Manulife Place Renovations | 145.99m | 36s | AIMCo | MdeAS

What do you think of this project?


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In their defense, I have never seen any transients by Manulife's main entrances, although sometimes around Commerce place on the north side by the Jasper Ave bus stop and Tim Hortons.

I also think a Simons there in the old Holt's space would be wonderful, but think the exterior renovation of Manulife needs to go ahead for that to happen. It doesn't have to be a huge store, that size space might actually be better and maybe Henry Singer's leaving will provide the opportunity or incentive for this to all happen. If so that would be great.

However, I think Simons in the old Bay space would also be great if they needed or wanted a bigger space. Lots of opportunities right now.
 
I would LOVE a Simons downtown but I feel that is unlikely. We are the only city outside of Quebec with 2 stores already. WEM is 180,000 sq. ft. while Londonderry is 90,000 sq. ft., the latter closer to what most of their other suburban stores are.

Manulife's podium would be too small unless they went with something very small. Holt's was 47,000 sq. ft. Not sure about ECC renovations The Bay was around 145,000 sq. ft. there's definitely room. Again would love a full size or boutique Simons but how likely is it that we would get 3 in Edmonton? Maybe they'd do it cause Downtown is underserved imo perhaps.
 
One of the reasons I think a smaller Simons downtown could make sense is because they have the two other locations here now. Also, unlike Calgary, there is no Nordstrom's or Holt's downtown here. so that could help them too.

It might not be the typical or obvious approach, but it could work.
 
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One of the reasons I think a smaller Simons downtown could make sense is because they have the two other locations here now. Also, unlike Calgary, there is no Nordstrom's or Holt's downtown here. so that could help them too.

It might not be the typical or obvious approach, but it could work.
There is no Nordstrom in downtown Calgary. It's at Chinook Centre.
 
Provide a more complete offering that the Bay and Holt could not.

This isn't about 'high end', but rather an offering that appeals to both young professionals and established respectively.
 
WEM has a non-compete clause as part of their lease with Simons, which is mainly why they chose Londonderry for their 2nd store as opposed to Southgate, Kingsway and SEC. Not sure if CCM or Manulife would be included this, but if so then there's another roadblock for them setting up shop downtown
 
If the Londonderry location permanently shuts down due to a lease dispute and the WEM location still exists with the non-compete clause in place, what are the chances of Simons opening a downtown location at ECC or Manulife?
 
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Here's hoping for Downtown Edmonton has nowhere to go but up and the least impressive offering of any city over 100,000.

Downtown Lethbridge had more offerings.

It's embarrassing.
 
^^^^ The ICE District will have a huge impact -- it will just take a couple of years to mature. An example to follow can be found in Los Angeles' Staple Center environ where it was a bit of a development desert for a few years after it was built and then... and then it became the centre for all downtown construction in Los Angeles, literally booming! Downtown Edmonton is ripe for Retail/Hospitality experimentation and when that happens... and when that happens... well lets just say your entire focus for Edmonton is on the present and the past; your crystal ball is very clouded and doesn't allow you to see what is coming.
 
I'm going to disagree with you there... for even if ICE D2.0 was built out, we would still have very limited actual retail.
 
I'm going to disagree with you there... for even if ICE D2.0 was built out, we would still have very limited actual retail.
You seem rather certain of that given Katz/ONE have only provided a preliminary plan sufficient for zoning. Plans change even in the built form when opportunity knocks as we can see from the Henry Single announcement. We simply don't know what the future holds for ICE 2 or even if there will be an ICE 2 by Katz/ONE ... until we have some certainty.
 
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^^^^ Wrong 'O! There is a powerful correlation between Retail and Entertainment -- WEM is an excellent example of that -- and we are already seeing the development of additional entertainment venues in and around the ICE district. To be certain there will be starts and subsequent failures, but the trend line will underscore new development in the Retail realm. I understand that you can't see that considering your pronounced negative view on all things "Edmonton"... time will tell who is right (ahem... ME) and who is wrong (psst... YOU).
 
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Here's hoping for Downtown Edmonton has nowhere to go but up and the least impressive offering of any city over 100,000.

Downtown Lethbridge had more offerings.

It's embarrassing.
To take it even closer to home, I happened to be looking at downtown Red Deer on street view yesterday. I think there is more retail on Gaetz Ave downtown there than on Jasper Ave.

I think what they (and other places) have downtown are small unique stores that serve the local market. We keep on forgetting that people also actually live downtown and nearby. These people are not being well served by being forced to drive to often distant malls or power centres for almost everything.
 

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