Any idea what's going into the former Red Robin at 10010-171 Street in the west end?

A great article about the upcoming WEM location on Retail Insider: https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2023/08/experiential-entertainment-concept-paradox-museum-to-open-at-west-edmonton-mall-in-2024-exclusive/

Look what happened with the "superlab." Remember that the project was cancelled after the UCP defeated the NDP in 2019. At the time this decision was presented as a "win" for taxpayers--that it was cheaper to use the existing arrangement with private companies than to build that facility. I...

There's precedent here. When the Henday was being built (in stages) there was a concerted effort by area mayors (not just the City of Edmonton) to press the province to get the entire project done. Even though the Henday is primarily within Edmonton. mayors from outside the city spoke with one...

Interesting to see the row of electric vehicle charging stations going in at Canadian Tire Windermere. There's also undeveloped land adjacent and I'm wondering if CT would do a gas bar and car wash there. Or perhaps the deal with Petro-Canada has ended development of CT's retail fuel network...

In addition to lobbying MLAs like Dale Nally and Searle Turton, the key is also to get area municipal councils onboard. It's not enough that Edmonton City Council wants the SW hospital built. Everyone knows that and nobody at the Legislature cares. But if multiple councils in the area start...

The waits at city hospitals are insane--I had a staff member waiting 14 hours in an Edmonton ER for emergency treatment on his eye. So a ten year wait for a hospital that is desperately needed today sounds about right. Of course with Red Deer voting UCP in both ridings and Edmonton NDP across...

From the Edmonton Journal: Now the details: Here's exactly how the Valley Line LRT could impact you "There’s a key intersection at 90 Avenue and 83 Street where the LRT is being given only partial priority over traffic. That’s where the Bonnie Doon traffic circle is now. The train will have...

From the outset it has been made clear that some trains will be held at stations due to the phases of nearby traffic signals, before proceeding on a green light. So trains will not always have signal priority.

Interesting points. As I've noted before, although SkyTrain in the Lower Mainland and Edmonton's LRT are vastly different systems, they actually have several striking parallels. Both started out with a single simple line from downtown (with a subway portion in the city core) that hit a few...

Exactly. The Valley Line is basically going to be an extremely expensive replacement bus between Mill Woods and downtown. You'll convert existing bus riders to the line (obviously) but drivers won't be convinced, especially given that the travel times won't be much better than a bus. But I think...

But the last thing anyone should want is an Ottawa-style situation, where the line opens and then keeps getting shut down to deal with a myriad of problems and deficiencies that weren't ameliorated prior to launch. True, Ottawa's Confederation Line wasn't repeatedly delayed like the Valley Line...

Everyone on City Council will already be on side with getting the hospital underway. I think the key is to lobby the MLAs from the Ring: people like Dale Nally, Nate Glubish and Searle Turton (all in Cabinet). They represent ridings whose residents depend heavily on Edmonton for health services...

So what's your plan to get the hospital built? The UCP is clearly uninterested in following through and actually building the facility (it's easy to waste a little time and money on "site preparation" in order to give the illusion of actual progress). The UCP were just re-elected to another full...

The hospital isn't going to be built. The sooner the community accepts that, the better. Yes, money has already been spent on some site preparation, but there have been plenty of projects both in the public and private sector abandoned after some initial funds were spent on a given site. And...

The "hospital" is going to remain an empty field for many years to come. The problem is that now with zero Edmonton MLAs, there's absolutely no one fighting for the hospital at the Cabinet level. There's no completion date set or construction timeline, nor is there even a budgeted cost for the...

Flair to Midway or O'Hare?

I've never been a big supporter of the idea that the Winter or Summer Olympics should return to a city that's already hosted the same event. That's why I don't like the idea of either Calgary or Vancouver getting the Winter Olympics again. I'd rather see a place like Quebec City--which has never...

I always assumed that the reason Simons went into Londonderry was because 20 Vic probably gave them a fantastic deal on the rent and possibly a tenant incentive payment. Let's face it, there were few other potential tenants at the time who would have been interested in that space--Sears was on...

Here's hoping that HBC decides to test a larger-format Zellers store (and not just a pop-up as in Kingsway) on the upper floor of the downsizing Hudson's Bay. 60,000 square feet on the top level would be perfect. I've always assumed that the Zellers test was going to lead to HBC flipping some...