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occidentalcapital said:
Too negative IMO.

Right now downtown is doing better than it has in years, with COVID receding, return to office, ice district filling in, better security/safety (still more to work on). We can recognize when things are getting better, it is not all bad. Key is to continue this momentum, get a bunch of street facing businesses opened, keep building. We have the opportunity with the immigration numbers going way up, and demand for housing steadily building, plus some absorption of office space in key sectors (first time that has happened for a while). Let's see things as they are rather than overly negative, and keep building the momentum.
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All the empty spaces in City Centre and in this area present a somewhat different picture. Maybe it is darkest before the dawn, but better is sure not evident at this point.

I suppose we can hope post COVID things will improve, but there is no real solid plan to get people to come back downtown and some of the fundamental problems go back further than COVID. Lets not forget, retail businesess were leaving here before COVID too (ex. Eddie Bauer, Birks, Holts ...).

I think relying on hope will just lead to more complacency, which is the last thing we need now. We need to be more proactive and rather than just react to crises as they arise.
 
What are the chances that there is a market for more medical type offices etc. in the mall, similar to what was done at Meadowlark? Obviously retail or redevelopment is ideal but I am curious if that may be a way to fill some of those bays. Or even a large restaurant that could maybe involve some exterior renos to give a more street presence?
 
occidentalcapital said:
Too negative IMO.

Right now downtown is doing better than it has in years, with COVID receding, return to office, ice district filling in, better security/safety (still more to work on). We can recognize when things are getting better, it is not all bad. Key is to continue this momentum, get a bunch of street facing businesses opened, keep building. We have the opportunity with the immigration numbers going way up, and demand for housing steadily building, plus some absorption of office space in key sectors (first time that has happened for a while). Let's see things as they are rather than overly negative, and keep building the momentum.
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Why not set the bar so low you can walk over it
 
Retail trends in other cities seems 100% relative to this thread. I wonder if Edmonton could ever support a holt (downtown or elsewhere). West Edmonton Mall now has a high end section that would possibly overlap big time with holts offerings? I don’t think Edmonton would be a big enough market to support a bunch of stand alone high end retailers AND a holt. There is A LOT of disposable income here, but between West Ed and people travelling routinely to other centres for shopping, seems like that market is well covered. I’m not a fashion guy, so I couldn’t care less about high end brands, so I don’t personally see losing Holt as a bad thing. What do you guys think though? To me it seems like places like Holt have lost relevance, but do you think it would be a good addition to downtown? We have some good stand alone men’s retailers setting up shop downtown, but are there any women’s or unisex brands other than holt? Sake off fifth or Nordstrom rack too mid market?
 
CaptainBL said:
Holt's publicly stating its confidence in downtown Calgary despite their social issues and Sportchek giving downtown Edmonton the finger. That is almost comical if it weren't disappointing.
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I’m leaning towards they have invested so many dollars in the store that this is merely an ad for those bootcut wearing cowpokes to buy more expensive brands. Let’s not kid ourselves and think for 1 second that their DT vacancy rate is anything less than 50%.
 
Parkland said:
What are the chances that there is a market for more medical type offices etc. in the mall, similar to what was done at Meadowlark? Obviously retail or redevelopment is ideal but I am curious if that may be a way to fill some of those bays. Or even a large restaurant that could maybe involve some exterior renos to give a more street presence?
Click to expand...
Unlike the Mayfield area, there are already quite a number of medical offices in the area. The downtown office tower I am in is chock full of them, many have long term leases and retail space is usually more expensive, so I really don't see this as working well.

However, I think restaurants may be a better idea. Many years ago there was a nice good size Earls on the second level of Edmonton Centre (City Centre east). At one time there was also a nice restaurant near the south entrance of Eatons Center (now City Centre West). It would be good to have a few good size restaurants in City Centre again.

Another thing which might help would be if they got a gym/fitness club again. Either in the old World Health space (not really the mall's fault on this one - the company went broke maybe due to COVID) or in another space such as the Sport Check space. which could also have exterior access. There are only two gyms downtown now, not long ago there were four, so there probably is enough demand for at least one more right now.
 
