The Phoenix Concert Theatre plans to relocate to 1605 Queen St. W., taking over the century-old Parkdale Hall building once rezoning and city approvals clear. The venue will stay put at its current Sherbourne Street address through 2027 while construction moves forward, meaning the switch is still more than a year away.
Co-owner Lisa Zbitnew described the Phoenix as having grown into far more than a typical concert hall over its more than three decades in operation, calling it a gathering place that has shaped the city’s music scene one show at a time.
Streets of Toronto first reported on the move, noting that the Phoenix opened in 1991 and has hosted a wide range of international and established acts over the years, including Billie Eilish, Sting and Shaggy. Parkdale Hall, meanwhile, carries its own performance legacy: the building first opened as the Parkdale Theatre in 1920, designed by architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Danforth Music Hall.
Parkdale Hall president Alex Chan pointed to that shared history as part of what makes the pairing fit, noting that the building was built for live entertainment generations before the Phoenix carved out its own reputation. The new location is expected to maintain a capacity comparable to the current venue, preserving the intimate scale that has defined the Phoenix’s identity while giving it a home inside one of the city’s oldest surviving theater buildings.
