A Toronto shopping plaza is being torn to shreds right now

Demolition crews are in the process of tearing down yet another Toronto shopping plaza, part of a major dying-off of retail centres around the province.

The Riverdale Shopping Centre at the northeast corner of Gerrard Street East and Carlaw Avenue is the latest casualty in this trend, and while the former retail plaza is currently being reduced to rubble, it's a change locals might soon be thankful for.

After decades of serving the community with a grocery store and other businesses, the shopping plaza is being cleared to make way for critical infrastructure serving the upcoming Ontario Line subway.

It has been a full year since the former No Frills location anchoring the plaza at 449 Carlaw Ave. was shuttered, along with a Dollarama location, a Mobil gas station, and other businesses.

Metrolinx announced in late 2024 that demolition would begin at the shuttered plaza as early as January 20, 2025 to free up space for the future Gerrard Tunnel Portal. 

However, demolition has really only ramped up since the start of April, and crews are now making quick work of getting rid of the former retail centre. 

Once demolition wraps up later this spring, the footprint of this shopping plaza will be transformed into a launch site for tunnel boring machines that will carve out the eastern section of twin underground tunnels that run beneath Pape Avenue towards the Don Valley Parkway.

This launch shaft will then be converted into a tunnel portal allowing trains to transfer between the tunnelled section and the shared GO rail corridor to the southwest.

Once open in 2031, the Ontario Line will add 15.6 kilometres of subway to the city's rapid transit network, linking Exhibition Place with the former Science Centre site at Don Mills and Eglinton, where it will link up with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

After the Ontario Line is built, the remaining mall footprint is destined to be redeveloped into a massive new transit-oriented community.