Humber Lakeshore campus to get a Starbucks

The siren call of Starbucks will finally reach Lakeshore campus next August with the opening of the new Welcome Centre.

Humber College has confirmed a long-term plan for the Lakeshore campus, including a series of new and revised food services that will be integrated into the developments over the next four years.

One of the most visible projects, on the corner of Lake Shore Blvd. and Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive, is quickly transforming into the brand new Welcome Centre. “In that building we are going to be putting in a new Starbucks,” says Paul Iskander, Director of Campus Services, in a phone interview yesterday.

Starbucks is sure to be a welcome addition for students who, for years, have been getting their coffee from the crowded campus Tim Horton’s. The one coffee shop serves 8,000 Lakeshore students, and hundreds of high school students from the neighbouring John Redmond Catholic secondary school. The result of this high volume of customers is a gridlock of those willing to wait out the long lines.

The crowded Lakeshore campus Tim Hortons.

“We are busy from the time we open, to the time we close,” says Fida Ali, 37, in an interview earlier this semester. Ali is a shift supervisor at Tim Horton’s. “We have plenty of people on at all times, and both registers open…what can we do?” says Ali.

In September, a Starbucks Coffee Shop was opened at the Humber North Campus, in their new Learning Resource Centre, which many were hoping would alleviate some of the wait times at that local Tim Horton’s.

“That Starbucks has turned out to be quite successful,” says Iskander. Adding a Starbucks to the Lakeshore Campus will hopefully have the same effect.

Senior Vice President of Planning and Corporate Services, Rani Daliwah, has confirmed that, in addition to the Starbucks, the long-term campus development plan includes updating the Extreme Pita, in the L Building, to a Quesada or a Chipotle. Daliwah also said the plan is looking into changing the Lakeshore Café Mr.Sub into something like a Fresh East.

The new Lakeshore campus Athletics Centre, being built on the north side of Lakeshore Boulevard (just east of Twenty-Fourth St.) won’t be receiving any food services. There will, however, be vending machines offering sports and energy drinks.

“We project to have the Welcome Centre open by August 2016,” says Iskander. The long-term development project is expected to be done no later than September 2019, “barring no delays with the planning and approval process,” says Dhaliwal.