The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread - Page 467

porchmouse · #**9321** Posted **Oct 29, 2011, 1:34 PM**

Harry's Pizza opened yesterday at 1905 West Main Street, attached to the Econolodge. According to his twitter, he was quite busy yesterday so let's wish him all the best. I'm going to check it out later on today.

porchmouse · #**9322** Posted **Oct 29, 2011, 1:41 PM**

Great news for Moncton North. I was at Quizno's in Dieppe this week and I was grumbling about how far we had to drive to get there. They happily told me that their franchisee is opening a new Quizno's in Moncton North in the old BMO location next to Lounsbury's. It is estimated to open sometime in December. Very exciting. It's a great location with an already established (but busy) parking lot and a set of traffic lights.

MonctonRad · #**9323** Posted **Oct 29, 2011, 1:59 PM**

Good news about Quizno's. I knew that this empty storefront wouldn't stay empty too long, it's just too good a location. The whole Lounsbury's strip mall is looking good. The Bank of Montreal did a good job on their new location in the center of the strip. If I'm not mistaken, with the new Quizno's, the whole plaza will be filled.

And in other news, I don't think there has been any mention of this substantial and fairly nice apartment building being constructed behind Pizza Delight/Dooley's on Mountain Road across from NBCC and the Northwest Centre.

This just adds to the rather impressive list of new apartment building and condo complexes being built throughout the metro area. It's no wonder that our building permits in the Moncton area exceed $282M YTD.

mylesmalley · #**9324** Posted **Oct 29, 2011, 6:29 PM**

I've heard that the condos going up on Gauvin is only the first of three buildings.

MonctonRad · #**9325** Posted **Oct 30, 2011, 1:14 AM**

A photo from today showing the Petitcodiac behind the condos on Assomption Blvd. The rip-rap work has been finished and you can see the final result.

All due respects to Daniel LeBlanc, but I think this work was quite necessary in order to stabilize the river bank. There was an unusually high tide today, and the water level was at the top of the rip-rap. The current was strong and a lot of erosion could occur on a day like today. Just imagine if there were a storm surge on top of this.

NBNYer · #**9326** Posted **Oct 30, 2011, 2:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

A photo from today showing the Petitcodiac behind the condos on Assomption Blvd. The rip-rap work has been finished and you can see the final result.

This area has so much potential. A boardwalk the length of downtown would go a long way (no pun intended) in beautifying the riverfront park. Something like this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

I've heard that the condos going up on Gauvin is only the first of three buildings.

You mean Gauvin Estates? This could end up being a pretty significant residential development... Why isn't this DT!?

JHikka · #**9327** Posted **Oct 30, 2011, 3:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by NBNYer

You mean Gauvin Estates? This could end up being a pretty significant residential development... Why isn't this DT!?

DT? As in Downtown Moncton? Please, we're talking about Downtown Dieppe here.

mylesmalley · #**9328** Posted **Oct 30, 2011, 4:19 PM**

Not far off... at the rate they're going, Gauvin Road is going to be giving St George Street a run for its money.

josh_cat_eyes · #**9329** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 2:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by NBNYer

This area has so much potential. A boardwalk the length of downtown would go a long way (no pun intended) in beautifying the riverfront park. Something like this:

You mean Gauvin Estates? This could end up being a pretty significant residential development... Why isn't this DT!?

The boardwalk in Summerside is one of the best investments the city has ever made. It is beautiful.

mctnguy · #**9330** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 5:02 PM**

Hey everyone. It looks like a "Toys R Us Express" is going into the old Blockbuster location on Mountain Road.

mylesmalley · #**9331** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 5:29 PM**

Geez, I thought Toys R Us was going out of business.

MonctonRad · #**9332** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 5:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mctnguy

Hey everyone. It looks like a "Toys R Us Express" is going into the old Blockbuster location on Mountain Road.

Wow!

I certainly didn't see that coming!!

That will give two Toys R Us locations in the city (although this will be a small one).

I must admit that I've never heard of Toys R Us Express.

q12 · #**9333** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 5:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Wow!

I certainly didn't see that coming!!

That will give two Toys R Us locations in the city (although this will be a small one).

I must admit that I've never heard of Toys R Us Express.

A Toys R Us Express opened in the Halifax Shopping Centre a little while ago.

Apparently they may be only temporary "pop-up" locations for Christmas.

http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3341289

Since a new large scale Toys R Us/Babies R Us just opened in Dartmouth Crossing, the Mic Mac Mall location will be closing after Christmas I believe.

