I saw a sign showing that Pizzaiolo is opening up a north Bloor location across from the Toronto Reference Library. I thought this was odd for quite a few reasons, it’s only a few doors down from a very popular Pizza Pizza. Also one block further north is a Mamma’s Pizza. On the same west-side strip is Quizno’s, Craftburger and a Subway. What’s more interesting is there is already a Pizzaiolo one block south of Bloor!

This place better have some fantastic pizza to survive long enough to turn a profit.

I was walking out of the Bay Centre concourse today and when I turned around I saw huge signs for Longos with “coming soon” attached to them. This looks like it’s going to take up the space vacated by Beddingtons. Another walking distance grocery store for Yorkville is great! I bet the store managers are disappointed the 1 Bloor East project is not going up anytime soon.

I’ve noticed for quite some time that this is one of my most read posts on my blog. It seems there is a lot of pent-up interest in the status of this condo development project. The 1 Bloor East, or 1BE as it’s known on the forums, is a large, luxury development at the corner of Yonge and Bloor. The developer is Bazis from Kazakhstan.The original buildings have been demolished and the grounds have been leveled and cleared before the winter. However, the lot has remained dormant of construction activity for quite some time.

Two articles have recently commented on the lack of building activity on the site. Toronto Life published a long article that confirms a lot of the Urban Toronto rumors – the financing of the building and ownership of the laneway is tied up with Lehman Brothers. Lehman went bankrupt last year and the ownership rights are being fought out in US courts. This is also apparent from the City of Toronto filing and an article from Global News.

The latest information is always available at the Urban Toronto forum, be sure to navigate to the last page of the thread – it’s 250 pages at last count.