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Edmonton City Centre Mall (Renovations) | ?m | 2s | LaSalle Investment Management

I'm wondering if ECC will close down completely at some point in the future?

Heaven knows there's plenty of empty CRUs in neighboring buildings such as Manulife, Commerce Place, Scotia Place (or whatever it's called now), Telus/ATB, Bell Tower, the ICE District towers, the buildings adjacent to Churchill Square and on streets such as Rice Howard Way and the 4th St promenade. The food court tenants can relocate to the Commerce Place food court (McDs already has a location that's been closed since the pandemic), or to the empty food hall at Stantec. A&W was located in the old Greyhound terminal, so they can move to Stantec's main floor. RBC can relocate back to Manulife. ATB and the Telus kiosk can be handled at their namesake towers. Talbots, Purdy's, The Source, Boulevard, Infiniti Leather, Soft Moc, Ricki's, Accu-Search, Denim & Smith, Tim Hortons, the mobile kiosks - all can relocate to neighboring buildings. Craft Cafe next to the Landmark Theatre can take over Tres Carnales' vacated space. The Landmark Theatre can be replaced by a new IMAX cineplex on 101 St.

The pedway accesses to Manulife, Sandman Hotel and Central LRT can remain open. TD can also remain open since they're in the midst of a major renovation. The Shoppers in the east mall can also stay open but west mall Shoppers can close. CBC can also stay if they want.

The rest of the mall can be permanently closed. In its place, LaSalle can undergo a major redevelopment c/w mixed-use towers and permanently dispenses with its bunker-like mentality.
 
Blame Trudeau good one. Give it a break
What he said wasn’t wrong. He didn’t ignorantly scream f*ck Trudeau. He just provided his opinion and two examples to support. The irony here is that it’s you that’s making the ignorant comment lol.
 
I don't believe Edmonton can secure and make safe its downtown core without significantly reducing the transient population from downtown. Housing for homeless and transient people with accompanying community service supports should be located throughout Edmonton. Downtown is where most of transients are because this is where the vast majority of accommodations, social services and food are located. This concentration of transients includes people who wander around publicly accessible buildings, panhandle, litter the streets, damage property and some no doubt can be threatening. And it is this concentration that the downtown business community and residents see everyday. Where is the City Strategic Plan to deal with transient over-population in the downtown and how to relocate/house in the broader community by rehoming some of the shelters and facilities to the suburbs - city suburbs and suburban communities like moneybags Strathcona County.
 



So in other words, the proposed ECC renovations are delayed for the foreseeable future.
Am I reading this right?
That was my take on it too. On the one hand this is a bit disappointing, but on the other hand, the last time they (well the previous owners, not the current ones) tried to fix City Centre they ended up with this.

Maybe they need to devote all their attention to getting some decent new tenants however possible (including being flexible on lease terms and rates for some period of time), rather than large capital expenditures and shuffling what is left around, which can be quite disruptive for the remaining tenants.
 
I'm happy the UCP is providing $5 million for downtown Edmonton specifically. It's not nearly enough, but a start as mentioned earlier.

I really hope the city starts taking cleanliness more seriously. That would go a long way. I'm so sick and tired of seeing dustbowls with flying garbage bags flying around on our "premier" downtown streets. It's a microcosm of how bad the state of downtown is currently.

I just wish there was a serious push by council and the province to push to attract some serious big time players in various fields here while simultaneously working to support homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs. We legitimately have some serious potential thanks to the U of A to have graduates go on to start companies here that would become world renowned. This neglect isn't just with the UCP, the NDP equally don't give a shit on the state of downtown Edmonton. They believe we are such a stronghold and so loyal to them, they don't need to cater to us much. Edmonton is like a naive puppy to the NDP, getting kicked down every time we run up to them.
Well there is an election coming and after three years of doing not much ... Maybe its a total coincidence, but I noticed things really started to deteriorate shortly after the UCP came into power.

I think the $5 million is for festivals and things like that, which doesn't solve the social issues or safety concerns, but hopefully it will help some.
 
