[Moncton] Retail Thread

[JasonL-Moncton]

Originally Posted by gehrhardt

From Mapleton coming over the overpass, I think the topper looks like a salt spreader you'd put in the bed of a truck.

I thought the EXACT same thing this morning...! So ugly!

[josh_cat_eyes]

Oh wow that is actually very bad. When I seen it it didn't have the banners or the salt spreader.

[JasonL-Moncton]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Oh wow that is actually very bad. When I seen it it didn't have the banners or the salt spreader.

And at that point it was bad enough...then someone thought, let's put an ugly yellow monstrosity on top of it and add some banners...that will make it better!

[Ifyoubuildit]

Most importantly, I wonder if the Mapleton Power Centre sign conforms to city sign bylaws. I believe their is a max amount of square footage sign facing and height that is a city bylaw and this sign definitely exceeds every large shopping centre in Moncton and mostly in every worse way possible! It really takes away from the other high-end buildings and tasteful developments that have occured on Mapleton. I also see little to no landscaping in this centre and I question if they have satisfied city bylaws on landscaping, green setbacks, etc. There back retaining wall backs right onto the large river in the back with little to no buffer, let alone foliage to protect fish habitat. Someone should see if this development is meeting city bylaws on many facets.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Ifyoubuildit

Most importantly, I wonder if the Mapleton Power Centre sign conforms to city sign bylaws. I believe their is a max amount of square footage sign facing and height that is a city bylaw and this sign definitely exceeds every large shopping centre in Moncton and mostly in every worse way possible! It really takes away from the other high-end buildings and tasteful developments that have occured on Mapleton. I also see little to no landscaping in this centre and I question if they have satisfied city bylaws on landscaping, green setbacks, etc. There back retaining wall backs right onto the large river in the back with little to no buffer, let alone foliage to protect fish habitat. Someone should see if this development is meeting city bylaws on many facets.

The sign may be one thing, but I'm pretty sure that the development would have passed all city planning regulations otherwise. As for the landscaping, the development was only completed in December, and they would not have had any time to do anything substantive to beautify the site. I would look for landscaping to happen this summer. In particular, the original plan was to have a walkway from the Mapleton/Trinity intersection running down the hill (next to the hideous sign) to the parking lot not far from the Ocean Trail store. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Aside from the sign, the quality of this development is actually pretty high. The Mapleton Centre has been plagued mostly by bad luck (perhaps compounded by poor management). We shouldn't character assassinate this development. Given a couple of years, the development should fill up with some interesting stores.

But that sign is still damn ugly.

[MonctonRad]

Champlain Place Update:

- Aveda is definitely moving into the empty spot next to David's Tea.
- Pantorama is closed for renovations and will reopen as a "new concept Store".

[MonctonRad]

This is a link to a job advert for an assistant manager for the Banana Republic Factory Store at the Mapleton Centre:

http://www.simplyhired.ca/a/jobs/list/q-...+mapleton+centre+(moncton)/l-moncton,+nb

This job posting apparently was listed only two days ago. As such, it would appear that plans for the store are still definitely in progress!!

A BR factory store would be a critical addition for the Mapleton Centre. If they can develop a stable of good quality stores like BB&B, PetSmart, BR, Golf Town and Bombay, then other high quality retailers should gradually stake their own claim to this retail plaza.

[Ifyoubuildit]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The sign may be one thing, but I'm pretty sure that the development would have passed all city planning regulations otherwise. As for the landscaping, the development was only completed in December, and they would not have had any time to do anything substantive to beautify the site. I would look for landscaping to happen this summer. In particular, the original plan was to have a walkway from the Mapleton/Trinity intersection running down the hill (next to the hideous sign) to the parking lot not far from the Ocean Trail store. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Aside from the sign, the quality of this development is actually pretty high. The Mapleton Centre has been plagued mostly by bad luck (perhaps compounded by poor management). We shouldn't character assassinate this development. Given a couple of years, the development should fill up with some interesting stores.

But that sign is still damn ugly.

I disagree about the Power Centre, it is built like ever other box store development with all buildings to the periphery and wide open parking lots. Someone has to start developing real urban developments in Moncton with an emphasis of shop, play, work, live. We don't think vertical in this city and every 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 building is a tilt up non-discrete concrete block painted the latest trendy shade of to taupe. It is time to do something with some class and pizzaz. What about a nice central public space in the development with benches, landscaping, small water feature, or a small public outdoor amphitheater. Come on Moncton time for a change.

[OUIR@random]

Interesting video that I found on the Fredericton thread. It's how to make a Target store in 120 seconds. Not sure what Ontario store this is, but it will give a good idea of how each and every store in Canada will look, including our Moncton store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EJ6jq5WJgo&feature=youtu.be&sf11444990=1

[Norshorer]

Originally Posted by curious

I was downtown Saint John last weekend and I was surprised by the stores that were open on King St and in Brunswick and Market square. High end clothing stores like Olsen Europe, Envy, Urban shoe myth and a few others. It was nice to see small independent stores and not these big box stores.

I would love to open a retail store of sorts and I am looking for ideas. I know men do not have a lot of places to shop neither do business women.

I thought of an outdoor store and even contacted MEC (for franchise) and they do not franchise. I would want to open up downtown but only if we were to get the convention centre. I even thought of opening a Whole Grocery store (similar to petes frutique in Halifax). I am open to suggestions.

Ok, I realize I might as well be asking for a freakin' Lamborghini dealership if I'm going to suggest this, but instead of a Whole Foods, how about landing the first Trader Joe's in Canada? I can't possibly see how this would not do well around here in direct competition with Sobeys, Atlantic Superstore & Co-Op. It's time "the holy trinity of groceries" faces direct competition in Atlantic Canada. (Sorry, Giant Tiger may be trying, but their selection is limited at best). Tired of only having the same 3 choices when doing groc shopping.

