The Phoenix Concert Theatre will be relocating to Toronto’s west end.
More than two years after the legendary downtown music venue first announced plans to close — to make way for the construction of community housing — co-owner and operator Lisa Zbitnew told the Star that she’s reached an agreement to move into what’s now known as the Parkdale Hall at 1605 Queen St. W.
It’s part of a multimillion-dollar project that Zbitnew said is still in its early stages. The Phoenix will keep its name, and the new location will accommodate roughly the same 1,350-person capacity as its current spot at 410 Sherbourne St. The move is expected to happen next year, pending city approvals.
Other details, including the exact timeline for the move and what happens to the Parkdale Hall name, are still under discussion.
“It wasn’t necessarily in the plans to move west, but I think it’s going to be a very welcome addition, since so many of the big venues are on the east and north sides of the city,” Zbitnew said.
“For us, it was about finding 20,000 square feet in the downtown core with 30-foot-high ceilings and capacity to park a bus.”
The Parkdale Hall checked those boxes, Zbitnew said.
When the Phoenix announced that it would be closing its doors in January 2025 after more than three decades, Zbitnew was already canvassing Toronto for an ideal space to relocate. The venue planned a packed schedule of concerts leading up to its final days, with performances by Peaches, Daniel Lanois and a 50th-anniversary show by Teenage Head.
Then, fewer than three months before its planned closure, the Phoenix’s owners negotiated an extension as they continued the search.
The Phoenix’s historic new home
The Parkdale building opened in 1920 as a movie theatre, owned by local exhibitors Jay and Jules Allen, who commissioned Danforth Music Hall architect C. Howard Crane to design the building.
When dwindling audiences led to the theatre’s closure in 1970, it became a space for various other businesses, including an Eaton’s clearance centre, a beer retailer and an antiques store.
After entrepreneur Alex Chan and his father, Eric Chan, acquired the space, they reopened it as a venue in 2020, hosting the Parkdale Antiques and Collectibles Market, small concerts and wrestling events. That same year, the city designated it a heritage building.
While changes will be made to the hall’s current layout, Zbitnew said they will be “mostly cosmetic,” rather than significant structural work. The current hall layout accommodates 750 people standing, but the new venue will span the full floor plate of the original Parkdale Theatre, which had a capacity of 1,500.
“We’re not going to renovate it to the point where it’s unrecognizable,” Zbitnew said. “It’s really beautiful in its current state, and we’re just going to look at improving on that.”
Currently, the building is divided into a main hall and several storefronts, which have accommodated a coffee shop, cannabis store and a sewing centre.
“That will all become one,” she said.
“And we will have a mezzanine that won’t be as high as the Phoenix’s balcony but will have a capacity that’s slightly greater.”
The proposal has been submitted to the City of Toronto for rezoning and other approvals. Both venues intend to continue operations as usual until the necessary permissions are granted, with the Phoenix staying open until the move is complete.
Serving the local community
Alex Chan described the partnership, where he will continue to own the building, as “incredibly fitting” since both the Phoenix and the Parkdale Hall have a place in Toronto’s entertainment history.
“Bringing those two stories together gives us an opportunity to respect what came before while creating something new for the city’s west end,” he said in a statement.
Pat Tobin, general manager of the city’s economic development and culture division, put his support behind what he called a “fiercely independent and Canadian-owned” venue.
“The Phoenix is a critical and vibrant part of Toronto’s live music scene,” he said in a statement.
Zbitnew said the Phoenix co-owners also intend to make sure the new space continues to cater to the “thriving” surrounding arts and culture scene.
“Our focus is going to be a music venue, but we also want to continue to serve the local community,” she said.
“So, if we have Sundays available, why not keep operating the flea market? It’s been part of that neighbourhood for years and years.”
Zbitnew expects to bring a few Phoenix artifacts to the new building. Most important among them: the collection of framed rock-star photographs, which she affectionately calls the “wall of fame,” that includes shots of Hole, Soundgarden and David Bowie.
She also hopes the concrete lion statue outside the front entrance can be shipped across town.
“The lion has been out there since the beginning,” she said.
“It used to be a test with security guards to see if they could lift it. I don’t think anybody was ever successful. So maybe it’s a tall order to suggest that the lion’s coming with us, but we’ll do our best.”
