Walk east on Bloor from Bathurst this fall and you'll pass two versions of the same neighbourhood at once. On one side of the street, the ground floor of Mirvish Village still shows more construction signage than storefronts, ten years after Honest Ed's came down. A few blocks east, at Bloor and Brunswick, a dining room modeled on 1920s Paris is booking out most nights of the week in a building that's been serving food since before most of Mirvish Village's future tenants were born. The Annex isn't waiting for its anchor project to finish. It's filling in around it.
That gap between the two speeds is the actual story of the Annex in 2026, and it's worth understanding if you live anywhere near this stretch of Bloor Street.
What's Still Empty, and Why
As of August 2026, CBC News reported that only 48 of the 106 commercial spaces across Mirvish Village were leased, even as the residential towers filled up with tenants. The developer, Vancouver-based Peterson, has said construction is on track for full completion this fall, but the ground-floor retail has lagged behind the apartments above it for most of the year.
The businesses that have opened at Mirvish Village so far tell you something about which spaces are moving and which ones aren't. A Bank of Montreal branch, an LCBO, and Pet Planet occupy the large new-build frontage along Bloor and Bathurst, the kind of anchor tenants that can absorb high price per square foot. Luisa Sotomayor, an urban planning professor at the University of Toronto, told CBC that large footprint retail in new towers is a harder sell across the city right now, not just here.
"Commercial leases are very high currently. Unless there is some policy thinking, this is going to continue to be a challenge."
One deal that fell through makes the point sharper. Asian grocer Bestco Fresh Foods had signed on to anchor part of the project, but its lease was terminated after the company reportedly missed rental payments, according to Toronto Life. Peterson has said another grocery tenant will be announced to fill the gap. The pattern holds either way: the big commercial commitments are the ones stalling.
Where the Heritage Houses Are Already Working
Contrast that with what's happening on Markham Street, where ten restored Victorian houses on the east and west sides have been converted into a pedestrian-first strip of small storefronts. This is where the food tenants actually landed first.
Pizzeria Badiali, the slice shop known citywide for the lineups at its original Dovercourt Road location, opened its second location on May 11 inside the restored Victory House at 581 Markham Street, a building that was previously home to the Victory Cafe. Book Bar, a two-storey bookstore and wine bar, took over Honest Ed's Annex House at 600 to 602 Markham Street. Blackbird Baking Co. and Cremma Gelato followed into similar heritage footprints along the same block.
None of these are large-format leases. They're small, restored buildings with built-in character and a fraction of the square footage of the new commercial podium next door. Peterson seems to have absorbed the lesson from its own numbers. Honest Ed's Alley, the Tokyo-inspired laneway of roughly 25 micro-retail units set to open this September, was built specifically around units as small as 160 square feet, with shorter lease terms and, according to the leasing team, no corporate covenant requirement at all. It's the same small-footprint model that's already proven itself on Markham Street, just formalized into the next phase of the project.
The Restaurants That Didn't Wait for Any of It
While Mirvish Village works through its leasing math, a separate wave of restaurant openings has landed on the older stretch of Bloor Street itself, in buildings that predate the construction fence entirely.
- Brasserie Côte opened in March 2026 at 400 Bloor Street West, taking over the former By the Way Café space at Bloor and Brunswick, a local fixture for more than 40 years. It's the sister restaurant to Ossington's Côte de Bœuf, run by Teo Paul and Eamon O'Dea, and it's large enough to offer the sprawling outdoor terrace the original Ossington location never had room for.
- Bellis, a Japanese-Italian fusion spot from Jeffrey Chu, opened March 1 at 561 Bloor Street West as the ground-floor restaurant for the new Nomas Hotel, a boutique property built inside a converted early 1900s brick building the owners had held since 2023.
- Blanco Cantina opened later in the summer at 384 Bloor Street West, moving into a space that used to be a small food hall.
None of these operators needed Mirvish Village's new construction to make their bet on the Annex. They found existing buildings on Bloor itself and renovated into them, which is a different kind of confidence than waiting for a master-planned project to finish leasing.
The Rest of the Street Was Never on Pause
It helps to remember that the corridor wasn't sitting empty while all of this construction dragged on. Trinity-St. Paul's Centre at 427 Bloor Street West has spent years operating as both a performance venue and a community hub, housing Tafelmusik and the Toronto Consort. A few blocks north, the Tranzac at 292 Brunswick Avenue runs more than 1,400 events a year and supports over 70 artist residencies. Lee's Palace, the two-floor concert hall a short walk down Bloor, has hosted acts for decades and remains one of the strip's most recognizable venues.
The Bloor Annex BIA has also kept its Friday, Saturday, and Sunday summer music series running for a third season at the parkette on the northeast corner of Bloor and Brunswick, free and open to anyone walking by. And this month, a new mural is going up at 394 Bloor Street West through the city's StreetARToronto program, timed to Toronto's role as a 2026 FIFA World Cup host city. The Bloor Annex BIA's project page set installation for no later than September 1, which means it's already part of the walk down Bloor as of this fall.
What the Split Actually Tells You
None of this means Mirvish Village is failing. Peterson has been clear it would rather wait for the right mix of tenants than fill space with whatever's available, and the residential side of the project is, by its own numbers, close to full. But the commercial leasing pattern this year has been consistent: small, character-driven spaces in existing buildings are moving quickly, while large new-build retail frontage is the piece still working itself out.
For anyone who lives in the Annex, that's the useful read on what you're actually seeing when you walk this stretch of Bloor. The construction hoarding at Bathurst isn't a sign that nothing's happening yet. It's a sign that the neighbourhood's older buildings got there first.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a property near Bloor and Bathurst, from how a changing streetscape affects value to timing a sale around a corridor still finding its shape, Revered Residences is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
