Here is another construction project in progress on the corner of White Rose Drive just as you exit out onto Torbay Road on the same side of the street as Best Buy.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...80265035_n.jpg

The shoe company on Aberdeen Ave have expanded their store.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...77216766_o.jpg

Another office/retail building planned for White Rose Drive. This is right in front of the new RONA store.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...93564138_n.jpg

I heard it's either a new TD or CIBC bank. One is going where Penney Pre-owned used to be while the other in that location. I'm not sure which one is going where though.

A great bunch of pics by the way! :tup:

Cool thanks Statbass.
Seems like banks are popping up everywhere lately.

Thanks for the update! I'm going to have to try to get up there soon and see the progress. St. John's first heavy traffic roundabout! It will either be a huge disaster, or a success! I'm rooting for success. Roundabouts can be so much more convenient than traffic lights in many situations.

According to 'The Scope', this is the location of the new Harvey's Restaurant. (It is listed in the new construction list in this week's city council minutes as well. (Address is 3 Hebron way, which I believe is the street in front of the Rona, and White Rose is on the other side of Torbay heading towards the new Empire development???)

I also noticed in city council minutes that CIBC is going on Stavanger where the Penney Used Cars was, and TD is going next to A Buck or Two on Aberdeen. (I was disappointed with that one as it was a nice place for another restaurant!)

Just wondering - last week's city council minutes listed a new retail store construction at 3 Stavanger Drive, but I can't seem to see where that is? Thought it was in the area of Best Buy? Unless it is the renovation of the former Golf store, but it was listed as new construction. Not sure about this one but new construction retail always grabs my attention!

Love the pics by the way - the roundabout looks fantastic - looking forward to it!

Here's a pic of the new Kent building in CBS

http://i50.tinypic.com/15x8i7s.jpg

A Harvey's restaurant will indeed be going up somewhere in the vicinity. I was just perusing through SJ Council minutes and noticed in the weekly permits list that 18 Hebron way will be the location of a Harvey's.

I thought this was where Mr. Lube was going. There was a sign there before.

I thought the city of St. John's discontinued identifying who the building permits were for in the commercial building permits list. That's why I stopped going to the council minutes site any more. Not much point if you don't know what it is.

Isn't that a "Mr.Lube" (gawd I hate that name, LOL) across from Tim's on Major's Path

It's inconsistent, sometimes they identify while other times it's anonymous. I guess it's up to the company if they want the information released. Here's a link to the minutes:

http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...013%202012.pdf

Unfortunately there's no page numbering, the info is listed under "Weekly Permits List Council's Nov 12, Regular Meeting". It's listed third from the bottom in the commercial class permits.

CBC news (Here & Now) did a piece tonight on the new Walmart that opened this weekend on Hamlyn Rd, the place looked extremely busy. Now I'm not one to be overly excited about a new Walmart but this is very good news for the west end. For years retail in this area has been dreary at best; I think the new Walmart will help revitalize retail in the west end. The increased customer traffic might even spill over into the Village.

Thanks Statbass.
So good to hear that Harvey's are coming back to St. John's. They do make hamburgers a beautiful thing. I was so disappointed when they closed the Harvey's Restaurant in Mount Pearl years ago. Hopefully this one will be more successful.

Its a pit stop going across from tims on majors. Some corporate folk from Jack Astor's were in town recently so hopefully that will be in the works in the future. Also chattig with a manager at Coleman's the weekend there new store in southlands will be pretty large liquor store and all.

The ghost of Zellers lives at the new Walmart on Hamlyn Road. I was up there tonite and it looks like a tornado ripped through it. Empty shelves and cloths and shoes on the floors everywhere. I know it was a busy opening weekend but that looked pretty bad even for Walmart standards. LOL.

Jack Astor's is a wicked restaurant.

Man, it's starting to get difficult keeping track of what is coming to St. John's. So many different restaurants and stores are coming in the near future. Little overwhelming.

Awesome! We really need more family restaurants here! Isn't Jack Astors basically Montana's?

I would love to see more American brands come up here like TGI Fridays, Chili's, Outback, Applebee's, Olive Garden ect. But a lot of those are rare in Canada, and we would likely see them other places first before they ever come here which is a shame because I think they would do really well! They are cheaper and I find the food much better than say Swiss Chalet or Boston Pizza. I Hate Boston pizza.

But at least we have some new "family style" restaurants possibly coming down the pipe. (Kelsey's, Milestones, PF Chang's, Jack Astor's and hopefully more in the new white rose drive area) we need more variety!

( some new fast food restaurants such as an Arby's or Taco Bell would be awesome as well, but family restaurants are needed more.)

