St. Laurent Shopping Centre

[phil235]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

There's a Browns opening soon, but I'm not sure how much that'll help. For now St. Laurent is like the Dufferin Mall of Ottawa.

Wow, harsh words. At least so far they haven’t gone for a No Frills as an anchor.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by daud

St Laurent benefits from being in a prime east location, next to the queensway and serviced by underground LRT. All they need to do is throw some condos, office space and attract a signature tenant to make it more of a destination.

malls are hurting, despite their convenience, but St. Laurent should be one of the malls thriving and in my opinion, any lack of success is due to lack of investment and diversified investment in the property. I'm sure something will happen there in the next 5 years.

I know mall condos are trendy right now, but I am not clear how they are any significant help to a mall. Maybe the coffee shops, but otherwise how often to condo dwellers (or office workers) go to a mall.

I think it it works better for a Gloucester Centre type mall if your main tenants mostly sell consumables that office workers or condo dwellers would pick up on a regular basis. Not sure it works for a St. Laurent type mall.

St Laurent Mall seems kind of stuck between the higher end offerings of the Rideau Centre, the outlet-type offerings of Trainyards and the gazillion big box stores - all within a few minutes away. To me there number one priority should be to get more useful stores on that lower level beside the LRT station.

[MichelKazan]

Originally Posted by phil235

Wow, harsh words. At least so far they haven’t gone for a No Frills as an anchor.

I don’t know about that. Given the mall’s prime location on the LRT, it would be good for it to have a grocery anchor of some kind.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

There's a Browns opening soon, but I'm not sure how much that'll help. For now St. Laurent is like the Dufferin Mall of Ottawa.

Browns the shoes or the cleaner?

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Morguard has updated the retail GLA of St. Laurent Centre on their leasing site. It is now listed as 351,949 sq feet retail GLA. How the mighty have fallen! I love how their consumer website still calls it 'a 867,275 square foot regional shopping centre'. Large chunks of that 867,275 sq ft. are taken up by two trade colleges, a former Sears, a former Sears regional warehouse, offices, etc. The actual retail mall is now between the size of Hazeldean (218,740) and Billings Bridge (485,077).

https://morguardretailleasing.com/buildi...how_no_vacancy=on&lang=en_CA#tab_fs-info

My numbers seemed too low so I carefully calculated the exact current retail GLA of St. Laurent below.

568,325 Retail GLA
631,992 Retail GLA if you include Goodlife Gym and Imagine Cinemas
781,133 Retail GLA if you include Goodlife Gym, Imagine Cinemas and vacant former Sears space.

No matter how you calculate it St. Laurent is and has long been a 'Regional Mall' by ICS classification not the 867,275 sq. ft. 'Super Regional' Mall that they have always claimed. That number would include Herzing and Willis Colleges, Intact Insurance's offices, The former Sears distribution centre under Sears, and the former Sears offices...all non retail GLA.

So at the end of the day, St. Laurent as it sits right now has almost exactly the same Retail Gross Leasable Area as the newly reduced Place d'Orleans. 568,325 sq. ft. vs 528,181 sq. ft.

Main Level by harley613, on Flickr
Lower Level by harley613, on Flickr
Upper Level by harley613, on Flickr

[SidetrackedSue]

Has anyone heard any rumours of what will replace Imagine Cinemas once they close in Feb?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SidetrackedSue

Has anyone heard any rumours of what will replace Imagine Cinemas once they close in Feb?

The cinema is closing!?

[stolenottawa]

Originally Posted by MichelKazan

I don’t know about that. Given the mall’s prime location on the LRT, it would be good for it to have a grocery anchor of some kind.

There's a food basics and adonis across the street...

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by stolenottawa

There's a food basics and adonis across the street...

700 meters isn't quite "across the street". Walking to Adonis or Food Basics from St-Laurent is not very pleasant.

A grocery store at St-Laurent could attract a lot of transit riders as it would be the only full service (toiletries and cleaning products not found at Farm Boy) grocery store with indoor connection to the O-Train. I could see hundreds of uOttawa students shopping at that store, kind of like how Carleton Students take the Trillium Line down to Greenboro to shop at Wal-Mart and Loblaws. It would be very convenient for the hundreds living at Lees and Hurdman as well.

[MichelKazan]

Originally Posted by stolenottawa

There's a food basics and adonis across the street...

And if I'm riding the LRT, there's little chance that I'm going to cross the St Laurent Mall parking lot, cross St Laurent and Ogilvie/Coventry, walk down St Laurent and cross the Adonis/Food Basics parking lot to visit those stores. A grocery store of some kind would see more traffic in the actual mall.

[MichelKazan]

Originally Posted by SidetrackedSue

Has anyone heard any rumours of what will replace Imagine Cinemas once they close in Feb?

Is it possible another company or brand might take over the cinemas?

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by MichelKazan

Is it possible another company or brand might take over the cinemas?

Mayhaps a.... Third run cinema?

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

I counted four stores in St. Laurent that are either closed or having closing sales after the Christmas season. They need to do something about that mall ASAP.

