Residents of the Davisville Village neighbourhood are looking for alternative grocery stores to shop at after discovering that the local Valu-mart will be shutting down at the end of the month ahead of a new development.
“Store closing June 29th,” the Bayview Leaside BIA wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. “Our Valu-Mart at 1500 Bayview Avenue will be closing on June 29th. The Bayview Leaside BIA would like to extend our gratitude to all the staff and store management for their dedicated service to the area.”
Instagram users mirrored the BIA’s comments.
“Really going to miss this store. Always enjoy shopping here. Sad,” one user wrote.
” We are going to miss the amazing staff and the really nice person who ran the annual garden/nursery in the parking lot in summers. Hopefully they can all get hired and relocate to the Bayview/Moore store!” another wrote.
Others said the closure would be the loss of a neighbourhood fixture. “You will be missed” more than a few commenters noted.
When asked why the store will be shutting down, someone simply responded with “development.”
An eight-storey mixed-use rental building designed by BDP Quadrangle for Medallion Corp will be developed at the site, which is located on the northwest corner of Bayview Avenue and Davisville Avenue, taking over the store, its parking lot, and the garden centre on the corner.
The mid-rise development will feature 153 rental units—a mix of one, two, and three bedrooms.
According to the project’s website, the building will include rental units, “allowing young residents to move into this neighbourhood while also giving long-time residents the opportunity to downsize and age in place.”
Thankfully, once the development is complete, residents might not have to travel far to pick up some groceries.
“Reintroducing retail at the ground floor of this development will continue to support Bayview’s commercial corridor, stretching from Davisville Avenue to Soudan Avenue,” the project site states. “Medallion is interested in having a grocery store return as the anchor tenant.”
Valu-mart is a franchise under Loblaw Companies Limited. There are about 31 Valu-mart stores in Canada, with 30 located in Ontario. For residents looking for alternatives, a ‘Supermart’, Badali’s Fruit market, and Summer’s Best are all within a 5-minute walk from Valu-mart. The Sweet Potato, a good place for organic/natural foods, is only a 10-minute walk, close to Hillsdale and Bayview avenue. There are large-format grocery stores at the corner of Bayview and Eglinton as well as Bayview and Moore at either end of Leaside as well as along Laird Drive and Redway Road, nearby.