[Moncton] Retail Thread

[bigrivernb]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

Probably Ashley Furniture

Its the first unit, not the unit that was proposed for Ashley,s unless Ashley's will occupy the entire space up to Bed Bath and Beyond?

Did anyone here find out what will open in the last unit where Big league is opening, It looks like they are constructing offices, or is it part of Big Leagues?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by bigrivernb

Did anyone here find out what will open in the last unit where Big league is opening, It looks like they are constructing offices, or is it part of Big Leagues?

I noticed that too. It does look like office space (I guess there are enough restaurants in that strip as it is).

No, I don't know yet what will be going in there. This will leave only one unit empty at Plaza 1909 (90% occupancy).

[cbujold]

I was told yesterday that they have postponed opening until next spring. They were scheduled to open this fall but have pushed the date. Mapleton website shows this as well. I was there yesterday and didn't see any other units under construction.

[OUIR@random]

Mapleton Centre. Yawn...

[MonctonRad]

According to Retail Insider, the writing may be on the wall for Sears Canada. They seem to feel a sale of the company may be imminent.

They foresee Nordstrom picking up a few of the remaining prime Sears locations like at the Toronto Eaton's Centre, while Macy's might pick up the remainder of the higher quality mall locations.

http://www.retail-insider.com/2013/08/goodbye-sears-canada-hello-macys.html

What will this mean for NB and for the Sears store at Champlain Place in particular?

- I would think that the Sears locations at Regent, McAllister and Champlain would all be desireable target for a Macy's takeover. It this happened, it might be interesting to get some variety in the branding of the NB stores; say a Macy's at Champlain Place and Bloomingdales at McAllister and Regent........

Sears also has a lot of smaller outlets in smaller towns throughout the region. I wonder what would happen to them? Target has abandoned places like the Miramichi in their takeover plans. I imagine Macy's/Bloomingdales would do the same.

Will small town Atlantic Canada be abandoned to the scourge of WalMart?

[cbujold]

I don't know how well the Moncton store does but I worked there when it 1st opened and my god that store was busy. I hardly go there anymore and it never seems overly busy when I do. They changed many of their policies in the past years and no longer seem as customer focused as it used to be. Their catalogues must be expensive to produce and now everybody is buying from the internet so doesn't seem to make sense to continue with them. Nothing but complaints on their FB page from frustrated customers. I so miss the Bay and wish they would come back but with american retailers looking to expand, guess Canada makes sense.

[Lrdevlop]

That's some really interesting news. Sears nowadays just seems to be bleh... mostly compared to other retailers such as Macy's or even The Bay. I could see Macy's taking over Sears at Champlain Place (and I definitely wish they do); but as for Bloomingdale's, it would be even better; however, Bloomingdale's is more high-end than Macy's - clothing is a lot more expensive there, but I could still see it being a possibility. Anyways, if Bloomingdale's comes to NB, I could only see Moncton being the host city.

[josh_cat_eyes]

The only good riddance would be if the Sears Home store in Wheeler Park. What a waste of space that is! As for Macy's, I thinks it's kinds of bleh to. But it's better then Sears. I'd like Kohls or Dicks Sporting Goods more.

[stephan.richard]

There are a few retailers that I think would fit well in Champlain place but in lieu of Sears would see a Macy's but as mentioned Macy's is generally a expensive spot to buy stuff and had a lot of the main brands. And whenever i walk towards sears I do not see a whole lot going on inside that store and the staff looks like they do not like being there. And to have a Macy's in Champlain place could rise the profile of the mall.

But I wish that Cadillac Fairview would look at the possibility of bridging the Crystal palace and the Mall itself to add more shops in the mall but that is just a pipe dream.

[mylesmalley]

Jesus. A combined Champlain Place/Crystal Palace would be massive.

[Mattyyy]

Originally Posted by stephan.richard

There are a few retailers that I think would fit well in Champlain place but in lieu of Sears would see a Macy's but as mentioned Macy's is generally a expensive spot to buy stuff and had a lot of the main brands. And whenever i walk towards sears I do not see a whole lot going on inside that store and the staff looks like they do not like being there. And to have a Macy's in Champlain place could rise the profile of the mall.

But I wish that Cadillac Fairview would look at the possibility of bridging the Crystal palace and the Mall itself to add more shops in the mall but that is just a pipe dream.

A pipe dream indeed

[josh_cat_eyes]

I think if you did it along the back of the property extending from sportchek or linen chest and it could be done. So say that Walmart built a bigger store and chapters took over a small amount of walmarts current foot print and the rest became parking to replace some of what was lost. Then add say Victorias Secrect, Holister, Abercrombie, Apple, Hot Topic, etc. it would be the shopping/entertainment destination for Atlantic Canada.