The price and meal portions/quality do not transition from south to north of the border. Going to a Burger King in America is essentially the same experience as going to one here but you get nearly twice as much food for half the price. The same can be said for restaurants. That is, if you were referring to that, anyway. It's not as if Macdonald's $1 menu exists in Canada. :haha:

As for Chili's...it's nothing too great. :P

Truth. When I was stuck at LaGuardia I paid literally 5 bucks for what I'd pay almost 10 bucks for here at McDonalds. The same was true for a greet restaurant I visited in the Astoria neighborhood. I spent 15 bucks on a meal and was presented with about 2lbs of pork and lamb which I obviously couldn't finish :P Everything really is bigger in America

That one is going to be a Pit Crew (or Pit Stop). Same as the one that is on Topsail Road at the end of Burgeo Street.

Yeah would be nice to get more family oriented restuarants for sure.
There was a Taco Bell at the Avalon Mall but it closed. And the two Arby's we had closed too years ago. But those were different times then. Perhaps they would be more successful today. Kelsey's has Newfoundland listed as one of their locations on their website. But no address as of yet. I assume they will be down at the Field Power Centre.

I don't mind Jack Astor's (actually, for that type of place, it's one of the better ones), but would much rather see independent sit-down restaurants. Then again, I'm never going to go out to a power centre for dinner, so the chains can go out there while independents can come downtown. The chains I would love to see, however, are quicker places like Five Guys or Fatburger (generally considered 'fast casual' restaurants). I would absolutely go out of my way to grab a burger at those places.

And I've said it before, but downtown needs more fast food of every kind. Burgers, Mexican, chicken, maybe an Edo, etc.

I went for a two-week roadtrip through the States about two years ago and didn't finish a single meal my whole time there. I'm not the kind of person to eat a lot to begin with but the amount of food you're given is unbelievable by comparison. The price and amount of food coupled with the price of gas is why a lot of people here (if they're driving to Southern Ontario) will drive through New England and upstate New York rather than Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

Are there even any Five Guys in Canada?

I was in NYC for the long weekend and I must say I was really disappointed at the shopping ... or well I should say we are getting more impressive

I found that any clothing store (for guys) we had .. just that they had like 100 of the same stores that we have. the only ones that I noticed that I would be half of interest that we do not have is Banana Republic (on the way), H&M (Which is good for low quality cheaper but good looking clothes) and Zara which I personally really like.

I guess we really are moving up in the world and many popular brands that we use to go "away" to get are here or coming here :notacrook:

I can only imagine the before old navy days lol a different retail world here now


Also I had supper at the Olive Garden in Times Square and I really enjoyed it! (almost too much food hahaha)

Bring on the chains and our own chains like wingin it and the other ones that fill a void for brands which are not here yet :D

Both Moncton and Fredericton have an H&M store. I think it's a good possibility H&M would set up shop here.

I have an american friend who came here for school a couple of months ago and they were bewildered to the fact that we do not have a H&M (apparently lots of even towns and small cities have these and it's a very common store) BUT we have an American Apparel lol which does not locate in all cities and are more selective

... which is even stranger if you ask me. :)

I think it's only a matter of time before H&M sets up shop in St. John's. Especially now that they are in Fredericton. They are also looking at opening a second Halifax location on Spring Garden Road, so they have a fairly large precensce in the Maritimes. Don't see why it should be any different up there!

:shrug::previous:
Makes absolutly no sense to us why they didn't open up years ago :S

WHAT??? That is my absolute favourite american chain restaurant! It's so good and I love it! :haha:

And that's true about the prices and portion sizes. Whenever I go to a restaurant in the states, I can very rarely finish the meal.

It seems to be that way with alot of chains that we don't have. There are many cities and towns much smaller than us on the mainland and in the US that have many chains (retail and restaurant) that we don't have. I don't know why because alot of them, I'm sure, would do very well here. Someone who lives in an area of 200,000 anywhere else in north america does not have to go away to shop.

I don't know if it is more expensive to set up shop on a island with shipping costs and stuff, or if they simply don't know we exist. but chain retail has certainly not reached it's potential here in the city. But I have confidence it will pick up and i look forward to the day that we can shop in the province and actually enjoy our vacations, not shop till we drop!
________________________________________________________________

In response to Ayronaut, I agree that downtown needs alot more fast food restaurants. I would love to see a few more locations such as a Mcdonalds, Burger King or even Taco Bell open up in Atlantic Place (Which as I previously posted, needs alot more retail space in general) or open up shop on water street by modernizing a building such as Smokies Pouteinery has done so well. I would love to see a nicer balance in the downtown of "mom and pop touristy shops and cafes" and chain retail that will draw the residing public to the downtown!

It is, particularly when the largest city on that island is so isolated from the nearest other metropolitan area.

