Was at the Village today and noticed that they are gutting out the former Klondike Jakes space. Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t there a pool hall or something like that slated to go in there?

Plaza Reit website shows it leased as a dermatologist clinic.

In others news, it looks like the old Stockwoods on Freshwater Road has (finally) been purchased. No idea what the plan for the site is.

That old building is ancient and so run down. Probably rat infested now. Probably better off being torn down and start anew.

Thanks for the update.

My thoughts as well but it would appear so far that the new owners have been doing work on the building. No idea what the end-goal is.

Rumours floating around again about Giant Tiger coming to town. This time in the former Walmart location on Topsail Road (which would be an excellent location in my opinion). Anyone hear of anything to back up the rumours? I couldn’t find anything from Giant Tiger itself or from Crombie REIT which owns that property.

Hakim Optical is reopening their Village Mall location on Sept 20.

Apologies up front. This story has nothing to do with St. John’s but is interesting nonetheless.

The Hudson Bay Company in Burlington Ontario is surprisingly opening a pop-up “Zellers” Store within its Hudson Bay Store. They still own the rights to the Zellers name after selling most of its Zellers physical store leases to Target several years ago. Well that didn’t go well for Target and now they are all gone too. I wonder if The owners are testing the retail market for a possible Zellers return to Canada in stand-alone physical store format? HBC is currently struggling to survive these days to stay relevant and profitable. Could the return of the discount Zellers chain be its saviour. This is intriguing.

Here is the link the the Retail-Insider article....
https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...cation-photos/

Pipers Mount Pearl
 

Heard on the radio that Piper's newest store was opening in Mount Pearl today.

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.

The Canadian Tire on Elizabeth Ave was a lot smaller than these buildings though.

I guess it depends on how much renovation they do but I think retail would struggle in these buildings. It would almost have to act like an industrial mall of sorts.

Reading comments on Twitter I'm seeing early rumours of Bass Pro Shop, Amazon and Uhaul.

Uhaul seems to make sense as the location they have now is not ideal. Either of these locations would have ample parking and storage and is close to the highway.

Can't see they will convert these into multiple retail units given the configuration and that there are already several vacant, smaller retail units available down there.

Yeah I don't see Amazon opening anything here. Not sure about the others.

Now that I think of it, there was talk years ago of Uhaul buying that space.

I heard Uhaul absolutely wanted the space, but were blocked by local rules. Not city regulations, but competition rules and restrictive covenants with the other property owners in the area.

Amazon is possible, but they're not even close to this level in Halifax yet, so probably too soon. Ikea is also unlikely. We could get a pick-up location here maybe, but not an actual store.

Former Princess Auto
 

"Former Princess Auto building in east end of St. John's sold to Conception Bay North grocery distributor"

https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundlan...tor-100745982/

I think we all know that the most likely outcome for all these buildings is office space. Realistically there isn't any retail store that will be able to utilize that large amount of space. Ikea isn't happening, and I would assume that Amazon will be happy using Halifax as their Atlantic Canadian regional hub.

Princess Auto being bought by Atlantic Grocery Distributors could be interesting. They could use the space as a Powell's, or the could just use it as a warehouse lol.

What are the chances of a Hudson's Bay store I wonder? I'm just thinking of large retail stores that don't operate here. Nova Scotia has 2.

The Telegram is doing stories on deals from a year ago now?

Ikea
 

Details of new IKEA concept store with planned openings across Canada. I can see demand for one in metro.

https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...erview-photos/

You basically have this now...
www.IKEA.ca

Ron.

Yup, basically a storefront with an order desk inside. I can see us getting something like that. They can keep it.

An appointment to go to a small store with an order screen? Yeah or I can order online and have it sent to the designated pickup point.

It's more than that. There will be consultants on site to help you choose products that go together, and to help you with the ordering process. They can also coordinate delivery and assembly (if necessary).

I noticed some activity in the space next to Dollarama on Ropewalk Lane today. Does anyone know what’s on the go there?

I'm not sure.....heard rumors of No Frills and Giant Tiger but never nothing confirmed. The owner stated last year that he will not be paving the lot as it will force him to raise rent. Now it's being paved. I'm figuring that some national tenant is signing a lease for the space next to Dollarama and doesn't want a parking lot that resembles the Lunar surface.

Not sure where this fits but there was more information on who bought the old Costco and Target buildings this morning. KMK partnered with eye surgeon Dr Chris Jackman to purchase both buildings.

Does anyone know what’s going on with Zellers?

Have you tried to order recently? Nothing large from ikea is shipping to the province right now. They stopped back in May I think. Was trying to order something and looked into it. They changed from Day and Ross to someone else who wasnt relible. There are ppl on facebook with half a kitchen order since April with no way to get the rest.

Nothing here in NL, at least to start. We’ll only be able to order online because we don’t have a Hudson’s Bay Company store here. There are two HBC stores in Nova Scotia however, and the next closest would be Quebec.

“Included in the new rollout will be physical Zellers stores within existing Hudson’s Bay department store locations in Canada, as well as a website that will include a marketplace component.”

https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...any-exclusive/