Soaring rents dealing a blow to local retailers

Sticker shock for small businesses catches attention of city hall

- VICTORIA GIBSON

Sweetie Pie founder Tina Ginjo at the Harbord Street café on its final day of operation. After the building sold in June for $1.85 million, Ginjo and husband and co-owner Cesario said the rent more than doubled.

Cesario Ginjo knew the rent would go up. The last lease he and his wife, Tina, secured for their tiny bakery and pie shop in a residential area of Toronto's Little Italy was inked prepandemic, and they were under no assumptions their lease for the modest brick shop would be resigned at $3,000 per month.

But the sticker shock was worse than expected. The building's longtime owner had sold it in June for $1.85 million in Toronto's still redhot real estate market. Their new landlord asked for more than double the rent: $6,300 per month to keep the space and continue selling pastries beside Bickford Park.

It was simply too much to shoulder, so the couple decided to close their doors.

The Harbord Street café known as Sweetie Pie - their inaugural location, having since been expanded to locations such as the Well and the Distillery District has now shut down. Ginjo and his wife intend to reopen elsewhere in the neighbourhood, but as Ginjo looks further ahead, he wonders about the long-term feasibility of their cafés in a city where real estate prices have risen so high.

It's a problem that has caught the attention of city hall, where councillors have debated how to help struggling small retail, arguing for their significance to the city's vibrancy and walkable streets. In May, council formally asked the province to limit rent hikes for locally owned small businesses facing cost pressures. Planners have also recently rolled out proposals to allow more services like corner stores and cafes in areas zoned solely for housing.