Quote:
Originally Posted by JFFournier
Wasn't there a percentage of "uniqueness" that had to be reached?
Some opponents (not necessarily alecz_dad, I don't recall) acted as though not only should every store be new to Ottawa, but they should also sell products that can not currently be bought in Ottawa. That's a little extreme.
I think the actual agreement is something like 35% of retailers or some such. It may be mentioned in the article that is linked above, but I can't view it because I've gotten all my Citizen freebies for the month.  |
I am not sure if it was ever an agreement at least in the formal sense. The local business association (The Bank Street BIA), had asked that they hold back on leasing a certain percentage of the space until closer to the completion time. The reason being that smaller unique, local stores tend to go looking for space that is already available to lease (ie actually built) rather than projecting years in advance for future space the way large chain can and do.
It is not so much that local stuff couldn't lease the space. Smaller businesses lease much of the more expensive space in the city (market, sussex, etc..) The big block players on the other hand tend to grab up huge cheap suburban space. The thing with the bigger players is they have have planning departments so they can beat others to the punch. Good retail space actually pretty hard to get in Canada. This is why Target sent billions to get Zeller's leases. They could care less about Zeller's. It was just the space they wanted.
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