Quote:
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?
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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.
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