During a Wednesday meeting at Loblaw-owned Maple Leaf Gardens, the company outlined its business plans for investors and financial analysts, but shed very little light on the future of the hockey shrine.
Eight years have passed since the final game was played at the Gardens. Loblaw Companies Inc. purchased the building and said it planned to put a grocery store in the building, but little has happened.
Few people have seen the interior of the building but CTV News got a sneak peek in late January. The Gardens appeared frozen in time and in a state of slow decay, looking a little battered and littered with garbage and dead rodents.
Wednesday's meeting was off-limits for the news media. But after they met, investors said they liked what they heard about the company's future plans for growth.
"I heard all the right words," one person said as they left the meeting.
As for the building, Loblaw Executive Chairman Galen Weston Sr. said that the iconic building's evolution represents the evolution of his grocery stores.
"This is an icon just like Loblaws is an icon," Weston said. "I think it represents a huge evolution of what's happening to Loblaws as well as what's happening to Toronto here."
But in January, company spokesperson - and former city mayor David Crombie - said that the building will be home to a grocery store, indoor parking and a museum in the Gardens' lobby.
The museum will include rotating displays of hockey memorabilia and will stretch from the lobby to the south east corner of the building.
Weston said that clean-up of the building's interior will begin this summer. They hope to re-open Maple Leaf Gardens about two years after that.
With a report from CTV's Tom Hayes
