Toronto’s newest multimillion-dollar parking garage under the St. Lawrence Market North building is turning heads — not for its design or convenience, but because almost no one is using it.
After nearly a decade of planning and construction, the $128 million redevelopment at Front and Jarvis opened earlier this year with a promise to ease parking congestion in one of the city’s busiest tourist hubs. But new data from the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) tells a different story: the 250-space underground lot, known as Carpark 72, is among the least-used parking facilities in the city.
In a report released in response to a request from Councillor Paul Ainslie, the TPA shared occupancy data for its 465 off-street lots. The St. Lawrence Market garage ranked tenth from the bottom in average daily peak usage, a surprising result for a high-profile location that was expected to attract steady traffic.
The project’s long and expensive journey adds to the frustration. The redevelopment faced years of delays due to archaeological discoveries, design changes, labour disputes, and escalating construction costs that ballooned the budget by over $50 million. When the new market building finally opened this spring, officials hoped its underground garage would help relieve nearby street parking shortages.
Instead, the costly facility now sits mostly vacant — a multimillion-dollar reminder of the city’s struggle to balance urban development with changing downtown habits. As more residents rely on public transit, cycling, and rideshare services, the once-essential downtown parking lot may have opened just as demand began to disappear.