About
The Entertainment District BIA is a community driven non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and cultural vitality of the Toronto Entertainment District.
The Toronto Entertainment District is home to many of the nation’s most important and recognizable cultural landmarks including the CN Tower, Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre, CBC, CTV, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales Theatre, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, TIFF Bell Lightbox and more. It is where five major-league sports teams play in their home venue, throughout the year.
It is an area with layers of history and experience. In addition to being a centre for nightlife, dining, live entertainment, comedy, film and professional sports the Entertainment District is a workplace and neighbourhood.
The District has a vibrant business community located in elegantly designed office towers as well as transformed and preserved historic manufacturing warehouses, office lofts and artists’ studios.
The Entertainment District features something for every taste and demographic.
History
The area that presently comprises the Entertainment District is rich in history, having experienced nearly two centuries of continual change in its built character and land uses, including periods of growth and decline.
In the early part of the 19th century, the area was primarily a wealthy residential neighbourhood that housed the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada.
At the turn of the last century and with the advent of the railroad, the area was a burgeoning industrial and manufacturing district that included primarily poor and working class housing where many immigrants to Toronto settled.
By the middle of the last century, the garment industry had risen and begun to fall, and the area entered into an era of economic decline fuelled by suburbanization combined with a diminishing manufacturing sector.
Towards the end of the last century, the area began to experience an emergence with the influx of entertainment, creative and IT industries, and aided by innovative planning policies that encouraged mixed uses and the adaptive reuse of former warehouses.
Benefiting from economic, environmental, and social factors driving downtown growth, the present-day Entertainment District is in the midst of a renaissance, firmly establishing itself as a thriving and vibrant district for living, creating, working, and playing.
Location
The Toronto Entertainment District encompasses a significant part of the Downtown area, generally bounded by the Financial District to the east, Queen Street West to the north, Spadina Avenue to the west, and the Gardiner Expressway and Harbourfront to the south. Click here for map
Transportation & Parking
The District benefits tremendously from its location and exceptional accessibility, including:
A subway line and several major streetcar lines
Union Station – the country’s premier multimodal transportation hub providing regional, national, and international connections via GO Transit and VIA train service
Two interchanges to the Gardiner Expressway and connecting to the broader highway network
The Toronto Island Airport is minutes away, connecting to major eastern Canadian and US cities by plane