I'm sure there's reasons why Trader Joe's isn't in Canada yet (would be required to build a new main supply warehouse in Canada to supply their stores + would need to create bilingual labeling for all their products), but hey... since we're throwing out ideas here, figured I'd mention it.

[NBNYer]

Too bad for MEC not wanting to set up in Moncton. I think there's room in the market for this kind of store. Selection is somewhat limited now, but they probably want to stay in safer, larger markets.

Since where throwing around ideas for franchises; I noticed in the St. John's thread that PF Chang's is building a restaurant there. It was mentioned here a year ago or so that PF Chang's had considered Moncton as a potential future location. I wonder if it's still in the plans. They would also probably be successful in Moncton. Maybe you should look into that?

[Norshorer]

Originally Posted by JasonL-Moncton

And at that point it was bad enough...then someone thought, let's put an ugly yellow monstrosity on top of it and add some banners...that will make it better!

Regarding the sign for Mapleton Centre: Agree 200% with everyone's opinion about this monstrosity. I've been away from the forum for a while but when I noticed the yellow "sign topper/salt spreader/banana turd/🞵🞵🞵 ya wanna call it" appear a few days ago I couldn't help but imagine the kind of comments it would garner.

First thought that popped into my head was "there's no effing way in hell that anyone could possibly LIKE the way this thing looks". A quick review of the past several comments only confirmed my initial impression.

Throw my vote in as well for "Fugliest Canadian Retail Sign of 2013". What do you call something that fails so badly that it goes beyond failing into a whole new realm of failure? Is there an adjective/verb for that? "Veridocking" perhaps?

Also agree that the site itself is very dismal/depressing in nature. You look around and see pads that are in mid-prep, 1 or 2 buildings that just have their concrete walls/roof up and nothing else as well as a majority of buildings that have been 90% built and only require an interior fit + store sign out front but have yet to secure any tenants.

It gives more of an impression of a site where half the businesses moved-out vs. a site where businesses will be moving-in. I realize we can't expect things to pop up overnight, but it would be nice to see at least a bit more activity at the site. I'm starting to get the feeling that some brands/stores are avoiding the site altogether and hence why nothing is occurring.

I'll wait things out until late summer/fall 2013 as most activity will (hopefully) pick up by then, but if the site looks the same as it does now come August 2013, then I won't have much hope that we'll see anything decent appear in the empty buildings anytime soon. Fingers crossed that things will work positively vs. negatively over the coming months. But that damn yellow sign topper thing... ugh!

At least I'll be able to figure out 🞵🞵🞵 Mapleton/Trinity intersection is on Google Maps without having to zoom-in... just look for the canary yellow triangle of fugliness which should stand out like a monster truck in rush-hour traffic. Plus the official website for Mapleton Centre isn't anything to write home about either.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

Too bad for MEC not wanting to set up in Moncton. I think there's room in the market for this kind of store. Selection is somewhat limited now, but they probably want to stay in safer, larger markets.

Since where throwing around ideas for franchises; I noticed in the St. John's thread that PF Chang's is building a restaurant there. It was mentioned here a year ago or so that PF Chang's had considered Moncton as a potential future location. I wonder if it's still in the plans. They would also probably be successful in Moncton. Maybe you should look into that?

Cabela's also is apparently planning on a major Canadian expansion....

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

This is a link to a job advert for an assistant manager for the Banana Republic Factory Store at the Mapleton Centre:

http://www.simplyhired.ca/a/jobs/list/q-...+mapleton+centre+(moncton)/l-moncton,+nb

This job posting apparently was listed only two days ago. As such, it would appear that plans for the store are still definitely in progress!!

A BR factory store would be a critical addition for the Mapleton Centre. If they can develop a stable of good quality stores like BB&B, PetSmart, BR, Golf Town and Bombay, then other high quality retailers should gradually stake their own claim to this retail plaza.

Good news on this front. I was beginning to lose hope for BR.

BR is an important addition since other retailers tend to look at what is currently available in the area to draw traffic from. BR is a big draw for shoppers.

[JasonL-Moncton]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Cabela's also is apparently planning on a major Canadian expansion....

Cabela's would be freaking HUGE here...do you know how many people I hear talk about going to Cabela's...would be insanely popular here.

[MonctonRad]

Took this photo on the way home from work today.....



The inside of the new Target store has been completely gutted. They aren't wasting any time at all!!

[mmmatt]

Mall Update

- Rogers Plus is renovating, they have a kiosk in the meantime.
- Wal-Mart has a sign "open during renovations" on it...I'm wondering if they will just renovate and re-organize the store to have more groceries (aka super center) or just renovate and remain a "normal" wal-mart.

[Monctoncore]

Out front in the Mall-Walmart parking lot, they have a construction trailer sitting there that wasn't there before.

[orgo]

I'm not sure about the Champlain Wal-Mart. Size is definitely an issue, but Wal-Mart does have a new "Urban 90" supercentre concept (e.g., 90k sqft). It's a bit tight and requires substantial reductions in clothing/seasonal, but it can be done. Regardless, this Wal-Mart is a disaster and needs anything it can get.

As for Target, the Fredericton store is at the same stage, so they will likely be ready at the same time. Based on the Ontario openings, they might open the same time.

It will be interesting to see if Target or Wal-Mart has grand openings first.

[cl812]

Isnt the Champlain Walmart similar in sq ft to the Regent Mall Walmart?

I think the Regent Mall location is about 134k sq ft.