[JuliallThat]

West Edmonton Mall definitely needs to improve itself. After seeing SM Mall of Asia in Manila and SM Seaside in Cebu city, parts of WEM look pretty tired. Also the total integration of parking as well as integration of public transportation makes SM much more nicer. You can get off of public transit and enter the malls right away, not walk through a dark and dirty parkade to get to the mall.

Don't get me wrong I still like WEM, but Triple 5 could learn some lessons.

Oh apparently Mall of Asia is expanding some more and will be adding a replica Spanish Galeon to its attractions. Wonder where they got that idea.

They don't even have to go to Asia (though they should). The experience of taking transit to malls in Vancouver alone is entirely different, taking the train to Metrotown is worlds different, even driving to Metrotown feels better than driving to West Ed, it's so jank feeling outside.

 

[erudyk_29]

I feel like once VL West opens, we'll start hearing about major WEM renovations, probably with some TOD style towers and such. I think the main thing holding WEM back from really reworking itself is its sheer size. You kind of have to renovate in stages, or do different sections of the mall as completely separate renos. It would take many years to make a real transformative renovation.

 

[Glenco]

West Edmonton Mall definitely needs to improve itself. After seeing SM Mall of Asia in Manila and SM Seaside in Cebu city, parts of WEM look pretty tired. Also the total integration of parking as well as integration of public transportation makes SM much more nicer. You can get off of public transit and enter the malls right away, not walk through a dark and dirty parkade to get to the mall.

Don't get me wrong I still like WEM, but Triple 5 could learn some lessons.

Oh apparently Mall of Asia is expanding some more and will be adding a replica Spanish Galeon to its attractions. Wonder where they got that idea.

WEM was a very cheap built to begin with and it has only gone down hill since then. They do the bare minimum to maintain the building. What amazes me is they are able to attract so many high end retailers in such a second grade shopping mall. The bottom line is the only thing that matters I guess.

 

[Gronk!]

WEM was a very cheap built to begin with and it has only gone down hill since then. They do the bare minimum to maintain the building. What amazes me is they are able to attract so many high end retailers in such a second grade shopping mall. The bottom line is the only thing that matters I guess.

At least they no longer have brass and 80's pastels decor. I could have sworn that lasted until the 2000s or so!

 

[Glenco]

At least they no longer have brass and 80's pastels decor. I could have sworn that lasted until the 2000s or so!

Thank goodness for small mercies.

 

[dunno]

At least they no longer have brass and 80's pastels decor. I could have sworn that lasted until the 2000s or so!

That had more character than the generic mediocrity that Kingsway and Londonderry went with. The brass does live on in some small areas (Europa Blvd elevator, Fantasyland staircase).

 

[Glenco]

 

[Edmcowboy11]

I feel like once VL West opens, we'll start hearing about major WEM renovations, probably with some TOD style towers and such. I think the main thing holding WEM back from really reworking itself is its sheer size. You kind of have to renovate in stages, or do different sections of the mall as completely separate renos. It would take many years to make a real transformative renovation.

I get your point but the only thing holding Triple 5 back is Triple 5. Again Mall of Asia is expanding as we speak as well as SM Cebu Seaside and SM Cebu city mall are both expanding as we speak too.

 

[archited]

I understand that WEM is leveraged to the hilt in support of other projects in other places.

 

[davcocom]

It seems like Deville is planning on opening a location at WEM

Edmonton Cafes — Deville Coffee

www.devillecoffee.ca

 

[thommyjo]

It seems like Deville is planning on opening a location at WEM

Edmonton Cafes — Deville Coffee

www.devillecoffee.ca

Very surprising given how urban/corporate most of their brand is. I had really hoped for an ice district plaza or COE tower type store.

Their Vancouver/Calgary locations are gorgeous. The Macewan one is a pretty massive strip down

 

[davcocom]

Very surprising given how urban/corporate most of their brand is. I had really hoped for an ice district plaza or COE tower type store.

Their Vancouver/Calgary locations are gorgeous. The Macewan one is a pretty massive strip down

absolutely! it's wild that basically WEM has all the retail DT would have in any other city.

 

[ChazYEG]

I had really hoped for an ice district plaza or COE tower type store.

They were ready to pull the trigger on a DT location, but the lower-than-expected traffic and amount of competition made them re-assess.

 

[Kosy123]

They were ready to pull the trigger on a DT location, but the lower-than-expected traffic and amount of competition made them re-assess.

Yeah now that I think about it, there is a decent amount of cafes in downtown, more than I realized off handedly.

 

[dunno]

absolutely! it's wild that basically WEM has all the retail DT would have in any other city.

A lot of the retail WEM gets wouldn't wind up downtown in cities of a similar age/size. Even Calgary's downtown retail offerings, while significantly better than Edmonton's, pales in comparison to Chinook or CrossIron. Ottawa is a slight outlier being that the most prominent mall in the city (Rideau) is adjacent to downtown, but look at most American cities our size, and many that are double, and Edmonton is pretty average (and in some cases, better). Compared to the next rung in Canada - the 800-900k cities of Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Quebec City, only QC is better, and that's significantly boosted by tourism, but even its main retail node is in suburban Ste-Foy.