Dr. Coffey is moving there in the new year from Lawton's building on Topsail Rd. The city approved a bar/pool hall application last year for the Village, but I guess that's still in the works. Village parking lot is a great place to get your car doors dinged, the spaces seem a bit smaller than most other lots. And final Village note, apparently Sportchek is staying. All three in St. John's will remain open.

I heard the same thing! Apparently there’s work being done on the old walmart building now. Anyone know anything?

I'm not allowed to say anything yet, but I've heard from a very reliable source that the old Walmart is being prepped to open a new store. Not allowed to say the name of the store, but it's rumored to open in late spring-early summer

Unfortunately it’s still just hearsay and rumours then. I’ll only take any news seriously if it comes from either Crombie REIT which currently owns the property or proposal news that gets posted in the city council’s building plans agenda regarding that location.

last time we drove by it was still filled with Walmart shelves and self checkouts

Looks like Chapters/Indigo may have a replacement for many of its abandoned Starbucks Coffee shops that came about as a result of Covid. Good Earth Coffeehouse are planning to expand and take over a bunch of the former Starbucks locations across the country. Time will tell if they plan on coming to St. John’s at our local Chapters Bookstore. Here is link to story...
https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...ns-interviews/

GoodLife
 

Goodbye Fitness is more like it. The Village Mall Goodlife will now close June 30 at 5:00 pm. It will reopen as a Fit 4 Less. The memo says there is no specific time frame for the opening, although staff are saying November at the earliest is what they've been hearing from grapevine. If you remember, 2 years ago, the Avalon Mall GoodLife closed....to be reopened and rebranded as a Fit 4 Less as well, but never has. The Blackmarsh Road Dominion GoodLife for women has also permanently closed.

Had no idea the one in the Avalon mall was closed. Clearly I’m not a member.

The Source on Merchant Drive is permanently closed leaving the Avalon Mall store as the only one in the metro area.

The Source has been closing a bunch of store in Atlantic Canada lately so this doesn't come as any surprise.

I'm hearing this morning that KMK has bought both the old Costco and Target buildings. They own many of the office buildings on Hebron Way and recently bought the old Rona building which is also being converted into office space.

I wonder how much it makes financial and business sense to convert these vs building a new office building. I can only guess they got them for such a discount that it does end up making sense.

They haven't yet said what they are doing with the building, But I can only assume office space.

If you're referring to the old RONA building I came across this link not long ago. Says that its being converted to office space and there's a drawing of a renovated building.

https://kmkcapital.ca/projects/710-torbay-road/

This is not news about a new opening or building, but big retail news all the same. I received notice from Scotiabank about the Scene+ program and their big new partnership starting in August. It's the Empire Group which is Sobeys/Foodland/Lawtons/Needs and many more brands. I guess they are parting ways with Airmiles after 2 decades.

Here’s some more news on that new program.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/grocery-...gram-1.1775716

There are officially sold signs on the old Costco on Stavanger

Didn’t someone on here recently say that KMK Capital who recently bought up the former RONA building on Whiterose Drive also bought up up Costco and The former Target buildings to convert them to office/industrial spaces?

Yeah it was in the news already. KMK buying them, most likely subdividing Costco into smaller units.

https://vocm.com/2022/06/21/costco-retail-ladha/

KMK not saying exactly what is in store. I keep thinking that these are really large buildings to take over but then remember how the old Canadian Tire on Elizabeth Avenue was redeveloped.

Even if office space was put in part of these buildings it could also be a great opportunity to have a coffee shop and a restaurant etc. in them too.