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

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    22
David A said:
I agree, a Winners here would not be a good fit, but even worse it would also be robbing Peter to pay Paul - no net addition or benefit downtown.

I have thought the Holt Renfrew space might make a good Simons or something similar, not too upscale, but a nice place for everyone.

I agree the era of lots of high end boutiques downtown is probably coming to an end even in bigger more corporate cities for various reasons.

However Manulife isn't a mall, it is primarily an fairly premiere office tower with some retail space. So I don't see its focus being on the discount end.
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A Simons would be perfect, in my opinion. I guess it could create quite a buzz, if it were to open here.

I would definitely like to see another grocery store downtown, especially something more budget friendly than Loblaws, but I believe that the ideal place would be somewhere south of Jasper, maybe in the Falcons or something. It would have less catchment overlap with Loblaws and serve an area that is currently under served (and which contains a large part of the core's population).

Now, another thing that, as counterintuitive as is might sound, I think could be interesting to see downtown, is a luxury car showroom. Not a full dealership, but maybe one of those specialized exotic/luxury vehicle showrooms, that would definitely catch some eyes and draw some people around, even if it's just to see the cars from the windows.

I can't even count how many times I saw people go out of their way to drive by and stop at that one on Airport Rd, for example.
 
soupcrate said:
I thought Best Buy wasn't planning on leaving the 109st location.
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They have renewed their lease for 3 years, with the option of extending it , and part of the reason is the postponing of the ECC renovations. It is my understanding, from conversations I've had with a client of mine, that they have an LoI with La Salle to relocate there as an anchor for the renewed mall.
 
ChazYEG said:
They have renewed their lease for 3 years, with the option of extending it , and part of the reason is the postponing of the ECC renovations. It is my understanding, from conversations I've had with a client of mine, that they have an LoI with La Salle to relocate there as an anchor for the renewed mall.
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I suppose that explains some things. A Best Buy in City Centre would actually make good sense. For instance, with the departure of the Bay, there is no appliance retailer in this area any more and no larger electronics retailers either.

Other than a few high end and Winners, there is not much left for men's or women's clothing around, which is why I think a Simons here could actually do very well.
 
ChazYEG said:
A Simons would be perfect, in my opinion. I guess it could create quite a buzz, if it were to open here.

I would definitely like to see another grocery store downtown, especially something more budget friendly than Loblaws, but I believe that the ideal place would be somewhere south of Jasper, maybe in the Falcons or something. It would have less catchment overlap with Loblaws and serve an area that is currently under served (and which contains a large part of the core's population).

Now, another thing that, as counterintuitive as is might sound, I think could be interesting to see downtown, is a luxury car showroom. Not a full dealership, but maybe one of those specialized exotic/luxury vehicle showrooms, that would definitely catch some eyes and draw some people around, even if it's just to see the cars from the windows.

I can't even count how many times I saw people go out of their way to drive by and stop at that one on Airport Rd, for example.
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Yeah, Simons would be great at Manulife or the BMO site, don't get me wrong, especially if a Best Buy is in a repurposed City Centre. I was just brainstorming other useful but less "flashy" things that people in the area would actually benefit from. Right now downtown struggles from its existing residents needing to go to Kingsway, Southgate, Westmount, etc for many things. We often think about drawing people from across the city to the core and while that's important, often overlooked is the needs of those who already live in the area.

I do agree that a more budget-conscious grocer in a spot with less overlap from Loblaws would be better. The old Sobeys on 104th was honestly the perfect location between the existing apartments south of Jasper and the developing condos north of it, plus LRT access direct.
 
Other retailers that can be considered for Manulife (or ECC) that are needed downtown:
- Home Hardware
- lululemon
- Running Room
- Sunrise
- Revolver
- Indigo
- any local bookstore
- any comic book store
- Office Depot
- Staples
- Memory Express
- Planet Fitness
- Fit4Less

Any of these would be a welcome addition to the current retailers at Manulife (Headlines, Blu's, Vandenberg's, Night Owl Lingerie, Jamieson), especially now that Henry Singer is moving to the Stantec Tower.
 
