It was somewhat quietly reported last June that the Cineplex Cinemas Queensway theatre in Etobicoke is being proposed for demolition for a condominium complex and park, to be built on the lot at Queensway and Islington, which already has a pair of condos under construction. Curiously, this news began to spread in the last month and it has since been reported that a Change.org petition has launched to save the Cineplex Queensway.
This is news that affects me personally since I have been going to the Cineplex Queensway since the multiplex opened in 2001 and it’s the Cineplex location that is closest to where I live, only a 30-40 minute commute on the TTC. If the Cineplex Queensway is demolished, my best options would be either going downtown to the Scotiabank Theatre (up to 1h15m on the TTC), itself the target of a proposed condo development, or to the Cineplex Mississauga (more than 1h30m on a combination of TTC and MiWay).
With the common belief that the general public doesn’t go to the cinema anymore, these seem to be easy targets for condo developments. First, it was smaller cinemas like the Humber Cinema and now multiplexes are being targeted. The irony with the Queensway Cinema is that it was one of the last multiplexes Cineplex built during their peak period in the 1990s and early 2000s. Only the Cineplex Yonge and Dundas is newer, having opened in 2008, though it was originally an AMC Theatre that Cineplex acquired after the former company ceased operations in Canada.
On an optimistic note, just because there is a proposal for redevelopment doesn’t mean that the Cineplex Queensway is going to be demolished anytime soon. It was back in May 2019 when it was first reported that the Scotiabank Theatre would face similar redevelopment. Even though the signs about the redevelopment remain up, there has yet to be any updates in the last six years and new businesses have even opened in the same complex, most recently a No Frills grocery store. As such, we can expect the Cineplex Queensway to remain open for the time being, though it would be a major inconvenience to me if it does face the wrecking ball.
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