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Miscellaneous

Platinum107 said:
I could see this genuinely being the largest TOD in this city's history. It's location and access to transit is so amazing and it's hard to believe that its stayed as a post-war era townhouse park for this long. Bring the towers/mid-rise buildings!
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It's like it's literally begging to be redeveloped into a high density mixed use town centre!

Which is why i expect it to all be bulldozed and sit as a vacant dirt lot for the next 23 years. 🙃
Sorry sorry, it's hard not to be pessimistic with some of these sites. It really would be ideal though. It's bafflingly poorly used, surely in its current form it's even worse than the nearby SFH areas.
 
1701355978620.png


Any one know what the status of this site is, where the old Petroleum Club used to sit?
 
That site next to West ed has me pretty excited, i am happy to hear it's in Maclab's hands. What a great opportunity for lots of new density, maybe a new grocery store to serve that train stop, so much space there to work with. As others have noted i hope it revives old dreams of towers at the mall, i remember waaaay back there was talk. My dream there is they offload parking to the overflow and redevelop the existing spaces directly near the LRT stop for a seamless residential and indoor strip to the mall along burbon street. It's criminal to have high value spaces devoted to an ocean of parking. Come to think of it i have seen nothing on WEMs plans to tie into the LRT are they honestly just leaving it open air walk to the mall?


Also, I noticed some new action at the old Blind Pig site in St. Albert. I was bummed out and thought this project was shelved after they pulled up everything. But, seeing a September article now that announced the resuming of the piling sounds pretty positive its rolling ahead.

Pile-driving work resumes at former Blind Pig site
 
Tacom8 said:
Come to think of it i have seen nothing on WEMs plans to tie into the LRT are they honestly just leaving it open air walk to the mall?
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I will never understand why mall owners and property management companies here aren't extremely eager to have their properties linked directly with rapid transit. It literally provides an endless rotation of potential customers and having an indoor pedway or AT LEAST a dedicated nice path directly to to their doors should be like priority #1. There's relatively minor inconveniences that come with that, sure, like with the delineation of private vs. public space and loitering but like DAMN, Southgate's lack of a super easy indoor connection and Kingsway Station's location is just so weird and discouraging to me. Hopefully WEM has plans for a connection as is just being quiet for now, and if they do I really hope it's at least a covered and well decorated pathway through the parkade.

Or who knows, maybe WEM couldn't possibly sacrifice it's world record for the largest parking lot ever and will make thousands of people walk through backing-out lifted trucks and dirty parkade water drips just to save 20 spots 😀😀😀
 
Maybe the mall owners don't want the crime and riff-raff that are perceived to be associated with LRT?
Of course, these same mall owners are perfectly fine with Uzi-carrying assassins in sports cars.
 
Platinum107 said:
I will never understand why mall owners and property management companies here aren't extremely eager to have their properties linked directly with rapid transit. It literally provides an endless rotation of potential customers and having an indoor pedway or AT LEAST a dedicated nice path directly to to their doors should be like priority #1. There's relatively minor inconveniences that come with that, sure, like with the delineation of private vs. public space and loitering but like DAMN, Southgate's lack of a super easy indoor connection and Kingsway Station's location is just so weird and discouraging to me. Hopefully WEM has plans for a connection as is just being quiet for now, and if they do I really hope it's at least a covered and well decorated pathway through the parkade.

Or who knows, maybe WEM couldn't possibly sacrifice it's world record for the largest parking lot ever and will make thousands of people walk through backing-out lifted trucks and dirty parkade water drips just to save 20 spots 😀😀😀
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This might sum up WEM's attitude as it was told to me directly from an insider there:
"People who take public transit aren't going to be buying $8,000 purses."
 
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Platinum107 said:
Hopefully WEM has plans for a connection as is just being quiet for now, and if they do I really hope it's at least a covered and well decorated pathway through the parkade.
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A pathway is part of their plan, but according to their General Manager, no direct connection because they cannot (will not) afford the security responsibility.
 
Poor triple 5, just barely scraping by can't even afford a few security guards. I hope this massive tax payer investment will help them make a go of this whole mall thing. Guess i shouldn't hold my breath for redevelopment of parking on site then either :(
 
TAS said:
This might sum up WEM's attitude as it was told to me directly from an insider there:
"People who take public transit aren't going to be buying $8,000 purses."
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This is snobbery and a very short sighted way of looking at things. This is a mall, not a country club. Most stores there do not sell $8,000 purses and not that many people buy them.

Many retail businesses in malls survive based on selling items to a range of customers and those stores lease a lot of space. For instance, I don't think the customers at Zara, Old Navy or Abercrombie are buying $8,000 purses there.

And has been pointed out, not everyone driving a fancy flashy car is a desirable customer - drug dealers drive expensive cars too. You get too many shoot outs, and people may start to avoid a place.
 
Just saw this while looking at the COE: SLIM Maps. I have to admit, I am pretty disappointed that they are going with a strip mall given the proximity to WEM and the Thorncliffe Shopping Centre.

Major Development Permit
Reference Id:Job No 478297918-002
Description:To construct a General Retail Store building with CRU #1 to #5.
Location:8616 - 175 STREET NW
Plan 2321051 Blk 9 Lot 76
Applicant:DUB ARCHITECTS LTD.
Status:Issued
Create Date:2023/07/14
Neighbourhood:THORNCLIFF
Issue Date:2023/11/02
Class Of Permit:Class A

Edit: Sorry if this is a repost.
 
Tacom8 said:
Poor triple 5, just barely scraping by can't even afford a few security guards. I hope this massive tax payer investment will help them make a go of this whole mall thing. Guess i shouldn't hold my breath for redevelopment of parking on site then either :(
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I should've been more specific as to what she meant when they use the term. Their issue is not being able to financially afford it, but to take on the liability, especially considering that security guards can't really do much.
 
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