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

Just went by Sportcheck Atmosphere. I am more than certain they are closing. Signs say store inventory sale. But by the climbing wall. Staff are boxing product and stacking display racks.
 
Airboy said:
Just went by Sportcheck Atmosphere. I am more than certain they are closing. Signs say store inventory sale. But by the climbing wall. Staff are boxing product and stacking display racks.
Click to expand...

If so, time to mothball?
 
archited said:
The whole thing with these stores closing in ECC portends the redevelopment of the mall as was envisioned when it was sold to the current owners. That was an ambitious plan. I imagine that the owners let leases lapse naturally while they were preparing construction documents so that they did not have to entertain any buyouts. And there is then an impetus for more closings as the mall continues to lose vibrancy. And then there is the 2nd Avenue closing that may have caused the owners to rejigger their plans to face a pedestrian oriented street.
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Unless there is another plan I am not familiar with, the previous plan seemed to focus on City Centre West (the former Eaton Centre), which may still make sense given there is more vacancy in the west side and the east side is directly connected to the office towers, which are returning to life now. So, I really don't think the landlord was eager for tenants such as Graham and Lane which were on the east pedway level (which is actually one of the most vibrant parts of the mall) to leave, although it is a small space and not particularly crucial to the retail environment. I suspect that was the tenant's decision in this case.

Of course, with the reconfiguration of the TD space to have a more prominent exterior entrance, perhaps the landlord is rethinking the east side also. Of course, if the west side is redeveloped to be more street facing, one of the things that could be done would be for the existing Shoppers there to add an exterior entrance. This may make sense once the much delayed LRT line in front of the building actually starts running (whenever that finally happens). Of course the bigger issue is to get some things to fill the old Bay space, that is where the bulk of the redevelopment would be needed. If they can do that the rest of the west side could become viable again, if not then probably better just to consolidate most of the retail on the east side.
 
When does the neon mini-golf and haunted house + store go in?

But in all seriousness, ECC's owner needs to get things going and consolidate everything to the east side, get an aggressive leasing campaign going and completely redevelop the west side (hopefully retaining the hotel, but maybe not).
 
Perhaps a clear date for the opening of the Valley Line LRT could help with ECC recruiting new tenants. I'm still skeptical if things will change very much.
 
IanO said:
When does the neon mini-golf and haunted house + store go in?

But in all seriousness, ECC's owner needs to get things going and consolidate everything to the east side, get an aggressive leasing campaign going and completely redevelop the west side (hopefully retaining the hotel, but maybe not).
Click to expand...
I think consolidating things further is probably not the right approach. Yes, it is the easy fix, but is like putting another band aid on the problem. They closed the basements of both the east and west side to supposedly consolidate things several years ago, but that was really just a temporary fix. All the disruption and shuffling around confused everyone and just caused more stores to close. As the number of stores were reduced, the appeal of the mall and traffic to it continued to decline.

Redeveloping the west side (particularly the large empty Bay space) well might work. Having a (second?) food court on the main level close to or with street access in conjunction with the new LRT line (if that ever gets going) is probably a good idea. The previous owners moving the food court all the way up to the third level was an expensive bad idea which took needed attention away from dealing with more fundamental problems and allowed them to pretend everything was fine for a while, when it was not. They should have been focusing on an aggressive leasing campaign four years ago instead. Shuffling the deck chairs yet again, is not a good solution.

One light at the end of this dark tunnel is there is a noticeable recovery in the number of people working downtown recently, so at some point retail space here will become more attractive. Until then they need to do more pop up stores to fill things in better and at least provide some reason for people to continue to go there.

The current owners mostly inherited a mess and a series of bad decisions and then COVID came along and made things even worse. Anything that brings people is a good thing, so the hotel should be retained and the theaters too.
 
A repost from the Past vs Present thread:
ECC during happier times. There is no sign of an Elevate Food Fair so I assume the food court was in the basement when this pic was taken. And Eddie Bauer is located in what is now Shoppers Drug Mart.

FhOarspXEBEySA-


https://twitter.com/x/status/1590785171644719104
 
There's simply too many junkies roaming around for this mall to ever take off again. Besides the lunchtime crowd that visit out of pure convenience and a form a critical mass to crowd out the riff raff for an hour every day, there will be no desire for others to travel downtown to visit when there are so many fantastic shopping options in other quadrants of the city.
 
I think the three potential money makers (so to speak) for the mall is the hotel with its proximity to Rogers Place, the Parkade also near Rogers Place, and the movie theater also in proximity of ice district. I think if that end is focused upon with renovation especially around 103st that area could be quite vibrant.
 
Not sure what I think about this... mind you, no point going in there anymore anyways.
---

Cory Wosnack• 1stPrincipal & Managing Director at Avison Young Commercial Real Estate
17m • 17 minutes ago

This photo was taken at 1:15 PM. Up until this week, this section of 101 St was a gathering spot for a disadvantaged population for more than 3 years.

The owners of Edmonton City Centre have faced the most significant challenges in and around their property to reduce disorder and maintain cleanliness. Numerous strategies at massive costs have kept things from being worse; however, the most impactful experiment appears to have taken place this week. By moving the bus stop up the street and closing these doors into the mall, the uncomfortable gathering spot has disappeared.

The compromises this property owner is making to increase the safety of the neighbourhood are huge. This is our main street in the financial district and this experiment alone could have a tremendous benefit for how tourists, customers and employees feel when they walk around the core.

Thank you, CANDEREL GROUP and Centrecorp Management Services Limited.

 
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