Yeggy
Active Member
Like they exist in a vacuum?
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Edmonton City Centre Mall (Renovations) | ?m | 2s | LaSalle Investment Management
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
Greenspace
Senior Member
T. Kettle has reopened
David A
Senior Member
Distance does matter particularly to those that don't live in your area. If you live on 103 Ave and 117 St, it is a short walk to Unity Square, which while it is a suburban style mall, does have a lot of services.
If you live in the downtown core on 104 St and 99 Ave, it is not walkable to go there. and it is faster to drive than take the bus. So the core, which may not concern you, is not as walkable as it should be.
Yeggy
Active Member
When I lived in oliver i was in the core constantly.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
Anecdotal. Can't measure the average person's experience by your own. When I lived in Oliver, I had very few reasons to be at the core. And just because an adjacent neighborhood has certain things, does not mean another shouldn't have. Saying that DT doesn't need more street-facing, walkable food options (including, yes, fast-food chains, because they're what the average person consumes, hence why they're so big) because Oliver has them is laughable. Someone living on 104 st/Jasper Ave will not walk to 117st/104 Ave McDonalds, they'll most likely drive.
@David A has a point: the core should me more walkable, considering what it is. Oliver(Unity) Square/Brewery District serve Oliver well, because it is walkable for people living there, especially west of 112 st and north of Jasper Ave, but it is not as walkable if you're further away, especially in the winter.
I do believe the LRT will change this a lot, and It actually ties back into what I always say about low-floor LRT being great for short trips.
Yeggy
Active Member
Most of what is shared here are stories, full stop. There is very little proof put up behind most peoples statements, including yours.
No shade, just T.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
At the very least, most people here back their opinions with some degree of arguments, instead of making personal attacks on people's credibility. Or, at the very least, we'll acknowledge when things are just speculative or anecdotal.
Also, good to remind you that some of us (me included) who have connections with privileged information are also bound to things like non-disclosure agreements, or are held to a high degree of discretion if we want to keep our sources open. But we have also established a track record of being accurate, because a lot of the time, our claims end up materializing. It does fall through, every now and then, for various reasons, since most of the time we don't have immediate access to the decision-makers or our sources.
jason403
Active Member
Yeggy is right. You are wrong. What are you, the hall monitor here?
ChazYEG
Senior Member
Who named you the judge, then, to say who's right to wrong? _|_
jason403
Active Member
Ah, so we agree.
Foolworm
Active Member
I don't envy whoever is tasked with turning this mall around. I honestly have no ideas left besides tearing everything down and starting from scratch.
WEM really killed downtown retail, Edmonton is an anomaly as all the other downtown malls in Canada are the most successful of their respective cities.
WEM really killed downtown retail, Edmonton is an anomaly as all the other downtown malls in Canada are the most successful of their respective cities.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
Objectively, the Chinook Centre is the most successful in Calgary, but I'll agree that we have the highest contrast, with WEM being one of the most successful malls in the whole country and ECC being the least successful DT mall, as far as I know
thommyjo
Senior Member
Kingsway killed local resident retail and WEM killed tourism and luxury retail would be the assessment I’d give.
And in general. Our suburbs/sprawls/and malls all did their part to draw money, people, and retail further from the core.
Kosy123
Senior Member
I honestly think the area will be better served if it focused on more teens-20's retail or experiences given the proximity of the behemoths of post-secondary institutions in the area. What that could be?
I honestly don't know, but I guess that's why forums like us exist lol
dunno
Active Member
Portage Place in Winnipeg is in roughly the same position as City Centre. Hamilton’s Jackson Square (last I checked) was maybe about where City Centre was 8-10 years ago — not great but with a decent amount of amenities. Citi Plaza in London is worse off. I haven’t been but I’ve heard Cornwall Centre in Regina is very so-so, but still the healthiest remaining mall in the area.
When I think of successful downtown malls in Canada, I think of Vancouver, Victoria (unless that changed recently), Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Pretty decent collection, especially compared with the States, but hardly like Edmonton is the only one missing out on this phenomenon. However, I will say what makes Edmonton stick out is that it’s the largest city with a dead downtown mall by a long shot.
WEM is definitely part of the picture, but I think Kingsway has had a more understated, but arguably bigger role at keeping Downtown Edmonton retail from thriving. Like, yeah, all the destination retail first popping up in Edmonton or only opening one location is mostly going to WEM, but what about the retailers that do branch out and feature in the region’s three “fortress” malls? Kingsway is too close to the core to make separate locations for destination stores viable in general. Uniqlo is looking at aggressively expanding across North America and just opened its 2nd Edmonton location at Southgate. You really think, if they open another one here, it’s going anywhere but Kingsway? And Kingsway’s proximity to the core will mean that there’s no way Downtown is getting a location. Rinse and repeat for Nike, Simons, Lululemon, Aritzia, Anthropologie, Apple Store, etc. Even a store like Urban Outfitters, known to try and have locations in more, well, urban locations, is far more likely to wind up on Whyte than Jasper or in City Centre.