New housing for Sherbrook Street, West Broadway

A large, new housing and retail development proposal is on tap for the West Broadway portion of Sherbrook Street at Sara Avenue. The plan is headed up by Verne Reiner Architects.

They are looking to build a new "...four storey, 44 unit residential multi-family development with both one and two bedroom units ranging from 515 sq ft to 747 sq ft and a main floor commercial unit of 961 sq ft. The development will have 32 ground level exterior parking spaces at the rear of the building". (Source).

It's been great to see the transformation of the street. With its eclectic collection of shops and restaurants it has decent-sized sidewalks and street parking shielding patios from traffic on both sides. I'd put it behind Corydon (but not far) and ahead of Osborne as a great street to hang out on.

I watched a lot of that change happen in the decade or so that I lived there beginning in the early 1990s.

Some bigger retailers disappeared like McKnight's Pharmacy and Sooter's. They were replaced by places like Brave New World (their 10th anniversary this year). Charisma started as a little sub and fried chicken shop and has since expanded a couple of times and has become a very popular Indian restaurant. Eddy's Garage popped up and is still around as The Standard. Even an old favourite like The Nook expanded and opened a lounge.

This was all without fanfare or big government programs, it just happened.

There has not been a lot of new development along that strip save for the building Subway is in at the corner of Westminster Avenue which replaced a burned out mixed use building.

A couple of years back another housing development appeared on the block to the north - The Greenheart Housing Co-op.

Also see Bellamy in the Free Press (includes drawing of project)