Cool. I imagine this will do fairly well here.

there are at least 4 stores in the avalon mall that sell the same brands... seems like a waste of space to me. Not like the prices are going to be any better

Seems like the Galway retail area is moving ahead and is gonna be much like the other big box parks. I wonder what anchors they will have?

http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/...-development/1

Been hearing rumours that Avalon Mall is gearing up for another expansion. Anyone have any idea if this is true or not. They are in dire need for an update with the current mall interior stuck in the 1980s and the exterior is a massive hodge podge of styles from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

It would be nice to see them spruce the place up a bit, starting with the Sears façade. Expanded parking, dare I say multilevel, would help too. I heard a rumor that once the entrance is realigned with Polina Rd that there “might” be additional retail and/or a restaurant around the area where Tom Woodfords was.
The Avalon Mall still has a lot going for it, especially in the winter when you can shop I relative comfort. The theatres are definitely a big part of their success too.

Totally agree, even with the downturn in the popularity of enclosed malls in North America, Avalon Mall kinda bucks that trend. With the suckiest weather in the country it's nice to shop in the comfort of enclosed mall.

Also heard they plan on building a parkade there too. Time will tell.

Really? Not in other major Canadian cities.. malls are expanding, new malls are being built.

Ron.

I know they are now but not many years ago the enclosed shopping mall was dying out in many big cities because of the popularity of big box parks but lately the big box parks seem to be starting to lose their popularity too. Several years ag I saw a documentary on PBS I think showing all these deserted empty malls. So perhaps it's coming full circle. Toronto shopping malls for example are now all expanding big time. Eaton Centre, Yorkdale Mall, Sherway Gardens are all building huge expansions.

While we're following the trends of the Mainlanders, I've heard Amazon Fulfillment Centers have gained popularity across North America. Perhaps Danny will get us one for Glencrest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/07...n_7779390.html

Interesting story out of Quebec. I wonder if they plan on opening a Simons here too?

Sephora is opening in the Avalon mall next Friday (July 24th)

aaaand with that I'll never see my girlfriend again :haha:

Anyone have any info at all on that fancy new strip mall being constructed on Kenmount Road just before the Kelsey Drive turnoff. It's starting to look kinda high end and not your stereotypical looking strip mall. The sign out front says its being built by Redwood Construction by they only have a domain name when you google them. No info on the company on their website or info on this project at all. Just very curious at this point. This is also where Kelseys (Cara Foods) is building their new restaurant too, directly next door to the strip mall.

Leons
 

Looks like the old East End Cdn Tire location is snatched up... Leon's is moving there from Kenmount Rd.

Location isn't as good, imho.

http://www.vocm.com/mobile/newsartic...?mn=2&id=56384

I wonder what will take the remaining 20k sf...

That’s great news that the old Cdn Tire store will be repurposed however I don’t really understand the business logic. In the article Mr. Collingwood stated that “ areas like Kenmount Road and Stavanger Drive are becoming very congested”…YES, they are congested with shoppers. I know that when I shop for furniture I’ll drop into three or four places in Kenmount Rd (including Leon’s) and Kelsey Dr in a single trip.
I suppose some positives of the new location will be better exposure and more parking. Baine Johnston has been in business long enough that I guess they know what they are doing. Looking forward to seeing a nice new shiny store!

From what I heard before, Baine Johnston owned the Woodgate Plaza which houses Leon's current location, but sold the building to Crombie REIT several years ago. Crombie, of course, is the owner of the Avalon Mall. Hopefully, the Avalon Mall will integrate these properties by joining the parking lots at least. Maybe this will be part of the "proposal" they said would be forthcoming, which includes realigning the mall entrance with Polina Road.

I’m really out of touch, I had not realized that Crombie REIT now owned that property. For years the question was always asked why doesn’t the Mall have another access on Kenmount Rd. in that area and the answer always seemed to be that Baine Johnston wouldn’t, or couldn’t, allow it. (That and the fact there is still a few hundred feet of river running through there.
Re: the Polina Rd realignment, on two occasions lately I have seen City workers measuring around the Mall entrance there, hopefully that is a positive sign. I expect construction to start sometime in December because that would be the BEST time to tear of that intersection…sarcasm intended

Crombie has plans to redevelop the building Leon's are currently in and are no longer signing long term leases for the location. Perhaps this informed the decision?

I heard rumours that there was gonna be another big Avalon Mall expansion.
I wonder if they will tie it into the former Baine Johnson Plaza now that it's all part of the same Crombie REIT that owns the mall too.

This is interesting. It should be noted that the Avalon Mall's senior management has recently changed. Maybe the new blood will allow for some improvements to the mall... perhaps a uniformed look indoors and out.

Also -- I could honestly see Goodlife moving to a bigger location.

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.

I've been to IKEA stores in Europe in cities that are much smaller than St. John's.

Yeah but in Europe you have so many other cities and countries close by so the overall population is much larger. Here we have a city of about 150000 or more but you really need a city population of about 500000 at least to support something the size of IKEA. Maybe if they build smaller concept stores it might work here.

St. John's apparently cannot support a Hudson's Bay store, let alone an IKEA. :)

Ron.

Well, most Canadian cities can hardly support HBC. ;)

Ikea would be more popular there, just normal taste instead of specialty.

Has there been anything said about what's going in the 4 or 5 retail buildings next to Kelsey's on Kenmount?

Been trying to find info on that too. The company that built the strip mall is called Redwwod Construction but their website is useless and has been under construction for months so no help there. The strip mall looks kinda high end though. Be interesting to see who goes in there. It looks close to being finished so tenants should be moving in soon, if they actually have it leased that is.

Just an observation, but does anybody else seem to think that the PARKING Lot situation for the new Kelsey's seem really small ? To me , it looks like they are going to have a real problem, and lose a lot of business due to lack of parking. I mean, its not like you have any other parking options there, and people certainly are not going to park up at Canadian Tire and walk down Kenmount Road. Unless there is a huge lot behind the building , which isn't visible from the front, I think they have a major problem. Also, I don't know how many people have been to a Kelsey's before, but their menu is no different than what is offered in all the restaurants currently here. They are no different than a Jack Astor's, Montana's, Fog City, Klondike Jake's, East Side Marios etc etc etc. Same old menus over and over again. Why can't we see some variety with respect to chain restaurant's here ? Bring in an affordable steakhouse like Longhorn's, Lonestar or Outback, maybe an Olive Garden or Red Lobster or BJ'S. Just my 2 cents.

Really like a Dave and Busters but im not sure how well it would do here

Noticed the steel is all up for the new Maries Mini Mart store on Kiwanis Drive in Kenmount Terrace. It's right next door to that new church that recently opened there.