King High Line promises retail boom for Liberty Village

It's been mostly quiet on the King High Line front since developers Urbancorp and First Capital Realty first revealed their vision for a path that would connect West Queen West with Liberty Village. The idea was exciting, capitalizing heavily on Toronto's fascination and envy of New York's famous elevated park. Checking in on the project a few months later, however, it would be wise to distance the concept of a King High Line from its nominal counterpart in Manhattan.

While the prospect of a public space corridor through Liberty Village remains as exciting as ever, the project is really a rather transparent effort to drum up interest in the various developments the companies have immediately surrounding it. Case in point: the latest info released about the King High Line touts the retail boom it will bring to Liberty Village, which could be up to 160,000 square feet of space (100,000 square feet of office space is also promised).

This isn't a bad thing, of course (quite the opposite), but a linear park in service of condo and retail development is a whole lot less intriguing and worthy of civic pride than a grassroots campaign to transform an unused elevated railway into a stunning bit of public space. Have a look at the video below for the latest on the King High Line.