IanO said:
Unique approach, but for me this gem needs to remain an epicentre for business and begin to attract new, expanding, scaling companies to the core.
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I agree. Manulife is still a fantastic building in a great location. It will remain an attract building for years to come despite the setback of losing 80% of their retail tenants. If I was an investor I would be bullish on this asset. You just need to spend some money ;-) and create some hype.
 
cmd uw said:
I agree. Manulife is still a fantastic building in a great location. It will remain an attract building for years to come despite the setback of losing 80% of their retail tenants. If I was an investor I would be bullish on this asset. You just need to spend some money ;-) and create some hype.
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manulife is one of my two favourite office towers in edmonton but it - along with the rest of downtown - needs more than just an owner prepared to spend some money and create some hype. it’s had that since before it was completed four decades ago in 1983.
 
If it was 5 or 10 years ago, perhaps I would have said Manulife could rest on its laurels for a while still. Yes, it is still a great building, but now it is older and there are nicer new buildings around. Also at street level it is bunker like, which is not that appealing.

Given that space will be mainly empty, it would be the right time to redo the exterior and bring it into the modern era. I get that it might not seem appealing to spend money now, but if you want to fill the space with better tenants you may want to make it a bit more attractive. If you sit still others will move ahead. Interestingly, another building from this area, the Canadian Western Bank Building is almost done their main floor renovation now..

I realize that the main level might be an after thought for a building that is primarily office space, but the office space tenants also do notice what is there and how it looks.
 
Gronk! said:
Other retailers that can be considered for Manulife (or ECC) that are needed downtown:
- Home Hardware
- lululemon
- Running Room
- Sunrise
- Revolver
- Indigo
- any local bookstore
- any comic book store
- Office Depot
- Staples
- Memory Express
- Planet Fitness
- Fit4Less

Any of these would be a welcome addition to the current retailers at Manulife (Headlines, Blu's, Vandenberg's, Night Owl Lingerie, Jamieson), especially now that Henry Singer is moving to the Stantec Tower.
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Any and all of these would be nice but immediately I would count out Revolver, local book store and local comic book store from that list. I don't see any of those able to afford the lease.
 
David A said:
If it was 5 or 10 years ago, perhaps I would have said Manulife could rest on its laurels for a while still. Yes, it is still a great building, but now it is older and there are nicer new buildings around. Also at street level it is bunker like, which is not that appealing.

Given that space will be mainly empty, it would be the right time to redo the exterior and bring it into the modern era. I get that it might not seem appealing to spend money now, but if you want to fill the space with better tenants you may want to make it a bit more attractive. If you sit still others will move ahead. Interestingly, another building from this area, the Canadian Western Bank Building is almost done their main floor renovation now..

I realize that the main level might be an after thought for a building that is primarily office space, but the office space tenants also do notice what is there and how it looks.
Click to expand...
Who said it could 'rest on its laurels'? Reality is that ownership is going to have to 'invest' in the asset, more specifically, the retail podium hence my comment about 'spend some money'.
 
Speaking of the neighboring Commerce Place, I'd like to know when they'll finally finish the escalator upgrades to the LRT station? This has been ongoing since early November with seemingly no end in sight!
 
cmd uw said:
Who said it could 'rest on its laurels'? Reality is that ownership is going to have to 'invest' in the asset, more specifically, the retail podium hence my comment about 'spend some money'.
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IanO said:
I'm not sure they are that keen to re-open that section...
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Can you blame them? Drug addicts supplanting themselves all over the place. One has to navigate around that, step over urinated residues and other factors. I was blown away exiting the Empire entrance up to the street the other day to see a toddler with mom and another woman lounging on the stairs negotiating meth transactions...
 
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