Is it goodnight for Goodnight? A looming condo development at 431 Richmond suggests yes
Our ears on the street tell us that come spring, it may be time to say goodbye to everyone’s favourite semi-exclusive, reservations-only, back-alley nouveau speakeasy (and TIFF hotspot), Goodnight. The lot at 431 Richmond Street West has apparently been purchased by Menkes, the property powerhouse behind the Four Seasons Private Residences, the Lumiere Condos at College and Bay and 365 Church at Church and Carlton, to name a few. The location will be home to Fabrik, whose rather postmodern ad copy includes the memorable line, “Fashion industrial design heart throbbing city pulse eat my veins of passion and lust.”
The condo is planned at 16 stories, with 209 residential units and below-ground parking (Giannone Petricone Associates of Fabbrica is set to design the building). The new development could also mean the end for easterly location of boutique men’s clothier Nomad, which occupies the front of the house at 431 Richmond, although there are indications the new design will in fact leave room for ground-floor retail space. The area is certainly at no loss for condo development (there are similar plans in preliminary stages for spaces on Brant Street and Camden Street, with others already under construction), so we’d be sad to see Goodnight go, $14 drinks and all.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/condo-development-to-replace-goodnight/&title=Is it goodnight for Goodnight? A looming condo development at 431 Richmond suggests yes&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Jon-Hamm-goodnight.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_96881" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm at Goodnight Gansevoort, the TIFF collaboration between the bar and the boutique hotel group (Image: David Lee)"][/caption]
Our ears on the street tell us that come spring, it may be time to say goodbye to everyone’s favourite semi-exclusive, reservations-only, back-alley nouveau speakeasy (and TIFF hotspot), Goodnight. The lot at 431 Richmond Street West has apparently been purchased by Menkes, the property powerhouse behind the Four Seasons Private Residences, the Lumiere Condos at College and Bay and 365 Church at Church and Carlton, to name a few. The location will be home to Fabrik, whose rather postmodern ad copy includes the memorable line, “Fashion industrial design heart throbbing city pulse eat my veins of passion and lust.”
The condo is planned at 16 stories, with 209 residential units and below-ground parking (Giannone Petricone Associates of Fabbrica is set to design the building). The new development could also mean the end for easterly location of boutique men’s clothier Nomad, which occupies the front of the house at 431 Richmond, although there are indications the new design will in fact leave room for ground-floor retail space. The area is certainly at no loss for condo development (there are similar plans in preliminary stages for spaces on Brant Street and Camden Street, with others already under construction), so we’d be sad to see Goodnight go, $14 drinks and all.){kind=link}
Oh come on! I love that place. Isn’t there a decently sized surface parking lot directly across the street? Develop that instead. I’m all for tons of people moving into the downtown core, keeping it bustling and all, but we’re becoming a product of our own success. All these new residents need uninteresting things like grocery stores, drug stores, dry cleaners, bank branches, department stores and the other generic stuff that we never used to see downtown. That’s what made downtown, downtown. Replace every interesting place, like Goodnight, with a Shoppers Drug Mart and downtown loses everything that makes it downtown. I think we’re approaching a tipping point. It’s already happening…you’ve been warned.