Place d'Orleans: potential redevelopment?

[DEWLine]

Two causes for some sadness that I discovered during my travels today:

1. Bateson House - the custom furniture shop on the ground floor - is going out of business.

2. The Canadian Shoe Outlet store is gone, too. Nothing but the display racks remains inside the store.

[Tesladom]

Maybe they can turn it into an urban cemetery?

[DEWLine]

I would rather it become livelier again. To that end, I'm still supporting 5-6 different shops there.

[Stacmon]

Originally Posted by DEWLine

I would rather it become livelier again. To that end, I'm still supporting 5-6 different shops there.

Are there specific places you recommend in the area for people wanting to shop local and keep that area lively?

[Harley613]

I just had my first walk around the mall in a couple of years. It seems to be holding it's own. I counted ten empty stores, and there are quite a few low rent stores in the mix, but the chains still have pretty good presence and generally modern stores. The mall is decently busy mid Monday afternoon.

This mall is so much more warm and welcoming that post renovation St. Laurent, even with it's mostly Original decor.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I just had my first walk around the mall in a couple of years. It seems to be holding it's own. I counted ten empty stores, and there are quite a few low rent stores in the mix, but the chains still have pretty good presence and generally modern stores. The mall is decently busy mid Monday afternoon.

This mall is so much more warm and welcoming that post renovation St. Laurent, even with it's mostly Original decor.

It's not a bad little mall. They were able to adapt to the changing times by leasing nearly the entire second level to the Feds and moving the food court to the ground level, taking some of the retail space.

It is kind of nice to have the mostly outdate, but warmer design. St. Laurent is incredibly sterile. Rideau and Bayshore as well, but they made it work a bit better.

[Harley613]

Today's empty store count - 13 (11 retail/2 food)

[Harley613]

Today's empty store count: 20 (17 retail/3 food).

Things are looking dire all of a sudden

[Tesladom]

Here are my ideas on how to attract more traffic - they all have to do with attracting parents with kids activities
For example, I remember a few years ago we had a hockey tournament in Cambridge, and the local mall had a rink at the center of the food court. Parents now have 45 minutes before the game to kill by shopping in the mall, and eating at food court during the game. Genius idea. ... and they probably got the municipality to pay for the ice
I would expand on that idea, think of all the kids activities where you drop off your kid for an hour and then come back, like gymnastic class etc... If these would be built into the mall, then parents might spend an hour shopping in the mall

Need to get creative here!

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Tesladom

Here are my ideas on how to attract more traffic - they all have to do with attracting parents with kids activities
For example, I remember a few years ago we had a hockey tournament in Cambridge, and the local mall had a rink at the center of the food court. Parents now have 45 minutes before the game to kill by shopping in the mall, and eating at food court during the game. Genius idea. ... and they probably got the municipality to pay for the ice
I would expand on that idea, think of all the kids activities where you drop off your kid for an hour and then come back, like gymnastic class etc... If these would be built into the mall, then parents might spend an hour shopping in the mall

Need to get creative here!

Malls in Ottawa haven't been doing much to attract people outside of the retail. I think St. Laurent has done an ok job with the private colleges (though I have my reservations about those), the place with the stuffed animal cars for kids, the gym... a few spots with captive audience.

More than that though, I think Malls need to realize loads of parking to accommodate the peak shopping season (two weeks in December) isn't going to attract shoppers. Redeveloping some of those parking lots with residential, adding thousands of residents who will shop at your mall on a daily basis, that's a better business model than asphalt.

I know Place d'Orleans opened up some Federal co-working space before the pandemic, which was a good move at the time, but I'm not sure how successful those are now.

[FrostyMug]

The Feds co-working space is still there but one thing that holds it back is the restrictions on which departments can access that space. The Service Canada office on the 2nd level is busy and a good draw and the RCMP still have their office upstairs as well.
I agree that there is a massive amount of opportunity with the direct connection to the LRT when it opens for the mall and the surrounding area to grow significantly. However there remains a high level of nimbyism against any significant height that will need to be overcome. The parking lot on the northeast side of the mall has room for residential as does all the property along St Joseph. Hopefully someone takes the initiative and actually starts a project...