I've heard a rumor they are looking to open a location similar to the DC style in Bayers Lake. Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread but was wondering about the express locations myself.

brod3211 · #**9334** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 6:28 PM**

This is what I find interesting... why is it that a city like Charlottetown can build this huge shopping districts and have tenants popping up like there is no tomorrow, but Moncton a booming shopping... I loosely use the word "mecca" can't get shopping centers up and going? Example Monctons new shopping center across from cosco... can't get going and they have been trying for years on that? It just worries me that Moncton may be falling behind in some shopping categories...

mylesmalley · #**9335** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 7:15 PM**

The development across from Costco is back up and running under a new construction company and if I recall correctly should be at least partially open by summer.

I'd hardly say Moncton is falling behind. Slowing down to let the market catch up is more accurate. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the average per person expenditure on retail in Moncton is something like 40 or 60% higher than the national average because so many retailers use Moncton as a destination for customers in the region.

The biggest retail construction boom we've seen in the last couple of years is that which has happened along Mountain Road. At least a half-dozen new strip malls and plazas have gone up in the last year or two. Shediac Road, Elmwood Drive, Champlain St, and Findlay Park in Riverview have all seen tonnes of new construction since the downturn started.

Then there's the renos and expansion at Champlain Place last summer and the addition to Crystal Palace going on as we speak...

Maybe because the growth has been spread out all over the city instead of one new district, but I'd say if anything, retail in the city has never been better.

icetea93 · #**9336** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 8:25 PM**

Yes Toys R Us Express is usually temporary just to give people more access to their products during the holiday season, however the successful locations have been known to stay open permanently.

icetea93 · #**9337** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 8:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by q12

A Toys R Us Express opened in the Halifax Shopping Centre a little while ago.

Apparently they may be only temporary "pop-up" locations for Christmas.

http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3341289

Since a new large scale Toys R Us/Babies R Us just opened in Dartmouth Crossing, the Mic Mac Mall location will be closing after Christmas I believe.

I've heard a rumor they are looking to open a location similar to the DC style in Bayers Lake. Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread but was wondering about the express locations myself.

Yes the Mic Mac store will close in January when their lease is up and the space will be divided up for new, fresh-to-market stores.

riverviewer · #**9338** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 9:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

The development across from Costco is back up and running under a new construction company and if I recall correctly should be at least partially open by summer.

I heard that Cleve's Source for Sports will be opening their new stand alone location across from Costco as soon as January 2012.

Others will be following in the summer.

MonctonRad · #**9339** Posted **Nov 1, 2011, 10:50 PM**

- regarding Toys R Us Express, I just did a bit of online research and yes, they started out as a holiday experiment in 2009, but proved so successful that a number of the locations have been kept open. There are now over 600 locations in the US with dozens in Canada as well. I could see this store on Mountain Road as just a holiday experiment, but we'll see. If it does well, perhaps it will stay open permanently. I'm a little surprised as to the choice of location however. To my mind, it might have made more sense to open the Express store in the old Blockbusters location in Riverview. In many ways, that location would have been more geographically removed from the existing store in Champlain Place and perhaps there would have been a greater pent up demand over there than in Moncton West.

- Regarding any retail "slowdown" in Moncton, I think the issue is not so much about a slowdown but more because of the fact that there is currently no place for new retailers to the city to expand into:

1) - Champlain Place is full and Wheeler Park is full. Northwest Centre is also full.
2) - Findlay Park is more of a neighbourhood mini-big box development for Riverview rather than a regional shopping mecca.
3) - The vultures are circling Highfield Square and, aside from the fact that leases in that mall are only month-to-month, no retailer in their right mind would set up shop there.
4) - The numerous strip malls in the city are more oriented to small neighbourhood shops and services than to medium or big box retailers.

As such, there is currently no place in the city for new national retailers to move into. The Mapleton Power Centre was to be the next step in the retail evolution of the city, but it was delayed by the road construction on Mapleton Road and the widening of the overpass over Wheeler Blvd (which lasted several years) and the development was finally torpedoed by the recession. Now that this is all in the past, Mapleton has been resurrected and there should be considerable action on the retail front in the next couple of years. We already know of a number of retailers prepared to move into Mapleton (Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Golf Town, Cleve's etc.) and the newspaper has alluded to the fact that building permits for Mapleton are starting to "pile up".

I'm confident that 2012 will be a busy year on the retail front!

MonctonRad · #**9340** Posted **Nov 2, 2011, 12:55 AM**

Swiss Chalet on Mountain at Gorge is now open.

The paving at the Mountain/Gorge/Evergreen intersection is now complete. There is now a dedicated left turning lane on Mountain for Evergreen Drive!

The new traffic lights are still in flashing mode, but signalization should be complete by the weekend.....