I've been to IKEA stores in Europe in cities that are much smaller than St. John's.

Yeah but in Europe you have so many other cities and countries close by so the overall population is much larger. Here we have a city of about 150000 or more but you really need a city population of about 500000 at least to support something the size of IKEA. Maybe if they build smaller concept stores it might work here.

St. John's apparently cannot support a Hudson's Bay store, let alone an IKEA. :)

Ron.

Well, most Canadian cities can hardly support HBC. ;)

Ikea would be more popular there, just normal taste instead of specialty.

Has there been anything said about what's going in the 4 or 5 retail buildings next to Kelsey's on Kenmount?

Been trying to find info on that too. The company that built the strip mall is called Redwwod Construction but their website is useless and has been under construction for months so no help there. The strip mall looks kinda high end though. Be interesting to see who goes in there. It looks close to being finished so tenants should be moving in soon, if they actually have it leased that is.

Just an observation, but does anybody else seem to think that the PARKING Lot situation for the new Kelsey's seem really small ? To me , it looks like they are going to have a real problem, and lose a lot of business due to lack of parking. I mean, its not like you have any other parking options there, and people certainly are not going to park up at Canadian Tire and walk down Kenmount Road. Unless there is a huge lot behind the building , which isn't visible from the front, I think they have a major problem. Also, I don't know how many people have been to a Kelsey's before, but their menu is no different than what is offered in all the restaurants currently here. They are no different than a Jack Astor's, Montana's, Fog City, Klondike Jake's, East Side Marios etc etc etc. Same old menus over and over again. Why can't we see some variety with respect to chain restaurant's here ? Bring in an affordable steakhouse like Longhorn's, Lonestar or Outback, maybe an Olive Garden or Red Lobster or BJ'S. Just my 2 cents.

Really like a Dave and Busters but im not sure how well it would do here

Noticed the steel is all up for the new Maries Mini Mart store on Kiwanis Drive in Kenmount Terrace. It's right next door to that new church that recently opened there.

So there's a big rumor flying around Facebook that a Lululemon store is opening in the mall, and their source is a private contractor who will be doing the reno. They didn't say which mall, but I work in the Avalon and there's no empty space here except in the food court. The Village however, has tons of empty store space.

Has anyone else heard anything about it??

so another expensive clothing store?

I'm not sure the time is right to open a store for expensive yoga pants. With the way things are heading here right now I wouldn't open up a hotdog cart.

Now seems like the time, that many fringe retail stores who were barely surviving, to finally give up the ghost and call it a day. Case in point, BULK BARN. I noticed they have closed 2 of their stores in Mt Pearl and Topsail Road, not sure about Stavanger Drive. It must be scary operating these huge retail outlets, and everything in the news points to doom and gloom. The average person is going to be more frugal, spending less of their discretionary income. The next few months are going to be interesting

Topsail rd is differently closed but Mount Pearl one is suppose to be closed for renovations.

I love Bulk Barn, but I did find that four locations seemed a bit much for them.

Agreed. Four locations is way too many for a city this size, can definitely be cut in half - Halifax has four locations. Plus, IMO, the one on Topsail Rd. wasn't the greatest location to begin with. A needed correction accelerated by the current fiscal situation.

Well, if removing the signs from the building are part of the Renovation, then maybe it is under Renovation.
I got my doubts, but I have been wrong before ( Once I think ):>

While the province's fiscal situation is bad I don't think a lot of businesses have to be overly worried. We aren't seeing mass layoffs - yet anyway - in the oil and gas industry like has been the case in Alberta. It's also not expected that governments will be laying off people.

I found out it was unfortunately just a rumour. Lululemon themselves have stated they have no plans yet for anything around here.

As much as you may think this isn't the place for expensive yoga pants... this is indeed the market for expensive yoga pants, and so much more. Their downtown popup store in the summer of 2014 did well, and they have a HUGE amount of people ordering online and re-selling their product if it doesn't fit, or wasn't what they thought it was. A store would do very well here, if it's put in the right mall ;-)