The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[officedweller]

Co-worker emailed this to me regarding McArthurGlen Outlets and the $5 YVR Surcharge:

By Transit
McArthurGlen Vancouver is well served by public transportation. The Canada Line Templeton Station is located across the street from the centre.
Trips between Templeton Station and the Vancouver Airport are free of charge.
Just 20 minutes from Downtown Vancouver, take any Canada Line ‘YVR Airport’ outbound train, and disembark at Templeton station.

For more information, including schedules and fares, visit www.translink.bc.ca

*Please note the $5.00 YVR AddFare is applicable at Templeton Station. Customers using the following are exempt from the Canada Line YVR AddFare:
• Prepaid fares such as DayPasses, Monthly FareCards, FareSaver tickets, West Coast Express weekly and 28-day passes
• U-Passes and Government bus passes
• Sea Island employees & residents of Burkeville

Trankslink Top Tip - Save $5
Buy two tickets on your way to Sea Island, tap one ticket in on your way there and tap the second on your way back.
Tickets are valid for 90 minutes from when they are tapped in. Tickets are also only valid on the day of purchase.

[jollyburger]

Would be interesting to see their breakdown between drivers/transit users.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Would be interesting to see their breakdown between drivers/transit users.

I've heard 40% transit mode share from the intercept surveys they ran last year. I've also heard that they are doing insane per square foot (PSF) sales, on the order of about $1,300 PSF for the first 7 months through to December of last year. For that time the Coach store had the highest sales PSF in North America, presumably adjusting for the dollar.

[Klazu]

I have never visited Guildford Town Centre before, so made a stop there today. I was surprised how huge the mall is and it is actually quite nice and modern from inside. Also test-drove the Chipotle there.

[sacrifice333]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I have never visited Guildford Town Centre before, so made a stop there today. I was surprised how huge the mall is and it is actually quite nice and modern from inside. Also test-drove the Chipotle there.

This is not the GTC of yesteryear... there have been some very significant renos and modernizations.

Looks good.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I have never visited Guildford Town Centre before, so made a stop there today. I was surprised how huge the mall is and it is actually quite nice and modern from inside. Also test-drove the Chipotle there.
]

There is a thread for Guildford Town Centre: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=165256
I used to work at the Bread Garden about 10 years ago before renovations, it was abysmal and dying. It used to be quite disco styled and kinda cool but by the time i worked there it had been 'freshened up' in the 90's and made bland and fugly. The real plants and trees had mostly been replaced with fake ones and the roof leaked like a sieve. The original iteration from 1966 was actually an open air formalist/brutalist gem, only The Bay section maintains the original 1966 facade and was tame in comparison to the other sections that were demolished in the 70's and 80's when it was turned into an enclosed mall.

I believe they first proposed the renovation just before the 2008 market crash, then got put on hold and whats built now is a trimmed down version. There was supposed to be a 'nature walk' around the mall with tons of landscaping and water features but they got nixed.

Here's a commercial from 1985. pre-90s renos
• Video Link

[red-paladin]

Still reminds me of:

http://observationdeck.kinja.com/retrospective-walt-disneys-the-black-hole-aka-th-1737895507

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The former McDonald's space at Library Square has been leased to an "ABC Store" - housewares & stationary - i.e. not your Hawaiian souvenir/convenience store.

July 2 '16, my pic

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

July 2 '16, my pic

Classy!

[cairnstone]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

I've heard 40% transit mode share from the intercept surveys they ran last year. I've also heard that they are doing insane per square foot (PSF) sales, on the order of about $1,300 PSF for the first 7 months through to December of last year. For that time the Coach store had the highest sales PSF in North America, presumably adjusting for the dollar.

Most of the stores in this mall are some of the top producers chain wide. This is caused by the asian influence and foreign travel. Nothing unusual to see people dragging suitcase thought the mall. And the lower Canadian dollar. Weekends are filling up with big groups of Americans coming north to shop. As many prices are naturally lower in Canada and then the exchange rate makes the drive worth while.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

There is a thread for Guildford Town Centre.

