Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
It is hard to reach any other conclusion that both streets are in intensive care and their future could go either way depending upon what misguided measures HRM afflicts them with next.
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I'd say it's all kind of relative. There are vacancies along both streets but they're both in much better shape than most equivalent streets in most cities in Canada, and have a clear sense of forward momentum due to all the construction.
I think these streets were somewhat above-average for "Canadian city core" before the pandemic, and then were hit with the same kinds of problems as most other cities over the last 3 years - although to a lesser degree here. On top of that, the retail/restaurants in Queen's Marque, the Nova Centre, and the Velo (for example) are things that otherwise probably would have ended up on Barrington or Spring Garden. AFAIK those spaces are all full now and I think we can expect to see new retail fill the vacant spaces along SGR and Barrington before the next major round of downtown-or-adjacent commercial spaces is finished (Cunard Block, Richmond Yards + surroundings; these are other developments that will probably get "Barrington/SGR-type" tenants).
I don't think I'd call Spring Garden Place "failed" at all - the interior never feels busy, but that's because most of the retail has streetside entrances. Most of the businesses within that block are quite busy, and most of the spaces are occupied.
Park Lane seems to be doing fine
Both Park Lane and SGP function more as overflow SGR retail space that can be rented to large-ish and/or corporate tenants. VERTU Place (or whatever it's called now - the "Pete's" building) is also like this. The mall corridors feel kind of redundant but the businesses all seem to do well. IIRC the Doyle also has this kind of arrangement.
Even Scotia Square, despite not really offering much of interest, has been puttering along quite a bit more successfully than most other downtown Canadian malls (especially in the <1M population range). My main complaint is that everything closes so early there. Barrington Place and Privateer's Wharf are other examples that don't really feel like coherent malls because the interior mall corridors are mostly redundant.
It's also notable that every single one of these, other than maybe VERTU/Pete's, have significant office components, in most cases having much more office space than retail. In some cases this was due to offices taking over retail spaces but largely it was by design. A lot of Canadian downtown malls (maybe the majority?) have gone the way of West End Mall, South Centre, or Bayer's Road (~100% office buildings in practice) or Penhorn (demolished/redeveloped). Many of them also have university/college "campuses" as major tenants, which you don't really see here unless you count NSCAD. But there's nothing on the scale of Dal or NSCC moving into Scotia Square or Park Lane (due to all the vacant space), which has been the norm in a lot of places.
There are a few genuine "success stories" in terms of downtown malls in Canada that are better than anything in Downtown Halifax, but overall most of them have been doing worse than anything in Downtown Halifax. Points of reference here would be places like Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Hamilton. Calgary's and Vancouver's seemed pretty similar to Park Lane and don't stand out as major attractions. Toronto's Eaton Centre and Ottawa's Rideau Centre are the only ones I've been to that felt like a decisive step up from Scotia Square/Park lane and more in line with HSC/MMM in terms of scale and offerings. Victoria and Saskatoon seem to have nice/prominent downtown malls as well although I've never been inside them. Westmount Square and Dieppe's Champlain Place are sort of downtown-adjacent but not really in the same category geographically.
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