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

[David A]

Experts are saying the closure of the Bay is offering the opportunity to reimagine some big mall spaces for perhaps other uses.

We've had a big head start but so far not too much imagination. Hopefully discussions are happening on something.

People are back downtown, but retail and commercial in particular does not seem to be coming back that much yet.

I suppose what happened was like a forest fire, it was really devastating to downtown. It takes a while for things to come back.

All the empty store fronts don't give a good impression to visitors or encourage more people to come downtown. It would be nice to see more progress soon.

 

[_urbanite]

John McKinlay named CEO at Centurion, leaves post at LaSalle

Maybe the new CEO will feel compelled to do something with this mall

 

[David A]

John McKinlay named CEO at Centurion, leaves post at LaSalle

Maybe the new CEO will feel compelled to do something with this mall

Maybe, but I suspect to many of the large Toronto based companies, we are an afterthought and a market they don't know how to deal with well, because it is quite different than there.

The mall problems are really downtown Edmonton problems. It is not like most of the rest of the downtown core is doing great either. Until we fix our downtown problems (and that is not up to one private company) things will remain challenging.

 

[Greenspace]

^Some people are back Downtown, 2-3 days a week. That's not like before.

 

[Tropical]

I disagree that the issues facing City Centre Mall should be framed as mutually exclusive. Yes, there are systemic issues in downtown Edmonton that destroy the sense of order and safety required for the shopping centre to thrive. Yes, there is major issues with the facility itself that destroy its interface with the surrounding neighbourhood and create an undesirable atmosphere.

Government needs to fix this. And the private owners need to fix this. This is not an either-or issue.

 

[David A]

I disagree that the issues facing City Centre Mall should be framed as mutually exclusive. Yes, there are systemic issues in downtown Edmonton that destroy the sense of order and safety required for the shopping centre to thrive. Yes, there is major issues with the facility itself that destroy its interface with the surrounding neighbourhood and create an undesirable atmosphere.

Government needs to fix this. And the private owners need to fix this. This is not an either-or issue.

In addition to all the systemic social issues, Edmonton is a very suburban focused city, with not that many corporate head offices downtown and seemingly little desire ever to attract more.

So boosting our downtown has been a challenge for decades and one I would say we are not doing that well at now.

 

[buildings]

went for a walk from Brewery district to Churchill Square passing through CCM along the way. By the time I made it to the mall I was tired and thought to get myself a drink and a sit down. Not one seat or bench to be had anywhere... a seating desert. What are they thinking? I'll not go back.

 

[Edmontonmanía]

went for a walk from Brewery district to Churchill Square passing through CCM along the way. By the time I made it to the mall I was tired and thought to get myself a drink and a sit down. Not one seat or bench to be had anywhere... a seating desert. What are they thinking? I'll not go back.

I think we all know the reason they removed all the benches.

 

[kcantor]

^. ^^
Interestingly enough, I have been in malls, some of them very high end, elsewhere in North America, in Europe, and in Asia where there is no seating other than in restaurant or food court spaces so “the reason” might not be what you think it is.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

^. ^^
Interestingly enough, I have been in malls, some of them very high end, elsewhere in North America, in Europe, and in Asia where there is no seating other than in restaurant or food court spaces so “the reason” might not be what you think it is.

I've experienced the same thing. Some of the fancy SM malls in the Philippines have absolutely no seating other than at the restaurants and the food court.

 

[David A]

went for a walk from Brewery district to Churchill Square passing through CCM along the way. By the time I made it to the mall I was tired and thought to get myself a drink and a sit down. Not one seat or bench to be had anywhere... a seating desert. What are they thinking? I'll not go back.

I seem to recall many years ago, maybe a decade or more in the past there was some limited seating and it was taken out. I suspect it was a conscious decision to deal with problems or concerns with people coming into the mall and loitering. There is seating in the food court area, but you have to go up a couple of levels to get to it and excess loitering is probably discouraged and monitored.

 

[Kosy123]

Ricki's seems to have closed on the 1st floor, so that breaks the streak we have of constant new openings in the mall.

 

[David A]

I was surprised they were here this long, the trend seems to be most of the old long term stores are gone and the new openings are not the old type of mall store chains.

 

[Gronk!]

Booster Juice is still not open yet on the pedway. I'm assuming red tape bureaucracy is holding things up.

 

[Edmontonmanía]

Ricki's seems to have closed on the 1st floor, so that breaks the streak we have of constant new openings in the mall.

Although Ricki’s is closing in Sherwood park too, maybe it is more of a whole business decision?