It is a fair comment about those empty lots, after all The Coast has a "good" view of them. They have been mostly empty since Healy Ford closed, around 30 years ago or so and some even longer.
There have been some development proposals that have come and gone for some of this space - Lamb's Jasper House is the one that comes to mind for me.
If the park is done well, it will be a great way to fill much of this space that sadly no one seems interested in filling, so if the visitor come back in several years hopefully the area will give a better impression.
Of course, the visitor from Canmore may also not realize all the other empty lots downtown that have been filled over that time period, which hopefully was mentioned to them. So it is not all glass empty.