Salvation Army thrift store closes
Parliament St. location shutting down in light of ‘substantial’ rent hike
Regular customers say the Salvation Army’s thrift store on Parliament St. will leave a hole in the Regent Park community when it closes its doors for good next month.
The store’s15-year lease agreement for 252 Parliament St. ended this year.
Faced with what director of retail operations Michele Walker called a “substantial increase in rent,” the Salvation Army made the decision to shut the store down.
Both Walker and Daniel Odorico, president of the Downing Street Group — the company that has owned the building for a year and a half — confirmed that despite several rounds of negotiations, a deal to renew the lease could not be reached. Neither would say how far apart the sides were.
Odorico said the Salvation Army was given 60 days’ notice to vacate the building by the end of May.
“This is no more than a decision by a tenant on where they’d like to be and what kind of rents they can pay, and no more than an owner deciding what market rates they’d like their tenants to pay,” he said.
“We are very sad and disappointed to be leaving. It’s a store that does a lot of good for the community.”
Salvation Army thrift stores provide a voucher program through local Salvation Army social services. This particular branch, Walker said, was the highest voucher provider in the country, filling a “large need in the community” for access to affordable clothing, household items and more.
“To the local community, it is more than just a place to buy a discounted toy or electronic gadget for their child which they could otherwise not afford,” Sylvia Grady, a frequent shopper, wrote in an email to the Star.
Grady said the thrift store is one of the busiest she’s experienced in all of Toronto, and one she goes out of her way to shop at. “It’s a meeting place,” she wrote.
Chris McCallan, who has frequented the store for six years, said, “People need a place to shop cheaply, especially in Regent Park.”
For McCallan, the Regent Park Salvation Army was “a hangout” for residents, and a place for “emotional support.” As the area becomes more dense with the development of condos, McCallan worries that the things that support lowerincome folk are disappearing.
The store will be kept open until May 30.