As entrepreneur Ed Mirvish once said, “Only the floors are ‘crooked’ at Honest Ed’s.” Those crooked floors have now been dismantled by the demolition arm of Rafat General Contracting with headquarters in Bolton, Ont.
Mirvish first opened an outlet store in downtown Toronto in 1943 and launched Honest Ed’s Bargain House in 1948. He slowly acquired properties until his retail empire stretched a full block along Bloor Street West with the completion of Honest Ed’s Annex along Bathurst Street in 1984. Mirvish died in 2007 and the store closed its doors to customers on the final day of 2016.
The property was purchased by Westbank Corp as part of a mixed use redevelopment that will include parks, residential and retail.
The site was handed over to Rafat following the removal of the iconic Honest Ed’s sign facing Markham Street. If all goes well, the 30- by 60-foot sign will eventually be re-installed at the Ed Mirvish Theatre near Yonge and Dundas Streets.
Rafat’s assignment: demolish the remaining buildings and perform interior demolition for the heritage homes along the west end of the property, part of Mirvish Village that will continue to house businesses following redevelopment. Work on the heritage buildings was performed under the supervision of ERA Architects.
“We were required to perform abatement, demolish the buildings, remove the foundations and crush the concrete into large chunks,” says Bashar Mikha, vice-president of construction with Rafat. “The rubble was left on site as we levelled the edges of the property to hand over to the shoring contractor.”
The perimeter of the building hugged the adjacent sidewalks so Rafat installed significant hoarding around the site. Asbestos abatement began in September 2017 and required 30 workers at the peak of activity. Abatement was completed the following month.
“We were able to use the parking lot at the back of the building as a staging area, for demolition” says Mikha.
“We brought three excavators to the site, a high-reach with metal shears, a concrete crusher and one outfitted with a grapple. We moved from the south taking down buildings until we reached the north face. We had flag-people on site who would remain on the sidewalks and control pedestrian traffic as we performed work around the perimeter.”
Various parts of the retail complex stood at two and three storeys tall. Materials changed as the additions were demolished — first structural steel, then concrete and finally wood.
Extreme cold weather hampered the schedule only for a few days as equipment was sidelined to protect the integrity of hydraulic hoses. Cold weather also worked against efforts of the water truck to suppress dust in the area.
Rafat crews reached the front of the building in January and removed the remaining Honest Ed’s signage as they dismantled the wall.
“We had to do this carefully,” says Mikha. “At that point, the giant sign itself was helping to keep the facade standing up.”
At the peak of demolition, 17 labourers and operators worked on site.
Mikha says that the demolition job was different from any other project he’s worked on.
“We were under constant observation by people in the neighbourhood,” he says. “There were always people watching, and video cameras rolling at every phase of the project. A lot of people came to us asking for souvenir bricks and we were always happy to hand one over.”
The demolition project gave forth no secrets — except one. For years, passersby had seen the giant metal safe door that claimed to be the entrance to Honest Ed’s office.
“When we pulled it off, there was nothing behind it,” says Mikha. “It was just a joke by Ed Mirvish.”
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