ABOVE: David Mirvish sells Honest Ed’s to a Vancouver developer. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO – He was ‘Honest’ Ed Mirvish’s personal barber for over 40 years. Now he says, he may pack up his tools and leave.
Agelakos owns ‘Gus the Other Barber,’ and has been cutting hair in his store just down the street from Honest Ed’s for almost 54 years. Ed Mirvish was one of the owners of the building when Agelakos opened up shop and made him his go-to barbershop.
“So to give me some money back, he started coming to my store since 1960. Since then, until he passed away I was his personal barber. Besides the last 3 years that he wasn’t feeling well, I was going to his house. I met his wife, David, beautiful memories I have of him.”
On Sunday, Ed’s son David Mirvish, confirmed the sale of the building to Westbank Properties and suggested the deal could close before the end of the year.
The selling price of the building has not been released but a report in the National Post in July suggested David Mirvish was seeking approximately $100 million.
Westbank, which built the Shangri-La hotels in Vancouver and Toronto, will rent the site back to Mirvish as it prepares plans for the site.
Plans for the site have not been formulated but Councillor Adam Vaughan, who represents the neighbouring ward, said the developer needs to consult the surrounding residents before designing or building anything.
“They’re afraid of what hyper-intensification can sometimes bring to a community but I think the good news is that we’re talking about not just what is going to rise from the ground but also where the common ground, where the flat space is, and how the flat space needs to be an important part of consideration as whatever gets built,” he said.
And David Mirvish agrees, saying he is sure Westport will be “thoughtful” of the community’s needs.
Mirvish said the changing landscape of the retail industry motivated him to sell the discount store. He had long ago decided not to open up an online retail store and doesn’t think a discount store at Bloor and Bathurst can be competitive in the larger market.
“All the retail around you has changed in the 70 years that you were in it and you know that you’re not going to be one of the five or six top retailers in the world,” he said in an interview Monday. “Then why put your energy into something where you’ll be less than the best you can be.”
Instead, Mirvish is devoting himself to theatre. But he’s nonetheless conscious of what replaces the iconic store.
“Well I’m conscious of the city as a whole because I have to go out in the world and attract shows to come to Toronto and if Toronto isn’t a healthy city, that won’t happen,” he said.
Mirvish thinks Toronto is currently among the world’s top 10 theatre destinations but thinks the city can do better.
“That’s a challenge, that’s an interesting activity, and we feel we have a contribution that we can make there and so I want to concentrate all my assets, my abilities, my time to that, to devote to that,” he said.
The Mirvish family has long been involved in the city’s theatre industry. After Ed Mirvish opened his discount store at the corner of Bloor Street West and Bathurst Street in 1948 he went on to buy the Royal Alexandra theatre in 1962, opened six nearby restaurants on King Street (the last of which closed in 2000), and in 1993, built the Princes of Wales theatre.
Watch: Global’s Alan Carter looks back at the colorful history of a Toronto landmark
A small street in the area has been renamed ‘Ed Mirvish Way,’ but the barber thinks more should be done to preserve the impact the Mirvish family has had on the neighbourhood.
“I wish they keep at least the front. Make it like a small museum or something. Inside there if you go it’s all history, the last 60 years, pictures, antique stuff like that, you know, just imagine if that sign goes away from there, that makes our neighbourhood beautiful.”
– With files from Mark McAllister and The Canadian Press
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