Loblaw will be opening a store near Kensington Market

TORONTO – Despite protests, a corporate grocery store will be opening up among the stores of Kensington Market in 2016.

A 20,000 square foot Loblaw store will be opening up in the Tribute Communities space at 297 College Street, just 100 metres west of Spadina Avenue.

Steve Deveux, Tribute’s vice president of land development confirmed to Global News Monday that the company recently signed a contract with Loblaws to open up a “community-sized grocery store.”

Deveux is aware of the community’s protests against a large corporation descending upon the neighbourhood but he says the 20,000 square foot grocery store is much smaller than Loblaw locations elsewhere in the city and fits with the city’s official plan.

“What we’re doing is permitted in the official plan, its encouraged by the city,” Deveux said in a telephone interview Monday. “It’s a scale, size and designed in such that it’s complementary to the area.”