[Taeolas]

Regent, as pointed out, seems to be in excellent shape. It's survived Corbett Centre filling up, and is pretty much completely full now, or will be once Lawton's opens up. The stores are, IMO, well suited for the community; a few higher end stores for those who want it, but mainly midrange offerings for the office crowd, and enough Teen/Twenty-something places for the university crowd.

Going forward? That's where things get hazy. While there's nothing official, you can be sure Walmart is itching to get into bigger non-mall based digs. There's already talks of expanding the North side Walmart at 2NC into a proper Supercentre; and if the North side gets one, the Southside is well overdue for it. (Walmart itself is almost always packed every weekend and every day from Sept to January). If/when Walmart moves, that will leave a huge gap.

Another worry is Cineplex. Freddy is in desperate need for a new theatre; Cineplex hasn't put any money into the mall since forever; those screens are 20 years old and its showing. A few years ago, we had a glimpse of the leases of the big anchors in the mall (back when Cadillac Fairview was selling Regent) and Cineplex's lease expires/expired this year. I'm sure Cineplex is anxious to get into their own digs (but Empire's sale to Cineplex in the meantime has probably tossed the plans in disarray), but the mall probably likes having the theatre there to keep the Student crowd coming. I still believe the theatres will be moving at some point in the future, leaving another gap in the mall. Luckily the gap isn't all that big and should be relatively easy to fill in.

Finally, there's the biggest unknown of them all; the albatross at the other end of the Mall. Sears is struggling nationally and has staked out a claim at Death's door for the past few years. When it eventually throws in the towel, that'll be another big gap.

Regent's current status is in excellent shape; but they have a perfect storm of disaster brewing in the relatively near future. The worst case scenario they have is Walmart and Cineplex leaving at once at the same time Sears goes belly up. More likely they'll lose them spaced out enough to keep the mall fairly full. Any two at once would be fine. (Especially if the rumour of Cineplex moving into the Sears anchor happen; though that's probably not true). There's also a fairly decent chance that if Sears folds, the Bay will look to grab store sites, and Regent (and Champlain and McAllistar) would all be prime locations for Maritime expansion.

Luckily they got the huge facelift a few years ago before they were sold off, so appearance-wise they are good for a long while now. And overall the mall synergizes well with Corbett centre, so the two support eachother fairly well. Lawton's moving in is a good hedge bet to Walmart leaving; it provides a lot of toiletries and pharmacy items that Walmart currently supplies for University students.