[David A]

We're about the same age, but I can remember being disappointed at the old Eaton's building being torn down. As much as the Tegler building, I feel the city lost something a piece of its history there.

I remember thinking at the time it was progress and exciting, but after 40 or so years the excitement wore off. It would have been nice if those 40 storey towers went ahead, but as I recall even then many were skeptical that they were really just being used to entice to city to approve the mall and the developer wasn't very serious about them. Well, soon after the mall was approved, they were dropped.

While I didn't love the building as much as the Tegler, the old Eatons was a very nice downtown department store, the old style, the one that replaced it seemed kind of cold and more sterile even while it still was an Eatons.

The mall had a very glitzy 80's suburban feel to it when it first opened, but it did have a fairly nice selection of stores so I think for some years it actually was a boost to downtown. Those were the years when you could shop downtown and have a selection of stores almost as good as West Ed and perhaps better than Southgate. Hard to imagine now.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Unfortunately now we are in an area that's I'm assuming all of us are, well what now?
We had a decent official proposal but never happened. Then recently there was the Photoshop proposal on post #1927 which I would gladly see in a heartbeat. Makes me sad to see this section of our downtown just sits with no direction as far as I can tell.

 

[David A]

Yes, there are some good and interesting ideas here but unfortunately I suppose we are in a holding pattern until a new owner takes over and decides what to do.

 

[Yeggy]

A reminder of what could have been...

View attachment 711616

It was never going to be that. It was a bait and switch from the start.

 

[Offworld]

I was in the Bell Tower lobby a week ago and a group of people had gathered for the beginning of some sort of downtown walking tour. About 10-15 people The guide was giving a talk about the mall and without being too conspicuous I tried to listen in. It didn't give me the warm fuzzies. I could be wrong but the person was trying to argue that saving some of the west mall (the Eaton Centre) side was worth keeping as retail. Clearly, they've not read my memo.

It was hard to tell what the point of the tour was, or who the group was. It wasn't touristy, and it didn't look very business-y either.

 

[kcantor]

It was never going to be that. It was a bait and switch from the start.

You might be getting a bit too harsh and judgemental with that assessment. Construction was actually started on the first of those office towers before the market went to hell in a handshake and it was capped before reaching full height and converted to a hotel. That’s why the Delta has such a strange floor plate for a hotel (it’s much too deep) and doesn’t have the lobby and amenity spaces you would expect in a purpose built hotel. People sometimes forget that developers work in the market, they don’t get to make the market and it was 30 plus years before the office market in downtown Edmonton even came close to recovering.

 

[David A]

I was in the Bell Tower lobby a week ago and a group of people had gathered for the beginning of some sort of downtown walking tour. About 10-15 people The guide was giving a talk about the mall and without being too conspicuous I tried to listen in. It didn't give me the warm fuzzies. I could be wrong but the person was trying to argue that saving some of the west mall (the Eaton Centre) side was worth keeping as retail. Clearly, they've not read my memo.

It was hard to tell what the point of the tour was, or who the group was. It wasn't touristy, and it didn't look very business-y either.

Interesting. I would make that argument too and actually now it seems two more tenants are moving into the west side which still has around 15 tenants, one currently has space in the east side.

Also the only real redevelopment proposal put forward so far also envisioned keeping some of the west mall and focusing most of the redevelopment on the empty former Bay and nearby space.

 

[Offworld]

You might be getting a bit too harsh and judgemental with that assessment. Construction was actually started on the first of those office towers before the market went to hell in a handshake and it was capped before reaching full height and converted to a hotel. That’s why the Delta has such a strange floor plate for a hotel (it’s much too deep) and doesn’t have the lobby and amenity spaces you would expect in a purpose built hotel. People sometimes forget that developers work in the market, they don’t get to make the market and it was 30 plus years before the office market in downtown Edmonton even came close to recovering.

I'd have to think that the other towers were certainly bait and switch, or any kind of towers for that matter. I remember back in the day speaking with city planners and the head of the what I think was the Downtown Development Corp, and they advised me that there was no infrastructure or superstructure built for the towers, just standard retail space.

 

[kcantor]

^
As a long-time member and ex-President of the Edmonton Downtown Development Corporation, let’s just say our memories in this regard aren’t the same…

 

[Offworld]

^
As a long-time member and ex-President of the Edmonton Downtown Development Corporation, let’s just say our memories in this regard aren’t the same…

Hey... was there perhaps another pres, or were you the only one? If so, then maybe it was a planner that made the comment. This would have been latter 80s. When I asked about tower siting, the response I got was "no towers". There's no foundations, voids for eventual elevator cores, etc. It was a mall with a big anchor, straight up. Compare that with Manulife 2, that has the core elements already in place, constructed when the Manu 2 mall was built.

The exception would be the hotel, as you've described it.

 

[David A]

As our late esteemed QE II once said, some recollections may vary. I feel they likely did initially intend to build towers, but at some point realized it did not make sense except to keep it to help move the rest of the project ahead.