What does a possible Sears closure mean for Westmount Mall?

[MolsonExport]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london...ndon-1.4348844

What does a possible Sears closure mean for Westmount Mall? A closure on Wonderland Road in London could put about 100 people out of work

among other things. I think it is the final nail in the coffin that is the Wastemount Mall

[MolsonExport]

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/07/18/se...ales-this-week
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/10/04/se...oon-as-mid-oct

[jammer139]

Westmount mall was already mostly empty or converted to office space.

End of Sears is like the end of so many other retailers. Remember Eatons, Woolco, Woolworths? Or departure of Target and K-Mart.

Evolve or Die. The natural order of things.

[MolsonExport]

End of Sears: Ex-local manager recalls Sears glory days as chain faces demise

[MolsonExport]

IMO Sears was very badly positioned between Hudson's Bay Quality/Chic, and Walmart's Banality/Cheap. It did neither very well. Walking into a Sears felt like walking into a beige-tinted version of the Eighties. The stores were extremely tired-looking. And seemingly only had retirees as customers.

[manny_santos]

The last time I shopped at the Westmount Sears was in 2010. There was probably a grand total of two staff persons in the entire store. Terrible, terrible service experience.

[MolsonExport]

My purchases at that location amount to watch batteries and minor watch repairs. Probably amounts to less than $10 year over the past 4 years.

[ssiguy]

I still went to Sears Langley on occasion. It's a sad day particularly for the thousands of workers and it was unnecessary if it had been run well but it was run a bunch of incompetents who refused to acknowledge the changing retail environment and develop with it. No doubt the top brass doesn't care...........they will make sure their golden parachutes are well stacked.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Tear the entire mall down and build an integrated residential/commercial like this:

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

Tear the entire mall down and build an integrated residential/commercial like this:

if only. I would love to see the Wastemount mall imploded. It really cannot be saved, other than as a ghostlier Galleria (or citiplaza, or whatever that crypt is called downtown).

At least the Galleria is downtown. Westmount is not a great location. I lived across the street during my first year in London (2005-06), and really the only thing around worth going to was the mall....things were hopping in 2005 when we moved in, but man, the place slid downhill ultra-swiftly when the big box barf began to open up south of Southdale. The mall emptied of decent chains, first replaced by fly-by-night mom&pops, then shuttered storefronts. Then they amputated part of the mall. Things continued to slide downhill. Target was the last, best chance, and of course that went South. The place is fucking dead now...can you imagine once the Sears closes for good?

[Stevo26]

Duplicate post deleted

[Stevo26]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

if only. I would love to see the Wastemount mall imploded. It really cannot be saved, other than as a ghostlier Galleria (or citiplaza, or whatever that crypt is called downtown).

At least the Galleria is downtown. Westmount is not a great location. I lived across the street during my first year in London (2005-06), and really the only thing around worth going to was the mall....things were hopping in 2005 when we moved in, but man, the place slid downhill ultra-swiftly when the big box barf began to open up south of Southdale. The mall emptied of decent chains, first replaced by fly-by-night mom&pops, then shuttered storefronts. Then they amputated part of the mall. Things continued to slide downhill. Target was the last, best chance, and of course that went South. The place is fucking dead now...can you imagine once the Sears closes for good?

Well, at least the dialysis centre located on the second floor of the mall will keep the complex at least partially alive, as dialysis patients really don't get a choice as to where they can do their dialysis if they can't do it at home or in hospital.

What I could see happening is that the former Zellers/Target and now soon-to-be former Sears locations will get torn down as it's unlikely that either space will be attractive to future commercial tenants unless they are going to set up a department store or really need all that space. This would cause what's left of Westmount Mall to become a shadow of its former reduced self.

And turning both spots into office space will only work so long as there are tenants who need it and don't care that the space isn't located downtown or close to the 401. There's already plenty of vacant office space throughout London as it is.

A combined retail/residential development sounds nice, but the Westmount neighbourhood as a whole is aging and no longer as attractive as it once was.

It used to be the neighbourhood to live in if you were a young executive working for Bell, Canada Trust or London Life and had a family and needed a good-sized house. Demographics have changed all that and now Westmount is mostly empty-nesters and early retirees.

It seems a lot of the really hot, happening residential development is going on in the downtown core anyway and people are growing less interested in living in the burbs.

[haljackey]

I still think that both the Target and Sears locations are great sites for things like:
-Gym
-Library
-Convention / events halls
-Laser tag
-Wholesale / outlet stores
-Craft brewery? Westmount Ale, Saunders Larger

What these locations have over other vacant retail sites is 2 floors of underground parking. Should make them attractive for some kind of future. The mall management really needs to sell this or the mall may die.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I still think that both the Target and Sears locations are great sites for things like:
-Gym
-Library
-Convention / events halls
-Laser tag
-Wholesale / outlet stores
-Craft brewery? Westmount Ale, Saunders Larger

What these locations have over other vacant retail sites is 2 floors of underground parking. Should make them attractive for some kind of future. The mall management really needs to sell this or the mall may die.

Remember that TD is moving out and Shoeless Joes is out. It's time to repurpose the entire mall. Demo it and rebuild something that includes integrated residential. With housing prices gone up, surely they could make money on that.

[corinvest]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

Remember that TD is moving out and Shoeless Joes is out. It's time to repurpose the entire mall. Demo it and rebuild something that includes integrated residential. With housing prices gone up, surely they could make money on that.

When is TD leaving Westmount?

[GreatTallNorth2]

^Feb. 2018

[K85]

wheres the info that shoeless and td is out?

[haljackey]

The whole reason why Cineplex built a new theatre behind Westmount Mall was to exploit a loophole where the city wouldn't let them build a new location.

So, the just decided to 'expand' the existing Westmount location by building another location on the property. I think that theatre is there to stay for the long haul.

Shoeless is gone, and TD is moving in November I think? I know letters were sent out to customers who had Westmount as their main branch announcing the move.

Could the underground levels of Westmount be turned into anything? Go kart track maybe?

[kaiserLDN]

https://www.bentallkennedy.com/benta...evelopment.php

The owners of this mall have a ton of money. Malls in GTA have been slowly being demolished or planning for the demolition for mixed-use communities. Even Yorkdale mall which is successful is planning for residential and office buildings in there parking lot to diversify. I feel a mixed-use project would very successful in this spot especially with the owners having so much money and them having experience in real estate development.

[Stevo26]

Originally Posted by kaiserLDN

https://www.bentallkennedy.com/benta...evelopment.php

The owners of this mall have a ton of money. Malls in GTA have been slowly being demolished or planning for the demolition for mixed-use communities. Even Yorkdale mall which is successful is planning for residential and office buildings in there parking lot to diversify. I feel a mixed-use project would very successful in this spot especially with the owners having so much money and them having experience in real estate development.

People who live in the residential parts of such a complex, if Westmount were going to be reconfigured as a retail/residential complex would probably love it as they are just steps away from the movie theatre.