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In 2014, Vogue named West Queen West as
No. 2 on its list of the Top 15 Coolest
Neighborhoods in the World. What can we
say after that? Well, a whole bunch, but
space is limited. Let’s start with the basics,
but this can be confusing. Queen Street
West is one of Downtown Toronto’s major
east-west thoroughfares, extending
westward from Yonge Street through
multiple neighborhoods to the Gardiner
Expressway and Humber Bay (QSW
Corridor). Queen Street West also refers to
the upscale retail district at the eastern end
of the QSW corridor near Toronto City Hall.
This neighborhood is home to one of
Canada’s premier malls, the CF Toronto
Eaton Center, as well as dozens of local and
international retail concepts. The district is
a longtime center for the arts,
telecommunications and culture due to its
proximity to Ryerson University, The
University of Toronto, and the Ontario
College of Art & Design. But while this
portion of the QSW corridor is certainly
a “cool” street, Queen Street West is
your standard urban high street
marketplace today.
But it was not always that way. Queen
Street West has undergone many changes
over the past three decades, but this
evolution has picked up steam over the
past few years as residential rents
skyrocketed under a wave of millennial
in-migration. This priced out many of the
arts and creative types that once lived in
the Queen Street West neighborhood.
Where did they go? A lot of them just
moved on down the QSW Corridor to West
Queen West. Got it? No, we didn’t think so.
We define West Queen West as the
neighborhood surrounding the QSW
corridor between Bathurst Street and
Gladstone Avenue. On this stretch of QSW
you will find Canada’s largest concentration
of independent art galleries, an abundance
of independent boutiques, a flourishing
restaurant and bar scene, and a couple of
new hipster, boutique hotels. And in West
Queen West, rents typically range between
$30 and $60 per sf compared to rates that
can top the $120 per sf mark in the tonier
sections of Queen Street West). But rents
are only going to climb here. Demand
remains high for space in West Queen West
and this Cool Street is increasingly
demonstrating mainstream appeal.
75.9%
Millennial Population
$92,354
Average
Household Income
West Queen West:
Westward Ho!