Beloved Annex bookstore Presse Internationale closing due to huge rent hike

Since it opened its doors on August 24, 2005, customers from all over the world have flocked to Presse Internationale — a much loved Annex bookstore that offers more than 1,500 publications in numerous languages.

Owner Edith Yang says travellers from as far away as Vancouver, Calgary, New York, Boston and London make it a point to stop at the store when they visit Toronto, marveling at their expansive collection.

“They said New York has big magazine stores, but do not have so much selection. A customer from London, he said London has stores like this, but still do not have so many selections. Customers from Boston, New York especially in the summertime when they come they say ‘oh, this is my favourite,’” she told The Leader Spirit.

Come November, the globally admired neighbourhood staple run by Yang and her husband will have to shutter as she says they cannot afford the $4,000 rent increase their landlord is asking for. She chokes up as she looks back on their decades in business.

“I feel sad. I cry many times and I cannot sleep at night,” she said. “I’m very, very emotional. My son grew up together with [the store]. From grade one, he sat here in [the children’s] section, reading everything … this gave him a lot of inspiration. He learned a lot from here.”

She adds that the couple has poured all they have into the store and are the only employees, working in shifts to cover operations. She takes the mornings, he takes the nights, often returning home past 2 a.m.

“We only get to see each other at the store,” she said.

While they’ve been in the space for close to 20 years, the building was sold two years ago. A new landlord then took over ownership of their store and the one next door that is currently empty.

Over a phone call, the new landlord told The Leader Spirit they’re sad to see the business go, but the previous owner kept rent very low and they can no longer afford to do so because of high mortgage costs. Presse Internationale’s lease expired in June of last year, but they agreed to let them stay on a month-to-month basis while they looked for another tenant. A restaurant is now set to move in across both properties.

“So they give us notice and let us finish at the end of November,” said Yang.

Regular customers who streamed through the store were shocked and saddened as they learned of the closure.

“They’re always very welcoming and friendly. [Edith] gets some extra toys with some of the kids magazines and I run workshops for kids, and so she gives them to me so I can give them to some of the kids I work with and it always brings joy,” said Laura Sharbell, who visits several times a month. “And I’m also a dog walker in the area, and I come in and she’s always got a little treat for them. It’s just been a lovely place and sort of a staple in the Annex. It’ll be really sad to see this place go.”

NDP MPP for the riding, Jessica Bell, says the situation is a common one in Toronto and highlights the need for better rental protections for commercial tenants in Ontario.

“We hear from a lot of small businesses that the lack of commercial rent control in Ontario is a big problem. What that means is if you’re a small business, you’ll sign a five-year lease, a six-year lease, you’ll invest a lot of money into improving the store. But once that time is up, the landlord can increase the rent to whatever they want. And that puts small businesses in a really difficult situation,” she explained.

Bell said commercial rent has been going up exponentially over the last few years and between 2022-2023, it went up by almost 32 per cent across the board according to advocacy group Better Way Alliance (BWA). In a 2022 report, BWA found that dramatic rent increases are the norm for small businesses, with one in ten businesses seeing their rent double in a single increase.

“Many small businesses just can’t make it work and it means they’re closing. That is a real shame. One thing that’s so special about Toronto is that we have a thriving small business community. We have Bloor Street, we have College Street, we have Yonge Street. It’s really special and it’s unique. If we want to keep that special unique character of Toronto, we need to protect our small businesses, and that means we need to look at commercial rent control.”

BWA has also been championing the cause for small businesses, who they say are extremely vulnerable under the current set of commercial rent rules.

“There are virtually no rent protections for commercial tenants in Ontario, which contrasts to residential tenants where there is some rent increase cap for buildings older than 2018.” explained Liliana Camacho, director of operations at BWA. “Rent can go up by any per cent at the end of the lease, and during that lease the tenant might be expected to pay for repairs, any sort of unforeseen costs can be pushed down to the tenant and all of this permitted under the Ontario Commercial Tenancies Act.”

She adds that while residential tenants have recourse for disputes through the Landlord and Tenant Board, no such body exists for commercial tenants, leaving them to go through small claims or superior court to resolve any disagreements over costs.

“The balance of power is often such that the tenant is going up against an investment company or a property management company and can’t actually get through to a person to negotiate anything. So they’re just forced to pay and don’t have the money to take a landlord to court,” she said. “Not only that, but there is no kind of standardized lease agreement. So tenants could be signing anything.”

BWA is advocating for what they call a “Commercial Renters Bill of Rights” that they hope will go far in providing some basic protections for commercial tenants.

It asks for the establishment of four basic processes:

• Standardized leases which provide a framework for an agreement between the commercial landlord and tenant.
• Rent control to ensure increases are reasonable, predictable and can be planned for.
• Dispute resolution tools like the commercial equivalent of a Landlord and Tenant Board to avoid the court system and associated costs.
• The right to withhold rent if a business has not been repaid by the landlord in a timely manner for a repair.

Camacho says they have been lobbying strongly at Queens Park.

“We have gotten through to many MPPs who understand the value of small business to the province. We think the province is listening in particular because of a concern for jobs, because of a concern for small businesses and to reduce red tape. We know that is a priority for the government and what we’re proposing can reduce regulatory burden for both tenants and for landlords. So that seems to be well regarded,” she said. “The idea of a rent cap is much more controversial and we expect that will need to be fleshed out over the years.”

She recognizes that businesses like Presse Internationale don’t have the luxury of waiting years and says the province is taking too long to act.

“We think it’s much too slow. We think that this is affecting Toronto now. It’s changing our street fronts. Whether we will see any action in this election cycle is still to be seen,” she said.

The Leader Spirit reached out to the province for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publishing. Meanwhile, Yang says while she understands the landlord’s circumstances, for them, the immediate future looks bleak.

“This is culture. It’s the only one in Toronto, in Canada. So I hope we can keep open for customers … I don’t know if the government or media can help,” she said.

If they cannot find another affordable location in the Annex, Yang says all that will be left of the store is the footage The Leader Spirit gathered during the creation of this story and her memories. She repeatedly referred to the recording process as “capturing history.”

“It cannot be replaced. If we close, it’s just forever closed,” she said.