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IanO said:
Walked through Calgary's CORE yesterday around lunch and was reminded about the importance of getting ECC back in business, revamped, repurposed etc. with actual shopping with multiple options for clothing, shoes, necessities and a few significant anchors.

There were thousands of people out and about in and around the mall on Stephen Ave and while there certainly were elements similar to Edmonton, it felt same, welcoming, vibrant and pretty clean I must say.

Over to you ECC.
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There are several nice new businesses retail that have come to ECC over the last 6 months or so, and a furniture store I also noticed is coming soon. So I feel things are recovering.

Unfortunately, unlike Calgary we no longer have many of the larger anchor stores such the Bay or Holts, downtown. So the challenge is to fill the remaining bigger spaces in ECC with something new that will also draw more retail shoppers.

We don't have such a large collection of interesting older buildings suited for retail, like Calgary does on Stephen Ave, but 104 St is doing well and has more potential.
 
Gronk! said:
A furniture store? I need more details, please. Who is it. which location, and will this be permanent or a seasonal pop-up shop?
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I should've taken a picture but it's on the 2nd floor near the Manulife pedway.

It did also say gifts as well. Seems to be permanent too.
 
The little bit I have gathered leads me to believe it is an existing business relocating from elsewhere in the city.

The windows were covered when I went by recently so other than the name on the sign which also says coming soon, I can't say more about what it will look like or sell.
 
I probably said this before, outside of disorder/safety issues, much of people's perception of how Downtown is doing is related to this mall and remembering how it used to be. By all accounts Downtown in general is measurably better than it was 10-20 years ago by all account in terms of infrastructure, investment, resident population, street retail, transit, public spaces. However there's little destination retail in the mall and that's all I hear in terms of peoples take or perception on Downtown. Not sure how to fix that short term.
 
I still think Restoration Hardware would succeed in the old Holts space, with their signature cafe taking up the rooftop. It would create great street presence and bring back a major anchor for city centre.

This is just me dreaming; but having an Apple Store downtown facing the street would also be amazing. Apple sure knows how to get creative with their standalone stores in other cities so it would make quite a statement in our core.
 
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Are some of you on the same street drug many are? Man-o-man.

It's embarrassing and appalling where things are at from a retail and 'where do we explore at lunch' standpoint.

Maybe a few of you need to get of out dodge more often; 104st is fine, but not much to write home about.
 
A downtown Restoration Hardware store would be a license to print money. However, I'm content with a Home Hardware or a Crappy Tire. Downtown needs at least one hardware store to serve not just the residents but also the office workers and the post-secondary students. I for one am getting a bit tired of being forced to drive to places such as the Home Depot in Westmount Mall for my hardware needs.
 
Just as an update on RH -- the company now looks for centrally located City-oriented flagship stores, always with a high end restaurant as part of the venture and a household panoply of custom designed furniture, fixtures and equipment -- usually about three or four floors -- if realized, Edmonton would be one of the first with a residential tower attached, likely part condo and part rental.
 
archited said:
Just for a little inside info Restoration Hardware (now simply known as RH) is looking at another downtown Edmonton location and the possibility of adding housing to their game -- a high-rise venture.
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That's quite the long game if they're willing to wait for a new high-rise project to be built, if it's a new build you're speaking of.
 
Gronk! said:
A downtown Restoration Hardware store would be a license to print money. However, I'm content with a Home Hardware or a Crappy Tire. Downtown needs at least one hardware store to serve not just the residents but also the office workers and the post-secondary students. I for one am getting a bit tired of being forced to drive to places such as the Home Depot in Westmount Mall for my hardware needs.
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RH doesn't sell hardware.

https://rh.com/us/en/
 
Offworld said:
That's quite the long game if they're willing to wait for a new high-rise project to be built, if it's a new build you're speaking of.
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They are not planning on waiting for a developer -- they would be the developer. RH in recent years has been building their own buildings (and quite a few of them I might add). Thematically the buildings have a retro feel to them -- very high architectural standards. The look at Edmonton's downtown is extremely serious! They are aware that major department stores have vacated the City's core or have gone out of business -- the Bay, Eatons, Woodwards, etc.-- they see an opening for themselves, bucking the trend. The new store would have as I mentioned an upper end restaurant that would occupy an entire floor; they are also looking strongly at two retail trends that they feel would apply to Edmonton (particularly in a downtown setting) -- the Pet Industry ($140 Billion Industry in the U.S -- blossomed during COVID) and the Houseplant Industry which also boomed in the COVID days and is particularly strong in colder climates. I will update this info when I see the time is right for an RH thread under the "Buildings" Category.
 
Gronk! said:
A downtown Restoration Hardware store would be a license to print money. However, I'm content with a Home Hardware or a Crappy Tire. Downtown needs at least one hardware store to serve not just the residents but also the office workers and the post-secondary students. I for one am getting a bit tired of being forced to drive to places such as the Home Depot in Westmount Mall for my hardware needs.
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Well no reason we can't want both. Our expectations have become so low. Restoration Hardware's name is a bit misleading, they wouldn't compete with Home Hardware or Canadian Tire. They would fit in nicely in the somewhat still upscale Manulife, as would something like an Apple Store.

On the other hand, something like Home Hardware would be great in a smaller less expensive, but still central space, such as a street front space in an older smaller retail building. Canadian Tire could use a space such as one of the empty corner spaces in City Centre Mall.

I suppose one of the few advantages of having so much empty space downtown is there is room to accommodate all of these in suitable spaces.
 
archited said:
They are not planning on waiting for a developer -- they would be the developer. RH in recent years has been building their own buildings (and quite a few of them I might add). Thematically the buildings have a retro feel to them -- very high architectural standards. The look at Edmonton's downtown is extremely serious! They are aware that major department stores have vacated the City's core or have gone out of business -- the Bay, Eatons, Woodwards, etc.-- they see an opening for themselves, bucking the trend. The new store would have as I mentioned an upper end restaurant that would occupy an entire floor; they are also looking strongly at two retail trends that they feel would apply to Edmonton (particularly in a downtown setting) -- the Pet Industry ($140 Billion Industry in the U.S -- blossomed during COVID) and the Houseplant Industry which also boomed in the COVID days and is particularly strong in colder climates. I will update this info when I see the time is right for an RH thread under the "Buildings" Category.
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If they want a retro feel, they could bring back elements of the Tegler Building and of course the lot where it stood is now empty. It is a good location to connect into the downtown pedway system, close to other retail and LRT.
 
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