Golden Mile, Toronto

History

In the 1940s, 250 acres (100 ha) was acquired by the federal government to build munitions plants for Canada's involvement in World War II. In 1941 General Engineering Company of Ontario (GECO) a massive munitions plant was constructed covering the area northwest of Eglinton and Warden. The facility was located in the area, which was then far from the city, to protect against accidental detonations. At its peak 5,300 people worked at the plant and 256,567,485 munitions were produced over the course of the war. Following the war, the area and 14 buildings was purchased from the federal government by the Township of Scarborough. The township built municipal offices and a library along Eglinton and sold the rest to private industry to develop the area as "The Golden Mile", patterned after the Golden Mile in London, England. In the 1950s and 1960s, numerous factories producing mostly consumer goods operated along the Golden Mile.

Further west, retail uses developed, including the Golden Mile Plaza and the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre. Surrounding the industrial area, suburban residential development infilled former agricultural or industrial uses. Today, little or no industrial uses exist on Eglinton Avenue, while some industrial uses remain off Eglinton on side streets. On Eglinton, both sides of the street have been redeveloped into "big box" retail uses.

In 2014, the City of Toronto and Metrolinx conducted a preplanning exercise called Eglinton Connects to create walkable, mixed-use developments along the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. One area for such development is the Golden Mile site between Victoria Park Avenue and Pharmacy Avenue, which will be served by two LRT stops. City planning officials said that, although there is weak demand for new condos in central Scarborough, the LRT is stimulating demand for development.

Golden Mile Mall

Golden Mile Plaza was added west of the industrial "mile" in 1954 and was visited in 1959 by Queen Elizabeth II marking the further transformation of the area into a series of strip malls.

The original strip mall on the north of Eglinton Avenue was anchored by a Famous Players movie theatre located at Pharmacy Avenue and Eglinton. The west section of the strip was severely damaged by a fire in 1986, which hastened the beginning of the transformation of the area into one of Toronto's largest concentrations of power centres and big box stores.

The plaza was replaced with the Golden Mile Mall at the same location. The mall is anchored by a No Frills grocery store and a small number of other stores, at first including a Fabricland and a Zellers. These closed in the 2000s. Toronto Employment and Social Services, popular retailer Joe Fresh, Fit 4 Less, and a dollar store opened new premises at the Golden Mile Mall in 2010 taking up the space that Zellers and Fabricland had occupied.

In 2017, the property owner Choice Properties REIT announced a redevelopment of the 19-acre site into a mixed-use, transit-oriented development. It will include a mix of buildings of various heights and a new Loblaws supermarket. The development will create new streets surrounding nine city blocks and include a public park and a public square. The first phase will entail the construction of the new supermarket, the demolition of the existing mall, and the construction of new streets through the project.

List of businesses on the Golden Mile

This list includes former and current businesses located in the area:

Eglinton Town Centre

Eglinton Corners

Smart Centres Scarborough West

RioCan Scarborough Centre

Provincial government

Several provincial government offices are located in the Golden Mile.