Why the Plaza Next to Mandarin on Fairview Street Never Had a Grocery Store
Brantview Plaza sits a short walk from Burlington GO, at one of the city's busiest intersections. For decades it has been zoned against selling groceries. The empty Staples box beside the Mandarin at 1881 Fairview St. is now being fitted out as a supermarket of more than 40,000 square feet.
The change that made it possible was the removal of a single prohibition in Burlington's zoning bylaw, with no new building involved. Once an application asked the city to remove it, the change went from planning report to council approval in about three months.
The ban started with an old rezoning. According to the City of Burlington staff report on the application, staff report PL-17/85 rezoned the land from a Development zone to a commercial zone with an attached exception, number 427. That exception listed uses the site could not have: supermarket or grocery store, standard restaurant, fast food restaurant, convenience restaurant, outdoor patio, caterer and auctioneer.
The city gave two reasons. Staff were concerned about putting commercial and hospitality uses next to the industrial uses nearby, and about access on Gray's Lane.
The Mandarin next door is a restaurant, and that use was once on the same banned list. That tells you the rule has been loosened before, one piece at a time.
A rezoning in 2009, under staff report PB-64-09, allowed more commercial and hospitality uses on the property. The grocery ban stayed. Staff explained why in plain terms: the applicant at the time "did not submit a market study in support of the food store use."
The original ban rested on industrial compatibility and access on Gray's Lane. By 2009, the stated reason for keeping it was narrower, the absence of a market study. The 2009 changes became site-specific exception 405 on the current Mixed Use Corridor – Commercial Corridor zone, and that exception still said no supermarkets and no grocery stores.
Every other planning layer already allowed a grocery store here. The city's Official Plan names supermarkets and grocery stores as permitted uses in this designation. The site is also inside the Downtown Burlington Urban Growth Centre and the Burlington GO major transit station area, where growth is meant to concentrate. The applicant's planning report made a similar point: the broader MXC zone generally permits a grocery use, and the site-specific exception was the only thing in the way.
In fall 2025 the owner, Amalie Holdings Limited, applied to remove the prohibition. This time the application came with the missing piece, a scoped market analysis prepared by A.J. Clarke and Associates. The proposal was a supermarket of about 3,814 square meters in the plaza's existing Units 1 and 2.
Date | What happened |
|---|---|
PL-17/85 | Exception 427 bans grocery stores, restaurants, patios and more |
2009, PB-64-09 | More commercial and hospitality uses allowed; grocery ban kept |
September 11, 2025 | Planning justification report and traffic brief dated |
November 26, 2025 | Staples scheduled to leave the plaza |
December 2, 2025 | Committee of the Whole considers the application |
December 9, 2025 | Council enacts By-law 2020.513, removing the ban |
Late Oct. to early Nov. 2026 | Ethnic Supermarket's stated opening window |
Two details show how small the change was. By-law 2020.513 removed "Supermarket / Grocery Store" from the prohibited list and left the rest of exception 405 as it was. And although the city mailed 82 notices, the staff report records no written public comments when it was prepared. The Committee of the Whole carried the recommendation.
The operator's name came out only after the final vote. Inside Halton reported that the property owner confirmed Ethnic Supermarket as the tenant. The supermarket replaces two former plaza tenants, Staples and Spirit Halloween, and plans to hire 50 to 80 full-time staff.
The Fairview vacancy happened because Staples moved, and that move also changed the shopping picture across town. Staples relocated to 1035 Plains Rd. E., into a new building it shares with a No Frills. Toronto.com reported that the No Frills opened on Nov. 27, 2025, and the Staples followed on Nov. 29.
Within about a year, one retailer's relocation will have added two grocery stores to Burlington, one on Plains Road East and one on Fairview, and neither needed the other's site to change.
A large grocery store brings frequent, short trips, so traffic was the obvious worry. The applicant's traffic brief, dated September 2025, counts 315 existing parking spaces at the plaza. The planning report describes that parking as often underused.
The brief estimates these net new trips to the site:
Saturday is the store's busiest projected period, which makes sense for a weekly grocery run. The weekday afternoon number matters more for anyone who uses Brant and Fairview on the way home. The brief's 2032 forecast gives that intersection an F in the afternoon peak, with a volume-to-capacity ratio of 1.09 and about 80 seconds of delay. The brief puts that mostly down to existing network limits and general traffic growth, not the store. It expects the plaza's own entrance on Fairview to keep working efficiently.
In practice, the plaza's driveway is forecast to cope. The pressure point is the main intersection, which is forecast to be strained with or without the store.
Burlington will be the chain's third store, after Guelph and Milton. The Milton store opened in 2019. The company's Milton and Guelph profiles each list more than 30,000 products from several world regions, with these departments:
When Guelph's store was getting ready to open, GuelphToday's March 2022 preview also mentioned barbecue, sushi and prepared meals from the food court. Inside Halton's profile of the Milton store described a hot-food court that had no seating at the time.
For Burlington, the company says to expect fresh produce, meat, seafood, pantry staples, snacks, beverages, Asian groceries and specialty foods from cultures around the world, plus a food court with prepared food. Food court vendors, opening hours and grand-opening plans have not been announced.
The target has already moved once. Last December, Inside Halton reported a planned September 2026 opening. BurlingtonToday reported on Sept. 18, 2026 that the store expected to open in late October or early November. As of mid-October, the company's Burlington page still gives a range, "Late October – early November 2026," with no specific day. The store's listed phone number is 905-631-5858.
When it does open, it will be the first grocery store this plaza has been allowed to have since staff report PL-17/85.
If you'd like to understand the zoning and planning history behind a street or property you're considering, Jessica Alexopoulos and her team can walk you through it calmly and clearly. Get in Touch.
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