days is probably $20,000,000 and that’s a ballpark estimate (depends on location, of course).

The infamous One Bloor sold for $63,000,000 back in 2007, and then was re-sold to Great Gulf Homes in 2009 for a cool $53,000,000.  That site is barely one acre in size, although it’s at quite possibly the second busiest intersection of Toronto (assuming Yonge/Dundas is the 1st), so we can’t really use that as a benchmark.

So what is the entire Mirvish Village worth?  $50 Million?  $200 Million?  It’s anybody’s guess, but I’d split the difference and call it $100 Million.

I’m more interested in what is going to be built there, and I think that’s what most of the chatter is about.

I honestly (no pun intended) don’t believe that most Torontonians are all shook up about losing this “landmark.”  It’s the same argument I made with Casa Loma a while back.  Toronto residents would be up in arms if a condo developer purchased Casa Loma, with intentions of turning it into a giant pile of money, and yet how many Torontonians visit Casa Loma on a regular basis?  Have YOU been to Casa Loma in the past decade?

A lot of Toronto’s heritage is worth preserving, no doubt.

I live in the St. Lawrence Market area, which is undeniably where “Toronto” was born.  Some of the buildings down here are over 150-years-old, and they have character, history, and they add to the streetscape of our city.

Can you say the same for Honest Ed’s?

Can you say that a giant eyesore with flashing lights and crappy product is “worth preserving?”

Don’t shoot the messenger here – I’m just providing the counter-argument here.  I’m the first person to say, “My God, I hope it’s not going to be another condo,” but really, what else do you expect?

I have a good friend – one of my groomsmen, in fact, who is a bit of a “lefty.”  He frequently posts messages on Facebook, which are then commented on by some of his wildly (Occupy Toronto?) left-leaning friends, and, well, in the spirit of honesty, I’ll admit that sometimes I enjoy posting messages just to antagonize them.  When it came to Honest Ed’s, and some of their unbelievably naive and ridiculous suggestions such as, “I hope somebody buys it and turns it into a museum,” or “Somebody should buy it and just leave it be for Toronto folks to enjoy,” I couldn’t help but post, “Are any of you naive enough to think, even for one fleeting moment, drenched in hope and desire, that this won’t be 60-storey condo in a decade?”

You can probably guess as to what kind of responses my message received.

I wish the world was a “better place,” where some magic balloon filled with money dropped from the sky, and allowed a very cool and very historic landmark like Honest Ed’s to remain as such, but it’s just not going to happen.  The price of land in downtown Toronto is at astronomical levels, and the Mirvish family can make a lot more money selling this plot of land than they can selling socks for eighty-cents.

And look at their track record?

Don’t forget – David Mirvish is the one who wants to build three 80-storey towers on top of the Princess of Wales Theatre!

Aren’t we naive to think that there’s a place for Honest Ed’s in today’s Toronto?

Is anybody really surprised that this legend is coming to an end?

I’ll be honest – I couldn’t care less about the building itself.  It’s Mirvish Village that I’m upset about.

Just to give you some background, here’s a map of the area, courtesy of Toronto Star:

If we lost the two large structures that house the “Honest Ed’s” warehouse that we’re familiar with, I wouldn’t be upset.

But to lose all those restaurants, art galleries, and stores in the beautiful Victorian houses on Markham Street would be a shame.

I’m not convinced that the city will allow the entire block to be bulldozed, but it’s not out of the question to see the same fumbling-morons who can’t put a shovel in the ground for a new subway to allow a massive redevelopment of both residential and commercial lands, with streets running in between them!

There’s going to be a three-year “transition period” for the businesses in those Victorian houses, so consider that a silver lining, I suppose.

But when can we expect to know what’s in store for this gigantic parcel of land that encompasses an entire city block?  I don’t think we’re going to know for a while.

This is an unprecedented development, and it could take 3-5 years for the eventual buyer-developer to go through city zoning, committe of adjustments, and clear all the hurdles necessary to build what is likely going to change the face of the area as we know it.  Then perhaps another 3-5 years to build, and all told, we’re looking at upwards of a decade before the “future” of Mirvish Village is finally upon us…