And Chili's isn't really that great. Of course, I wasn't particularly impressed with a lot of the chains I visited..Chili's, Chik-Fil-A, Popeye's..none of them particularly impressive. Best restaurant I went to was Gladys Knight's Chicken & Waffle in Atlanta. Best chicken AND waffle i've ever had! :haha::haha:

:previous:

Is that Chicken and Waffles at the same time!!?!?? :eek:

I'd say one big reason for H&M not being in St. John's is because there's no where for them to open a store.

It sounded like an odd combination to me as well.... but at the same time very tasty....:D

How big does the floor space range at a typical H&M? I know the Avalon Mall just created an 1100 sq ft space for lease, is that too small for H&M??? The only H&M location I've been to was at Rue Ste Catherine in Montreal and the place was three floors! Not sure if H&M opens up smaller locations in smaller centres?

What? There is loads of space for them to open a store. Avalon mall would be the best place for them. If they wanted to, they could probably buy out a tenant. The village has had several large openings in the past few years, all the new Development in the stevangar drive area, kelsey drive, the new southlands power center, any random parking lot! There's loads of space for them to come when they choose to

The ones that I've visited, even in a city of 17,000 in Swden is about at least the size of Urban planet in the Avalon Mall, I never thought about that these stores are generally large lol I guess it's because I normally B line it to the men's section hahaha

I really don't don't understand the hoopla over whether H&M comes to St. John's or not. It's only a clothing store. I have been in the H&M in Toronto. Seemed like any other clothing store to me.

That being said. I would say Avalon Mall would be the logical place to set up shop, though they don't really have much available space left.

you're right. I think the Village should grab one lol they have TONNES of space and could realllllly use the attention H&M would get.

I would really like a pedestrian shopping street in the city somewhere, even if they do it out in a big box development or more idealy DT (not really anywhere to make one)
even if mount pearl made an area for one that would be nice :)

like every european city no matter how big or small has one and I love em

Yeah but the Village has lost its shine that it once had. I don't think it's really a destination locale for a H&M.

That wouldnt really work with the big box parks. You really need to be able to drive around to get from store to store. Unless they are on the one parking lot.

I remember back in the early 70's when the city converted part of Water Street to a pedestrian only mall. I think it was in response to the recent opening of the Avalon Mall in 1967. They put in big planters with trees in them. Kiosks and park benches and gazebos. They even painted parts of the streets in with splashes of colour. Of course it didn't last very long before it was converted back.

:previous: Really? Wow!

It didn't work then, but I strongly believe it would work now. Back then was the beginning of sprawl and people were living further and further away from DT. There was obviously not enough population to support it, which is a huge problem we have. This is why new condo developments are so important. We need to be increasing density and drawing people to the downtown to do things. I say if the council truely cares about revitalizing the downtown, they must encourage many more condo/apartment buildings and re-introduce a creative retail center to our downtown.

Great ideas like that are what will make or break us. At least the council of yester-year were imaginative and TRIED. Today, our council is unimaginative and afraid to do anything. We are trying too hard to preserve the past and not trying hard enough to develop an innovative, revitalizing plan for the downtown.

We need to address the downtown density issue NOW. Paradise and CBS are expanding at a rate of over 1200 houses a year. With the average household population of 2.5, that gives us about 3000 people a year moving to the suburbs. I highly doubt we have increased the population of downtown that much in the past 30 years. At least we are beginning to add condo developments such as Henry Bell/Mix, Star of the Sea, Fort Williams, The Narrows and Harbourside but that is not enough. We need more! Already we are seeing, and complaining, about the negative effects of urban sprawl and it will only intensify unless action is taken.

The reason that great retail idea didn't work downtown is lack of density. Council should have realized that in 1972 and started working to solve that problem. But instead, here we are in 2012. looking back at all that time, we have done virtually nothing to solve our diluted downtown. For years it seems we left our downtown to rot. We are finally trying to get back on track. I just hope it is not too late.

Edit: My 300th post! ^^^ woot party!

There is very little space in the Avalon Mall and I can't imagine another retailer being interested in giving up their lease for H&M. The Village is dead, unless they were able to attract some bigger names into the mall I doubt H&M would be interested in setting up there. They'd be there now if it seemed feasible. Few clothing stores open stand alone stores in big box store developments, and I believe H&M usually goes for shopping malls.

The only logical place is the Avalon Mall IMO, and there's no space there.

There are 3-5 in the Calgary area (all new within the last couple years), and a few around Vancouver. I think there's one in Winnipeg, too, so I'm sure they have a presence in all the larger markets in Canada now.

I think if they opened one downtown here, I alone would make it profitable.

Wishful thinking. Would be nice but not gonna happen. Downtown is the last place H&M would open a store if they were to come to St. John's. They will go where the masses go. That's either big box retail park or a big mall.