Mattyeg said:
Retail trends in other cities seems 100% relative to this thread. I wonder if Edmonton could ever support a holt (downtown or elsewhere). West Edmonton Mall now has a high end section that would possibly overlap big time with holts offerings? I don’t think Edmonton would be a big enough market to support a bunch of stand alone high end retailers AND a holt. There is A LOT of disposable income here, but between West Ed and people travelling routinely to other centres for shopping, seems like that market is well covered. I’m not a fashion guy, so I couldn’t care less about high end brands, so I don’t personally see losing Holt as a bad thing. What do you guys think though? To me it seems like places like Holt have lost relevance, but do you think it would be a good addition to downtown? We have some good stand alone men’s retailers setting up shop downtown, but are there any women’s or unisex brands other than holt? Sake off fifth or Nordstrom rack too mid market?
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I suppose if Holts were to decide to come back here, it would be good, but I never really shopped there much and I feel the market here for them may be limited.

I did visit their Calgary store and it seemed so much better compared to the one here. The one here in Manulife looked so old and dated to me.
So partly I feel the problem was Holts never really make the effort here. They actually needed to get a nicer, bigger newer space.

I would really like to see a Simons downtown, I think that could work well here. I feel the Saks off fifth or Nordstrom rack could be good too. I would go there.
 
David A said:
Unlike the Mayfield area, there are already quite a number of medical offices in the area. The downtown office tower I am in is chock full of them, many have long term leases and retail space is usually more expensive, so I really don't see this as working well.

However, I think restaurants may be a better idea. Many years ago there was a nice good size Earls on the second level of Edmonton Centre (City Centre east). At one time there was also a nice restaurant near the south entrance of Eatons Center (now City Centre West). It would be good to have a few good size restaurants in City Centre again.

Another thing which might help would be if they got a gym/fitness club again. Either in the old World Health space (not really the mall's fault on this one - the company went broke maybe due to COVID) or in another space such as the Sport Check space. which could also have exterior access. There are only two gyms downtown now, not long ago there were four, so there probably is enough demand for at least one more right now.
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I'd say there are still 4 gyms downtown.
YMCA
Goodlife
Archetype
MacEwan Centre for Sport Wellness - I workout there and several people I know there live downtown. It and the Y provide two swimming pools for dt residents, too.

Amenity and service wise, downtown checks pretty much all the boxes I need and want except for shopping.
 
TAS said:
I'd say there are still 4 gyms downtown.
YMCA
Goodlife
Archetype
MacEwan Centre for Sport Wellness - I workout there and several people I know there live downtown. It and the Y provide two swimming pools for dt residents, too.

Amenity and service wise, downtown checks pretty much all the boxes I need and want except for shopping.
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I was only thinking of those connected to/very close to City Centre and standalone, so I was not counting MacEwan or Archetype which is affiliated with the hotel/condo building.

I think for a while MacEwan did not want new non student members, but I believe that is not the case now. If it is any consolation, at least unlike Calgary, we still have a downtown YMCA.
 
holts leaving is a loss for the city and somewhat embarrassing. holts had been historically in edmonton for a long time, them leaving shows a canadian national high end retailer does not believe in investing dollars here. it was also another bad blow for downtown edmonton despite what the DBA or council says.
 
I'm not sure city centre could support high end retailers like Holt in it's current state, but Uniqlo and something like Reitmans would do alright.

I'm not going to pretend I know the lease rates but spitballing, I'd rather see smaller independents and pop-ups than chains set up shop in City Centre. Think of almost like an incubator for small retail. I'm not sure that trying to drive traffic away from malls with the same stores is a winning strategy, but if you can offer something unique, that might help bring some life back into city centre.
 
MacLac said:
I’m leaning towards they have invested so many dollars in the store that this is merely an ad for those bootcut wearing cowpokes to buy more expensive brands. Let’s not kid ourselves and think for 1 second that their DT vacancy rate is anything less than 50%.
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... and yet feels 10x busier than YEGDT with 500% more offerings.

Edmontonians need to get out of Edmonton more often; I'm not talking Vegas or Cancun.
 
EdmTrekker said:
Can't you quit picking at scabs?
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