I was having trouble believing they have only four empty storefronts since I counted 19 earlier last year. I just did a hard count this very moment:

St. Laurent currently has exactly 16 empty storefronts

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I was having trouble believing they have only four empty storefronts since I counted 19 earlier last year. I just did a hard count this very moment:

St. Laurent currently has exactly 16 empty storefronts

Could be. That's all I saw. I wasn't counting the ones they're now marketing as pop-up shops.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

700 meters isn't quite "across the street". Walking to Adonis or Food Basics from St-Laurent is not very pleasant.

A grocery store at St-Laurent could attract a lot of transit riders as it would be the only full service (toiletries and cleaning products not found at Farm Boy) grocery store with indoor connection to the O-Train. I could see hundreds of uOttawa students shopping at that store, kind of like how Carleton Students take the Trillium Line down to Greenboro to shop at Wal-Mart and Loblaws. It would be very convenient for the hundreds living at Lees and Hurdman as well.

Not sure how it would be noticeably more advantageous than the Gloucester centre two stops away with a Walmart, Loblaws (plus bulk barn and large LCBO). It isn't "fully indoor" but neither are the origin stations, or frankly the trains (so you have to wear a coat anyway).

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Not sure I would place Bayshore in the same category as Rideau...

I would rank our main indoor malls as followed. There are very rough rankings, with Rideau getting a 10 for its undisputed position in Ottawa, not considering better malls outside the NCR.

Rideau Centre 10/10
Promenades de Gatineau 8/10
Bayshore 7.5/10
St-Laurent 7/10
Place d'Orleans 6.5/10
Gloucester Centre 6/10
Carlingwood 5/10
Billings Bridge 5/10

Promenades ahaead of Bayshore is laughable. Actually Bayshore is arguably on par with Rideau Centre certainly not just ahead of St-Laurent. There is a huge drop off after Rideau/Bayshore and another big drop after Promenades which is in a solid third.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Not sure how it would be noticeably more advantageous than the Gloucester centre two stops away with a Walmart, Loblaws (plus bulk barn and large LCBO). It isn't "fully indoor" but neither are the origin stations, or frankly the trains (so you have to wear a coat anyway).

Couple reasons:

- St-Laurent is closer than Blair;
- St-Laurent the mall is better integrated with the O-Train station with a direct connection;
- At Blair, one has to go up one level, cross a pedestrian bridge and go down one level (with a single elevator that may or may not work) before walking outside;

Anytime you minimize walking outside or taking stairs, even for a short distance, its a win. St-Laurent has a history of having grocery stores, even with one where the Foord Basics and Adonis are now. If they are struggling to keep tenants, a grocery store could be a good option.

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Promenades ahaead of Bayshore is laughable. Actually Bayshore is arguably on par with Rideau Centre certainly not just ahead of St-Laurent. There is a huge drop off after Rideau/Bayshore and another big drop after Promenades which is in a solid third.

When Bayshore was planning its expansion, they wanted to go upmarket. Zellers left and they expanded partly to welcome Target. Target went belly-up across Canada after a few years and left a gaping hole in the mall. Bayshore then attracted Walmart. Cheap-ass, dime-a-dozen Walmart. We also have the food court situation; they built a nice new food court which, apparently, is in a terrible location, so after only a few years, they are building a new food court and demolishing the 2014 one. And then the parking situation. It's hell to get in and out on a good day, even worse during the busiest times.

Les Promenades, though smaller, has much better anchor tenants such as Costco and Simons. The parking lot is easy to navigate. The road network around it better supports the traffic.

I personally much prefer Les Promenades to Bayshore. And I really don't understand how Bayshore can be compared to Rideau.

[Radster]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

700 meters isn't quite "across the street". Walking to Adonis or Food Basics from St-Laurent is not very pleasant.

A grocery store at St-Laurent could attract a lot of transit riders as it would be the only full service (toiletries and cleaning products not found at Farm Boy) grocery store with indoor connection to the O-Train. I could see hundreds of uOttawa students shopping at that store, kind of like how Carleton Students take the Trillium Line down to Greenboro to shop at Wal-Mart and Loblaws. It would be very convenient for the hundreds living at Lees and Hurdman as well.

Toiletries and cleaning products can be purchased at any drugstore, and we all know we have more than enough of those in town, so no need for another full scale grocery store IMO just so students can buy toiletries and cleaning products.

[eltodesukane]

"...the newly reduced Place d'Orleans."
How come Place d'Orleans Mall is reducing? Isn't Orleans always growing?

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

"...the newly reduced Place d'Orleans."
How come Place d'Orleans Mall is reducing? Isn't Orleans always growing?

While Orleans is growing it's retail base has been growing on Innes for the last 20 years, not where the mall is. The mall was one of the last traditional shopping malls built in Canada aside from the former Mills malls and it was overbuilt for it's location. It was too late for the mall trend but too early to become the centre of Orleans basically. The area around the mall has had a resurgence of sorts in the last few years with the construction of the Shenkman Arts Centre and the YMCA but it is still a warm spot compared to the hot spot on Innes. Light rail will obviously bring some life to the mall and it is well positioned to take advantage of it at it's new more reasonable size as a medium sized mall instead of a large sized mall.