I don't believe Edmonton can secure and make safe its downtown core without significantly reducing the transient population from downtown. Housing for homeless and transient people with accompanying community service supports should be located throughout Edmonton. Downtown is where most of transients are because this is where the vast majority of accommodations, social services and food are located. This concentration of transients includes people who wander around publicly accessible buildings, panhandle, litter the streets, damage property and some no doubt can be threatening. And it is this concentration that the downtown business community and residents see everyday. Where is the City Strategic Plan to deal with transient over-population in the downtown and how to relocate/house in the broader community by rehoming some of the shelters and facilities to the suburbs - city suburbs and suburban communities like moneybags Strathcona County.
Dealing with the social disorder is a massive problem for downtown, and unfortunately one that the city cannot control or has little recourse in dealing with.

That being said, there are many issues 100% within the city's control that the city continues to execute poorly or not at all. Many of these issues include things that should be considered completely unacceptable to tax payers such as:

- I checked tonight, the temporary electrical and light post on the south east corner of Jasper and 109st in front of the AMPM is STILL there. This pole was put in place at the beginning of the Jasper ave renewal project, and is still there despite construction having been completed on that corner well over a year ago.
- By end of February 2022 there was very little to no snow downtown I recall. I also recall the streets and sidewalks of our downtown core did not start getting swept from all the gravel and sand much later into middle to end of April despite there being no snow on the downtown streets for a month and a half to two months.
- Every day I see garbage cans that are overflowing and unattended to, which leads to garbage blowing around streets, especially streets that are completely empty like 102 ave at City Center.
- Enforcement of bylaws. How many times have we all complained on this forum about the condition of sites such as BMO tower, Emerald, or Arlington. The city has specific bylaws to protect the community against blights, yet the city fails to enforce those bylaws on neglectful owners.
- Fixing and maintain infrastructure like sidewalks instead of the mishmash or crumbled, uneven sidewalks filled in with random patches of asphalt in areas such as right outside the Encore.
- Replacing, cleaning or outright removing the hideous, dirty and dated green poster boards that dot Jasper ave.
- Continuing to allow for demolition of buildings that do not have a DP or BP in place, which ultimately leads to vacant land that adds no use or vibrancy to downtown.

I agree that there are many social disorder issues that are impacting downtown. And to be fair to the city, it is supremely difficult to deal with those and many cities are challenged on that front. However, as a downtown resident who sees daily the neglect of the example list I provided above, I could not be more disappointed, appalled and discouraged with how our downtown is neglected.
 
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Ok, I had the most farfetched idea, but what if they turned ECC into a hospital? Would then even be feasible? I mean there prob is a need for another hospital in the core.
 
Ok, I had the most farfetched idea, but what if they turned ECC into a hospital? Would then even be feasible? I mean there prob is a need for another hospital in the core.
Another? There is no hospital now in the core and never will be. The RAH is close enough on its Kingsway location.
 
Every day I see garbage cans that are overflowing and unattended to, which leads to garbage blowing around streets, especially streets that are completely empty like 102 ave at City Center.
Please report overflowing garbage cans, graffiti etc to 311. The app is very easy to use and the City does follow up. If you're not seeming to having any success please feel free to report the issue to me and I will try to follow up. I reported 4 things yesterday and got calls about them before 11am this morning. EDBA has crews out 7 days a week in high pedestrian areas and if there's a problem area you think needs to be addressed I can also try to pass that along.
 
Ok, I had the most farfetched idea, but what if they turned ECC into a hospital? Would then even be feasible? I mean there prob is a need for another hospital in the core.
Hospital, no, but what about perhaps an assisted living, or seniors/retirement community?
 
^Yes, that's one of my ideas. I think a tower or two for seniors/assisted living would do well, given seniors love walking the pedways and the winter connections they afford.
Yea that would be a better idea. Now that there is a City Market it would be even more enticing as people could walk to get groceries, etc.
 
Please report overflowing garbage cans, graffiti etc to 311. The app is very easy to use and the City does follow up. If you're not seeming to having any success please feel free to report the issue to me and I will try to follow up. I reported 4 things yesterday and got calls about them before 11am this morning. EDBA has crews out 7 days a week in high pedestrian areas and if there's a problem area you think needs to be addressed I can also try to pass that along.
This, I have had quite a bit of success using the 311 app as well.
 

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