cityscape A Development Proposal for Jarvis and Gerrard Will Spare “Hooker Harvey’s”

The Toronto landmark lives on.

A new proposal for a mixed-use development on Gerrard Street will take out several of the buildings between Jarvis and Mutual Streets, if approved. As noted by Urban Toronto, that puts the so-called “Hooker Harvey’s” on the corner of Jarvis and Gerrard squarely in the path of destruction. But as it turns out, the local landmark with an insensitive nickname may escape unharmed.

According to the planning rationale documents for the proposed site, the 25-storey mixed-use building will have an “irregular shape” that will wrap around the restaurant. The proposal would see several heritage buildings relocated and integrated with the new design, which includes a 25-storey tower and some mid-rise retail and office space. But a small piece of the northwest corner of Jarvis and Gerrard is notably not part of the redevelopment application, and so Harvey’s lives on.

The Jarvis Street corridor was once a well-known stroll for sex workers. But as the Toronto Star reported in 2009, a number of factors, including increased road construction, drastically changed what the paper called “Toronto’s unofficial red-light district.”

The new project is still several steps away from approval—including redesignating a portion of the planned site for mixed-use—but if it goes ahead, rest assured that our infamous Harvey’s will still be there.