[someone123]

The condos do help to provide a market for local retail but I would guess that when you're talking about a specific specialty store the effect is much smaller. Mills might be in a better position since they can tailor their merchandise more than most.

I would really just like downtown retail to fill out a bit more with different types of stores, including a couple of larger chains. There are no household items downtown, there's no electronics, no major bookstore like Chapters even. A person living downtown in a condo still has to drive out to Bayers Lake or the Halifax Shopping Centre for most things.

It would be even better if the downtown could attract something unique to the region, like an urban format IKEA (they exist, but that one's a bit of a stretch).

Part of the issue is that there just aren't any sites for these sorts of stores to move into. The city wants to use SGR and Queen for the library and possibly keep the old library site, the Roy Building is sitting empty in limbo, and so on. One big potential spot would be the Dairy Queen building and adjacent lot at Spring Garden Road and South Park; that is another extremely good corner for retail.