St. Laurent Shopping Centre

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Wasn't there in fact a grand expansion plan for the St Laurent site, maybe 10 years ago? It may even be there in earlier pages of this thread, but I'm too lazy to go there and look for it.

Wasn't it supposed to spill over onto the other side of Coventry Road?

Sounds familiar but the retail market looked very different 10 years ago.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I wonder if from a financial perspective it is in limbo. It is making too much money to justify tearing it down but not enough money to justify significant improvements.

Don't have to tear it down. There's plenty of surface parking they can work with first. They could build towers attached the mall. They just need to make a master plan that maintains the mall in the middle of the development.

Originally Posted by Tesladom

Is there something about 30 stories being a "sweet spot" for construction efficiency and per unit costs? I don't think the number is intentional, there must be a financial/construction rationalization for this?

Yup, went up three floors from 27 over the last 5 years.

Truthfully, I really don't understand the economics of building towers, but I find it strange that Ottawa is the only major city where developers set their own limits. Every other city over a million and many of their suburbs easily go 40 to 60 with no reservations. What makes Ottawa special?

Originally Posted by Acajack

Wasn't there in fact a grand expansion plan for the St Laurent site, maybe 10 years ago? It may even be there in earlier pages of this thread, but I'm too lazy to go there and look for it.

Wasn't it supposed to spill over onto the other side of Coventry Road?

As per Rocketphish, yes. I imagine Bayshore, Rideau and Les Promenades expansions killed St. Laurent's window of opportunity.

[Acajack]

That's a great piece of land by Ottawa standards so I assume something big will happen there eventually. Probably more of a focus on residential, and even sacrificing or right-sizing some retail space like Les Galeries de Hull is going to be doing.