Market Street looks back – and to the future

Toronto’s Market Street boasts five cheerful restaurants, a bustling coffee emporium and a specialty food store. Its 150-year-old buildings are accented by outdoor patios, the entire street repaved with brick.

It’s a stunning transformation for a historic street along the west side of St. Lawrence Market that for years had been all but abandoned and considered expendable as a wave of redevelopment swept in from all sides.

It took vision, perseverance and a lot more effort than originally planned, but the redevelopment set precedents that should make it easier to preserve heritage sites in the future, says Eve Lewis, president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based Woodcliffe Landmark Properties.

She took on the project – which included the renovation of three heritage buildings and the construction of a new contemporary building – started by her late husband Paul Oberman, who previously had restored the former North Toronto CPR station, as well as a row of heritage Shops of Summerhill on Yonge Street.