We really have to stop with the 'H&M is coming to town' rumors. They've been alive ever since I moved to St. John's back in 2007. We need to be honest with ourselves, if they were actually interested in getting into out market, they would have done so by now. There's retail space available if they want it, and it's been available for years.

ACAN building sale pending in Paradise to Montreal company
 

Here's another article regarding the sale of the old ACAN building in Paradise

Source: The Telegram
Author: Kenn Oliver
Date: Oct 3, 2017

http://www.thetelegram.com/business/...l-company.html

New retailers eye St. John’s Sears location in Avalon Mall
 

... and another one regarding the soon to be vacant Sears space at the Avalon Mall.

Source: The Telegram
Author: Unknown
Date: Oct 3,2017

http://www.thetelegram.com/business/...alon-mall.html

Just announced that Steele is buying all of the Penney auto dealerships.

Was in the Avalon Mall over the weekend & saw that Sunrise Records has their sign lit. Work still ongoing inside presumably - the glass front still covered in paper. Will be nice to have another option for music purchases in the city.

Colemans on Newfoundland drive is opening this Monday (23rd) as per FB.

There is a large NLC in the same building as well, which will be the 3rd on the Eastside not including the little store inside Memorial Stadium Dominion. You would think there would be enough sales to justify 3 stores, seeing how the stores on Stavsnger and Howley Estates are 5 minutes drive apart.

Coleman’s To Open Doors On Newfoundland Drive Today:
http://vocm.com/news/colemans-to-ope...d-drive-today/

Looks decent.

Avalon Mall
 

Was in the Avalon Mall earlier in the week for the first time in a while and noticed quite a few differences...

Sunrise Records open, big new SoftMoc location, big new Charm Diamonds in the old Gap location, Ricky's opening again (yay!)

Hard to believe we are in an economic slump when you see all this development and all of the spots filled with shoppers!

Take a drive out by Stavanger, Aberdeen, and Henry Power and you won't have trouble believing it. :/

Why do you say that?

There's an awful lot of empty real estate. I'd say vacancies outnumber the actual businesses at this point.

Are you sure we are living in the same St. John's? I was down there today and didn't notice many vacanies. Only ones that come to mind are Golf Town and Target. Of course, Target closure had nothing to do with our economy. And golf town, well, St. John's isn't really a great spot for golf. There have been a few new businesses open in the past year, particuarly on White Rose Drive. Traffic is always busy everytime I am there.

Where else are there vacancies?

The golf place. The buildings next to and around Rona. There's a couple, well at least one, vacant in the lot with Mark's last I looked, the pet store? I think there's a empty shop in the Remax building. The entire bottom section of the Verafin building, that whole buildings been "done" for months and months now. The building with Wingin' it or the one next to it, or both, has vacancies. The large building beyond Canadian tire has floors vacant so far as I can recall. I think the Little Cesar's building still needs one tenant. Didn't one of the businesses in the Subway strip close?

I could be wrong on some of these, I haven't really paid attention and I'm not up and in those areas often, just recalling from recent memories. I'm sure there's one or two I've missed.

Add those to the Target and eventually Costco (unless they turn it into a business centre as rumored) plus whatever else might close shop..

OH RUA Sports Fanatic is gone. Henry's closed, replaced by a vape shop.. and we all know vape shops don't count :-D jk

The vape shop is owned by one of my best friends who I've known since I was 3. They're not going anywhere anytime soon; they actually know how to run a business unlike many of the other vape stores which popped up around town. Contributes to the local economy just as much as Henry's did, whatever Henry's was.

I wonder if there is any validity to the rumour that the current Costco will become a Costco Business Centre. Are there many of these in Canada? I believe this is a relatively new concept for Costco.

There is definitely new office and commercial buildings that have gone up in the past few years that are seemingly still vacant/not fully utilised...

I'm no expert but I think there is a bit of a lag time between demand and supply in real estate and the economy slowed down just as new office/commercial real estate was finally being built.

There's one, in Kitchener or London, maybe. I believe, assuming there's no others in the works, that we'd be number 2.

The 1st floor of the Verafin building is being taken over by...Verafin. Reno’s should conclude late in the year.

First or ground floor?