Toronto’s newest Value Village will open in the most unlikely building

Thrift store chain Value Village isn’t the type of brand one would associate with award-winning architecture, though the retailer is now gearing up to open its latest Toronto location in an unexpectedly nice building.

Signage for a new Value Village location was spotted on the Proper TV building at 772 Dovercourt Road, a surprising twist for an adaptive re-use project that was acclaimed for its contribution to the urban fabric when completed a few years earlier.

Excuse me?? pic.twitter.com/lFzeixDZPX

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The unique building at Bloor and Dovercourt is a rather unlikely candidate for a discount thrift brand, a repurposed Canada Post sorting and distribution depot featuring a modern second-floor addition with 12-foot-tall fins of orange perforated aluminum.

The project, designed by Superkul Architects, was honoured with a win at the 2021 Toronto Urban Design Awards.

Value Village had already established a foothold in the building when the company leased out office space on the second floor in early 2023. The recent sighting of a banner on the ground floor’s preserved Postal Station E facade is the first sign that this presence will expand from just office space to a retail location.

There has been no indication from Value Village whether this store would be one of the brand’s trendy boutique stores or a standard thrift store location.

The retailer has been under fire in recent months for its sky-high prices and has faced criticism for clamping down on in-store photography, possibly in response to ongoing pricing backlash.