I used to work at the Bread Garden about 10 years ago before renovations, it was abysmal and dying. It used to be quite disco styled and kinda cool but by the time i worked there it had been 'freshened up' in the 90's and made bland and fugly. The real plants and trees had mostly been replaced with fake ones and the roof leaked like a sieve. The original iteration from 1966 was actually an open air formalist/brutalist gem, only The Bay section maintains the original 1966 facade and was tame in comparison to the other sections that were demolished in the 70's and 80's when it was turned into an enclosed mall.

I believe they first proposed the renovation just before the 2008 market crash, then got put on hold and whats built now is a trimmed down version. There was supposed to be a 'nature walk' around the mall with tons of landscaping and water features but they got nixed.

Here's a commercial from 1985. pre-90s renos

Ah yes, how did I forget about the other thread. Copied my photos there as well.

It is always interesting to hear how things used to be before my time in here and looks like the open-air concept wasn't a success in Guildford either. Interesting how they are still going to be trying that that with Brentwood and Oakridge. We shall see if they will be encolosed years later as well.

But yeah, I did find the new Guildford Town Centre very appealing place to shop and better than for example Metropolis. It was also very busy and the only store that wasn't busy at all, was Sears. I mean, can't they already die off, as seeing those vast empty stores is so depressing. I cannot understand how a store can keep declining for so long.

And thanks for having that jingle play in my head for the rest of the day.

[Klazu]

Talking about Metropolis in Metrotown. Normally shopping centers are always looking to expand, but Metropolis has pretty much maxed out the available space and I am not aware of any expansion plans? Actually, it seems that it is more likely that the mall space will decrease when the Sears space will be rebuilt with towers.

I am just wondering why is Metropolis fine with this? Competition between shopping centers is fierce with many major projects underway all around Metro Vancouver. Don't they just think they will need any more space than they already have? I don't think they have that much empty space either, excluding the Target space.

Just curious to understand what the future holds for Metropolis.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

It is always interesting to hear how things used to be before my time in here and looks like the open-air concept wasn't a success in Guildford either. Interesting how they are still going to be trying that that with Brentwood and Oakridge. We shall see if they will be encolosed years later as well.

I remember Guildford from the 80's. The colour scheme for malls at the time was beige and brown. I like that they're much brighter nowadays.

It looks like the plan is to have Lougheed as an outdoor mall as well, it's what the Burnaby Draft Master Plan seems to show.

I found this in an article from last year

The redevelopments of Brentwood and Lougheed malls have many similarities - they have the same owner, both involve adding towers to large properties now dominated by large surface parking lots, and both are anchored by SkyTrain stations.

But that's where the similarities end.

For one thing, Lougheed is over 40 acres to Brentwood's 28 acres.

Brentwood's master plan calls for up to 11 towers ranging in height up to 70 storeys while Lougheed's proposed concept would see 18 towers up to 60 storeys in height, said Darren Kwiatkowski, executive vice-president of Shape Properties Corp., the owner of the two shopping centres.

...

The first tower under construction at Brentwood will have 300 rental units, with more planned on that property in future, he said. Lougheed will also include rental "as part of a mix we think makes a complete community."

Shape Properties is privately owned, Kwiatkowski explained, but the developments are joint ventures with pension funds - the Hospitals Ontario Pension Plan at Brentwood and at Lougheed, Greystone Managed Investments Inc., which manages various pension funds.

As such, the investors take a longer-term view and see rental housing as "part of their ideal diversified portfolio," he said. "They would accept lower returns and profits on rental where a private, solely private developer might not."

...

One of the main challenges of Lougheed is the slope on North Road and integrating it into the plan so that it feels natural and is accessible, he said.

...

"Development around the Transit Plaza is expected to have a significant office component," it said.

...

If all goes as planned, construction could start in late 2016 on the first phase, Kwiatkowski said. The full buildout of the plan could take 30 years.

http://www.burnabynow.com/news/a-tale-of-two-mall-sites-as-burnaby-redevelops-1.1978758

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Talking about Metropolis in Metrotown. Normally shopping centers are always looking to expand, but Metropolis has pretty much maxed out the available space and I am not aware of any expansion plans? Actually, it seems that it is more likely that the mall space will decrease when the Sears space will be rebuilt with towers.

I am just wondering why is Metropolis fine with this? Competition between shopping centers is fierce with many major projects underway all around Metro Vancouver. Don't they just think they will need any more space than they already have? I don't think they have that much empty space either, excluding the Target space.

Just curious to understand what the future holds for Metropolis.

