You can check out Baine Johnston's plans for the Canadian Tire here:
http://www.bainejohnston.com/propert...zabeth-avenue/

I think it will be a fantastic addition to the area.

Also, large plans for the Avalon Mall wouldn't surprise me. They will be facing intense competition I feel from what crops up in Galway:
http://www.galwaynl.ca/home/uploads/plaza-dewcor.pdf

Thanks for posting the drawings.
Kinda disappointing though in how Leon's brands itself. All of their buildings are just bland storefronts with just their very dated looking yellow oval logo. Seems like they are just gonna stick their logo where the Canadian Tire logo use to be and not do anything else.

Seems like it is a sloppy proposal. This may not, and hopefully will not be, how the final project will look.

Also, I'm not confident that area needs 4-5 more small sized retail locations. The Pipers Building across the street had empty retail holdings for a long time (now finally Jumping Bean is taking one of the spots). Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Finally, this may spell the end to Toys R Us in its current location in NL... just a thought.

Why is that?

1. If I remember correctly, Toys R Us has tried to bail out of that location multiple times before.

2. If the Plaza becomes part of the mall somehow, the rental fees per sf will sky rocket. The Avalon Mall has insane rental fees currently (I ran a business in there for years, part of the lease amount per sf is based on shoppers, but the figures are grossly inflated (mainly due to the movie theatre)).

3. Rent in that Plaza is already insanely high. I looked into the old Dooly's property and just laughed at what they wanted per sf (they wanted about $10,000-$12,000 per month for a temp rental on a location that had no other interest).

4. Just a gut feeling -- but I easily could be wrong.

didn't know about the jumping bean coming there, when is that happening?

I dunno when they will open but it will be in the corner unit at the intersection of New Cove and Elizabeth Ave of the Piper's building... Feels like a unusual location to me.

Southlands Boulevard
 

Anybody happen to have any information on the construction happening on Southlands Boulevard just before the Ruby Line lights and turnoff?

They just recently cut down all the trees and are levelling the lot that used to be the small basketball court, just as you enter the original entrance into Southlands.

Looks to me like it is going to be a Gas station or Maybe a Marie's Mini Mart

Any info would be great

Is it just me, or does anyone else notice that there are never any people in any of the Jumping Bean locations ?

This is a terrible location for coffee shop, especially one without a drive thru !

Just don't understand how they are going to compete against Tim's, Starbucks, Second Cup, and to a lessor degree Robin's. They are expanding very fast, could be a drastic mistake on their behalf. I don't think this rapid expansion is going work out in their favour, and they should probably just stick to the Export business, and stay away from Retail.

Is it on Great Southern Drive?

This from July 2014 council agenda (http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...,%202014.pdf):

"A Discretionary Use Application has been submitted by Atlantic Planning &
Management Ltd. requesting approval to establish and operate a national brand
coffee shop with drive-thru, a service station with convenience store and a
national brand fast food restaurant at 2-8 Great Southern Drive. The
application satisfies all requirements of Section 7.30 "Drive-Thru Facilities" of the
St. John's Development Regulations and has the required separation distance from a
residential zone. The proposed coffee shop with drive-thru will have a total floor
area of 167.2 m2, the service station with convenience store will have a total floor
area of232.3 m2 and the fast food restaurant will have a total floor area of 162.6 m2"

I used to love that there was no one in the original location on Harvey Rd years ago. I'd laugh watching cars lined right up into the street across the road at Tim Hortons getting what I consider terrible coffee while I ran in and out of Jumping Bean with a beautiful brew. I'm actually excited to start doing that again soon, as we're in the process of moving back to St. John's (for the third time, and hopefully the last) and will be living just up the road from Jumping Bean again.

It would be good to see a Lowe's come to NL. I am in the middle of doing serious renovations on our home (in preparation to move back to NL) and used to always go to Home Depot, or Rona and for whatever reason never went into Lowe's. However with a large reno budget I really price shopped and am kicking myself that I never went into Lowe's in the past. They have lower prices, good selection and the staff there have been inbelievably helpful, they actually seem to hire people in the sections with a lot of knowledge to pass to clueless DIY people like me :cheers:

Have you even been to the Water Street location? There's always people at that one whenever I stop in to grab a coffee. Also, I was there for breakfast about two weeks ago and the lineup was outside the door and all the tables were taken upstairs, and this was at around 8:30 in the morning. It was incredibly busy. Every time I'm at the Harvey Road one there's always a few people there and it's especially busy if you go there at lunchtime. The one in the MUN library is quite busy too, and there's always a lineup the handful of times I've been to the one in TD Place. I went to the Fortis Place location for the first time a few days ago at around 3 PM, and although there was no one there when I went in, as I left 5 people got off the elevator just to go get coffee there. I would suspect that this location would get pretty busy when the office workers get their lunch break, or in the morning when they're all going to work.

They aren't expanding that fast. This new location on Elizabeth Avenue will be their first truly new location that's visible to the public since they first set up shop on Harvey Road. They really only have three locations with good street front exposure (Water Street, TD Place, Harvey Road) and the TD Place location is only there because of the office building so it's only open on weekdays when people are in the building, which means that they really only have two locations here in the city that are open seven days a week. I am very excited for the new location to open because I can finally get good coffee close to work. They definitely should keep the retail part of their business alive because they're the best café in the city.

It was originally 13 locations but they couldn't make a deal on 1. so it's 12. St. John's is not on the list...

The list of new Lowe’s locations.
Ontario locations:
Ancaster
Milton Mall Shopping Centre
Mississauga
Centrepoint Mall, Toronto
RioCan St. Laurent, Ottawa
Shoppers World Danforth, Toronto
Intercity Shopping Centre, Thunder Bay

Across Canada:
Abbotsford Power Centre, Abbotsford, B.C.
Nanaimo North Town Centre, Nanaimo, B.C.
Prince George, B.C.
Victoria Tillicum, Victoria, B.C.
Shoppes at Shawnessy, Calgary, Alta.
Signal Hill Centre, Calgary, Alta.
Northgate Mall, Regina, Sask.

Any idea who owns the Target space in St. John's?

Ron.

The new high end strip mall on Kenmount Road is starting to come together. The parking lot has been paved and workers have been busy at the interiors as well. I also noticed that the Kelsey's restaurant which shares the same parking lot is getting pretty close to being finished inside and out.

Now if only they get some nice high end tenants that we don't already have.

Looking at Kelseys exterior design of their current restaurants, there seems to be quite a bit of work to be done in regards to this yet. They have a real retro worn look that probably has to be painted in and worked into the brickwork. They'd better get at it soon before winter comes.

With 1 Home Depot, 3 Kent Stores (4 if u count CBS) and 4 RONA stores in St John's and metro, do we really need a Lowes stire too?

Well, I wouldn't mind having a Lowes just for variety. I haven't been to one but understand they're pretty good. I don't see them or any other big retailer coming here any time soon with our economy flatlining. On that note I wonder if those big box lumber/hardware stores are feeling any pain yet due to low oil prices and lower housing starts?

Ikea
 

Announced today that Ikea will double it's store count over the next 10 years in Canada with new stores opening from coast to coast. This is in addition to "pick-up outlets already announced last year which are currently rolling out.

So only question is......does "coast to coast" mean Victoria to St. John's or in the way some musical artists do coast to coast tours from Vancouver to Halifax??? Full story here:

http://business.financialpost.com/ne...ing-web-visits

Still don't feel that St.johns can support a store the size of IKEA. I think if they did open anything here, it would be good at first but then the novelty would wear off pretty quickly. I just don't think the demand for that kind of furniture is big enough here to sustain a brick-and-mortar store.