Moving Update

• Posted on 1 October 2025
• By Shreddy
• 0

An update on where we'll be and when, a timeline of our past moves, and more!

It's finally come -- the ACTUAL moving part of moving. Up until now, we've mostly been hard at work renovating the space. When we took over, more or less EVERYTHING had been completely cleared out of the space -- even some of the walls! It gave us a lot of potential for change and to make the space really work for us in whatever way we could dream, but also presented us with a tall order in terms of the labour required to make those dreams into realities! But we're just about ready to start filling the new shop up with all our remaining inventory. You've all done an amazing job helping us clear out a ton of stuff, but now we've got to make sure everything that's left makes it over safely.

If you missed the news, we've got another blog post up over here where we announced our move over to 1455 Dundas St W. It's in the Little Portugal neighbourhood, and we're already so excited by the super cool new neighbours we've been able to meet!

Our last day at 280 College will be Saturday October 4th. We'll be closing up to get packed up and move all our stuff over from Sunday October 5th thru the 7th, and then will be gently opening our new doors to the public for the first time on October 8th. We will be using a little bit of time to get settled in, but we'd love to see any friendly faces that might pop by! Our grand opening celebration will be October 18th from 11 AM to 7 PM -- the whole time we're open! We're going to have a prize wheel, popcorn for everyone, sweet tunes all day, and a lion dance performance at 2 PM from the Toronto Chinatown Community Lion Dance team!

This is Urbane's second time moving, and third time putting together an opening party. It's not often that shops get to do this -- when many shops get to those critical moments where they have to make decisions about how they're going to move forward with their future, a lot of them aren't able to adapt and change and get to make the decision to move, and now we've gotten to do it twice! The privilege of being able to do this instead of closing our doors is not lost on us. We owe this advantage to our cooperative structure in part, but also owe it to all of you for supporting us, and to the incredible people who have moved through and stayed with the co-op throughout the years for leaving us in the position to be able to make this decision!

Here is a look back at some photos from our early days on John St, our re-opening party when we first moved to 280 College, and some updates on where we're at with the renovations on 1455 Dundas!

1997 | 180 John St

This was our first home! Founded by Chinese community activist Eugene Yao in March 29th 1997, we were Toronto's first worker-owned cooperative bike shop, and continue to be Toronto's ONLY worker-owned cooperative bike shop! The shop’s philosophy was rooted in putting the commuter first, with the tagline, Power to the People who Power Themselves! Urbane started out as a service-only shop before moving into sales of bikes and accessories. The most exciting thing from this era was when we debuted our own brand of bicycles, designed in-house – the Urbanite! You can see these bikes still travelling through the streets of Toronto today, a testament to their lasting power of quality parts and construction! When our lease expired here, our then-members started looking for a place to move that wasn’t too far away but with plenty of room to grow. That’s when they found 280 College!

2016 | 280 College St

We've been at 280 for nearly a decade now! Being at the intersection of the Annex, University, Kensington Market and Chinatown neighbourhoods has shaped a lot of the products we carry – how can we support a community of commuters, students, lifelong cyclists, and families? Being a co-op means we want to take a different approach from the typical corporate focus on the bottom line, and want to hold the needs of everyone who comes through these doors in high esteem, and serve them with integrity, a vision towards social justice and provide genuine alternatives to corporate culture and values. This can be challenging when the net we’re trying to cast is so wide, but we do it all to make sure our bikes are durable, serviceable, and most of all functional!

The landscape of cycling has shifted a bit since we first started the business, there is often trend-chasing, and lower-end parts and accessories that might bring the cost down for the consumer but also feed into throwaway culture. It’s been something that we reflect on a lot here, making sure that we are using quality parts to ensure folks can keep riding every day through all kinds of weather, and all winter long, with snow and salt!

As we move into our next phase of being, at 1455 Dundas St W, we want to think about the ways that we can support the families in our new neighbourhood through challenging car supremacy and other fossil fueled vehicles, while also making sure those bikes keep everyone involved safer, happier, and more connected!

2025 | 1455 Dundas St W 

When we first took a look at this space, we were immediately charmed by the brick interiors and arched windows. Though there was definitely a lot (like, really, a LOT!) that we had to work on, we’ve almost finished setting up an incredibly cozy space that we’re very excited to invite everyone into!

It’s been a sweetbitter goodbye to 280 College, more love than strain for sure, and we have the most love for 1455 Dundas, and can’t wait to share that with all of you.