I remain absolutely stunned at the amount of development ongoing
and planned in the greater Charlottetown area......
I grew up in the city in the '60s & '70s and pretty much nothing was built there during that time. What is going on there now is nothing less than astounding!!
I agree with
Myles, the size of this proposed development site at the corner of the bypass and rte. 2 is huge. Perhaps
kirjtc2 is correct and
Costco may be the anchor for the development. With existing Costco stores in Halifax(2) and Moncton and new stores planned or under construction in Saint John and Fredericton, Charlottetown would likely be the next obvious market in the Maritimes to consider.
The market figures supplied by
braymondg are interesting. As he says, they point to the inclusion of the entire provincial population. This would still be a lot less than the catchment areas for any of the mainland Maritime cities however, and I worry that the Island population will not be large enough to justify a development of this size.
In particular, there is a real worry that if this shopping development is built, that the downtown could become a ghost town. This would be quite sad as the downtown Charlottetown shopping experience is unique and is one of the main reasons why I still go over to the Island occasionally to look around. I would not be so attracted to go over there if the only choice was yet another "power centre" with the usual assortment of discount big box stores.
Charlottetown should be cautious about approving this project. I kinda agree with
kirjtc2, perhaps it would be better if they filled up the
Sears development first........I'm not saying that Costco shouldn't build over there but there might be enough land next to Sears to accomodate it. If so, then a whole
new shopping centre might not be necessary.