Bloor Street is one of Canada's pre-eminent commercial addresses. However, its success is threatened by competition from high-end districts in other cities and its appearance is not in keeping with the image that its business owners wish to convey.

In response to this concern, the Bloor-Yorkville BIA has proposed an ambitious streetscape beautification plan to reinforce Bloor Street's status as a world class, pedestrian-oriented, premier shopping, dining and tourist destination.

The Bloor-Yorkville BIA was notified in 1998, that in coming years, their entire section of Bloor Street would require major re-construction in order for antiquated infrastructure to be replaced. While this would cause a great deal of disruption, the BIA saw this as an ideal opportunity to create a great street much like Michigan Avenue, in Chicago.

The BIA also sees this project as a means to create the 'red carpet' for the newly refurbished ROM, Conservatory of Music and the Gardiner Ceramics Museum, which are the cultural cornerstones of the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood.

The Bloor Street Transformation Project will involve the reconstruction of Bloor Street from Avenue Road to Church Street. Rather than removing the current concrete and asphalt and replacing with the same thing, the project will instead include:

• widened granite sidewalks
• decorative street lighting
• new street furnishings
• mature trees, shrubs and flowers in raised, irrigated planting beds
• public art
• improved walkways from Bloor Street to Cumberland and Yorkville

Given the fact that the above improvements will add to the overall cost of the reconstruction of Bloor Street, the Bloor-Yorkville BIA proposed to the City a unique financing model to cover the additional costs.

At its meeting of July 19, 20, 21 and 26, 2005, City Council adopted Clause 48 of Policy & Finance Committee Report No. 7 approving an innovative financing model, which involves the City front-ending the construction costs estimated at $25 million and consisting of $20 million in debt financing and $5 million from the Bloor Street Transformation Reserve Fund, which was established to accumulate funds, acquired by the City, through Section 37 contributions, made in connection with area developments.

The City would recover all costs, including interest, over a 20 year period, by way of a BIA levy on benefiting Bloor Street commercial property owners. The existing Bloor-Yorkville BIA will also make an annual contribution to the recovery costs.

A recently conducted poll of affected property owners and tenants confirmed support for the creation of an additional, temporary BIA, to allow for the implementation of the proposed financing model.

The City's Transportation Services is currently in the process of preparing detailed engineering plans, based on concept drawings prepared by Brown and Storey Architects and Architects Alliance.

Construction begins in 2007 and is expected to be completed in 2009.