[OUIR@random]

I don't know what kind of Kool-Aid some people are drinking, but Bloomies is not coming to New Brunswick. Bloomingdale's can be found in metro areas with roughly 1 million people. As for Macy's it's possible, but I'm not convinced. The main option for Champlain or New Brunswick would be the return of the Bay if Sears decamp, but then again Sears is not a tenant of Champlain, they are the actual owner of the building they're in. The Sears at Champlain is also quite small and the Bay is usually 2 storeys, the would need to rebuild or build another floor up. Time will tell.

[MonctonRad]

There is tremendous change occurring in the Canadian retail scene with even more on the horizon, so it is interesting to at least speculate on what this might mean for metro Moncton.....

- Sears has already sold some of it's leases to Nordstrom and they will be coming to Canada in the next couple of years. In addition to about seven full fledged department stores, they may open up to 25 Nordstrom Rack stores nationwide.

- The Hudson's Bay Company is purchasing Saks Fifth Avenue and will also likely open 6-8 full fledged Saks stores in Canada, with about 20 Saks Off Fifth outlets anticipated.

- Hudson's Bay is also planning on rolling out Hudson's Bay Outlet stores nationwide too.

- Les Maison Simons (and to a lesser extent) Holt Renfrew are in expanson plans nationwide too. Holt Renfrew will be competing with Saks Off Fifth and Nordstrom Rack with their HR2 brand.

- Now we hear that there will be further change at Sears, with either further sale of leaseholds to Nordstrom, sale of the whole chain to Macy's/Bloomingdale or a combination of the two.

At the end of the day, it appears that Canada will soon have a selection of main department store chains nationwide:

- Hudson's Bay Company
- Les Maison Simons
- Holt Renfrew
- Nordstrom
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Macy's
- Bloomingdales

What will this mean locally? The main speculation will be over what will happen to the Sears location at Champlain Place.

If Macy's/Bloomingdales chooses to purchase the majority of Sears Canada then I imagine that the Champlain Place store would likely be converted to Macy's. If on the other hand a Macy's takeover of Sears is more limited, then I would think that the chances of Hudson's Bay taking over the Champlain Place store to replace their former location at Highfield Square is very likely. Either way, it will be an improvement for Champlain Place.

Otherwise, given the extent of the anticipated rollout of Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off Fifth, HR2 and Hudson's Bay Outlet, we might see one or a couple of these cropping up in the metro area at one of the power centres.

The next few years may be quite interesting on the retail front......

[BlackYear]

Whatever the future holds for Sears, I think it's time for Fairview to upgrade the store front. That brink wall has to go.

It has one of the heaviest traffic exposure store fronts in the Maritimes, but yet it's probably the ugliest.

Time for change.

Google Street View

[Taeolas]

Toying with the idea of Champlain Place expansion again, it seems that the parking is one of the main limitations to expanding it; as in they don't have room for the anticipated parking if they chew up more. So I wonder if they might be able to solve that with a concept foreign to Monctonians... a parking garage. Even a 2 story garage (expandable to 3 or 4 perhaps?) might bring their parking availability up high enough to finally connect to Crystal Palace.

Going into dreamland here, add the Parking Garage to the Bay taking over the Sears anchor and adding a second story there and it could be an interesting future for Champlain.

[mctnguy]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Going into dreamland here, add the Parking Garage to the Bay taking over the Sears anchor and adding a second story there and it could be an interesting future for Champlain.

Or better yet, place the parking garage between the mall and Crystal Palace. Then people can park and walk to either-or. Also have some small shops and a pedway through or beside the parking garage linking the two.

[bec]

Found out more condos are going in on the diagonally opposite corner of Jean Coutu on St Goerge

[josh_cat_eyes]

So this is kind of what I was in-visioning for Champlain:
I have heard that Sobeys is just riding out the rest of their lease so I didn't include them. Phase 1 would start when the Sobeys lease is up. I have relocated Chapters to a portion of the old Sobeys. Next to the new Chapters I thought there could be other stores with an parking lot entrance and a mall entrance such as The Bay, Old Navy, H&M, Urban Planet and Linen Chest. Others such as The Gap, West 49 and Tommy Hilfiger could move to create less awkwardly shaped units. The new additions could be anchored to bedrock and built as a two or three story mall. Other stores I think that could be added are Victorias Secret, Apple, Hot Topic, Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Zara etc.
As for the Crystal Palace complex, a rollerskaing complex, enlarged arcade, and indoor go-carts could be added. Since Cineplex now owns Empire Theatres, an Imax could be built at this location.
For the parking, I figured that CF could purchase the plaza along the road, and create three separate restaurants. I picked Jack Astors as the extra one.

[icetea93]

Very ambitious

I would imagine Victoria's Secret is considering Moncton, but there's no chance of landing the other mentioned tenants in the near future