Well Station Square is expanding - and adding towers on top of their retail - right next door. If the Sears redevelopment happens during my lifetime (and at this point that's debatable) then it will be the same kind of setup. Plus there's the redevelopment of Beresford St with retail. I don't think we can say there aren't enough stores in the area.

I don't know that Metropolis can expand beyond what it is now. I would love to see a rebuild of the Target space into something larger but I doubt that's going to happen. The only other spot I can see them expanding to is the above ground parkade next to where Target was - but does the mall fully own it? That would be a good spot to do retail podiums with towers on top.

For the moment Metropolis doesn't have to compete. They are one of the malls in the region, esp outside CoV. There are a number of stores who have one of their token local locations at Metropolis. Until the mall starts to lose its status, don't expect to see many changes.

[NewfBC]

Metropolis could always take back the Superstore space if someday they decided it didn't fit with the mall. It's very busy, but a lot of people only go there for Superstore. It's a huge space.

(Of course, that's if they even own the Superstore space )

Ron.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Well Station Square is expanding - and adding towers on top of their retail - right next door. If the Sears redevelopment happens during my lifetime (and at this point that's debatable) then it will be the same kind of setup. Plus there's the redevelopment of Beresford St with retail. I don't think we can say there aren't enough stores in the area.

Yeah, I am not "worried" about the lack of shopping in the area, but all those are not growing Metropolis' piece of the pie but the opposite (unless the same owner owns some of those developments as well, I don't know). I was more interested along the lines of how Metropolis particularly is seeing the situation and their future.

Will they still be the biggest in BC in terms of leasable space with all the projects in horizon?

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yeah, I am not "worried" about the lack of shopping in the area, but all those are not growing Metropolis' piece of the pie but the opposite (unless the same owner owns some of those developments as well, I don't know). I was more interested along the lines of how Metropolis particularly is seeing the situation and their future.

Will they still be the biggest in BC in terms of leasable space with all the projects in horizon?

Metropolis used to be Eatons Centre and Metrotown Centre and they were originally separate - now they're under the same ownership, which is why they're more linked than they used to be. There used to only be a narrow upper hallway between the two malls (you can see where on Google maps) until they added the lower hallway and opened that area up for more stores about 10 years ago.

Station Square is still separately owned. Sears has always been separately owned (they were there first and then the mall attached onto them). The Beresford retail podiums are also separately owned.

Anyway... People tend to think of it all as "Metrotown". As long as the whole shopping area doesn't stagnate, the mall should be fine. According to Wiki it's now the third largest enclosed mall in Canada and the next largest one in BC is Guildford at thirteen. I couldn't find a page for open malls but even if some of them do start to overtake Metropolis, it'll be a long time. I think Brentwood, Lougheed and Southgate in Burnaby are all in the 20 - 30 year range before the whole project (inc towers) is complete. That's a long time for Metropolis to decide what to do next.

[SpongeG]

back in 89 to get from eaton centre to metrotown you had to walk outside the mall and figure your way to do that, it was around 1990-1991 i guess that they added a covered walkway linking the malls, I worked in the mall in 1991-1992 and the walkway was open by that time.

to see a movie you had to go to station square where the 2 movie theatres were across from each other competeting.

anyway, the bay wing expansion always seems so boring, i am sure they could kick out some of the crappy stores (that pet store has to go) to bring in retailers like hollister or something, they really could have a second location in the region, we always seem to hear how there are retailers wanting in but who? and why is that section of the mall so awful

[urbancanadian]

^^^I'm sure those figures are out of date. With all the recent expansions across Canada, I'm sure Metrotown has fallen. Off the top of my head, WEM, Square One, Yorkdale, and Toronto Eaton Centre are all probably bigger. Chinook and Sherway might be as well.

I'm honestly shocked that Metrotown hasn't expanded in all this time. The only empty/shitty stores left are in the small dead parts of the mall that will never be attractive. And they should pass $1000/sqft sales pretty soon...

Anyone have any insight?

[officedweller]

It always seemed to me that Metropolis was struggling to fill all of its space with good tenants -
i.e. I always thought the large retail units in the former Zellers and Sears wings were due to the mall's inability to find a lot of smaller tenants - so it consolidated space into extra-large units.
... and the preponderance of hairdressing salons is also a giveaway.