Strip mall with Toronto's only Chuck E. Cheese to be demolished for condo towers

Funeral bells may soon toll for a '90s icon, as Toronto's only remaining Chuck E. Cheese location could be redeveloped with a massive complex containing five buildings as tall as 49 storeys.

A July application spells the end for a strip mall at 2450 Sheppard Ave. E., on the northwest corner of Victoria Park and Sheppard. 

Property owner Jarel Investments has filed for rezoning and an amendment to the City of Toronto's Official Plan to permit a massive redevelopment of the retail plaza and associated surface parking lot.

Aside from the venerable Charles Entertainment Cheese, other notable tenants in the plaza include a Food Basics grocery store and a Paramount Middle Eastern Kitchen, among other businesses. However, a Petro-Canada gas station occupying the corner property is not included in the proposal.

Plans call for the phased redevelopment of the site with three mixed-use tall buildings with six tower elements, ranging in height from 25 to 49 storeys; one standalone tower rising 32 storeys, and a mid-rise building with two volumes rising 10 and 14 storeys.

Planned in phases, the development would begin with buildings within the current surface parking area for its first two blocks, which means the existing mall (and kids' favourite animatronic sunglasses-wearing mouse) would remain for some time.

It wouldn't be until the 5th and 6th phases of redevelopment that the actual shopping plaza structure is replaced by new residential density.

Despite the current state of Toronto's real estate market, the plan calls for condominium tenure in its proposed 3,635 residential units.

While locals would indeed be losing a significant retail presence, the complex would introduce just over 3,385 square metres of ground-floor retail space. Among the retail spaces, renderings depict a large grocery store to replace the existing Food Basics supermarket that would be demolished for the fifth phase of the redevelopment.

Situated roughly two kilometres from Don Mills station on the TTC's Line 4 - Sheppard, the proposal joins a growing collection of high-rise plans that promise to reshape the Victoria Park and Sheppard intersection in the years to come — should the housing market support all of this new growth.

However, that distance might not quite cut it for the car-centric Scarberians this project is likely to attract. To support this expected demand from motorists, the proposal includes a sizeable parking component of almost 1,400 spaces for cars, along with 2,750 bicycle parking spaces.