Quote:
Originally Posted by officedweller
True, but it's not necessarily about the residents, it's a privately owned mall and it's about the landlord's positioning of the mall in the marketplace (ie Shape wants a suburban Pacific Centre or Oakridge calibre).
Representations may also have been made to incoming tenants as to the calibre of other tenants moving in (see Hudson's Bay's allegations against its landlords for failure to maintain a high calibre mall in the wake of Covid, or Cadillac Fairview's lawsuit against the Four Seasons for failure to maintain a top level hotel). Some landlords even require tenants to change their storefronts even few years.
Residents would have done their due diligence as to existing and future markets and services in the area before buying or moving in. I could see a grocery in the basement of the redeveloped east end of Brentwood, but that's probably many years away.
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Yes I realize this, but my point was that whatever Shape's intentions, hopes, aspirations or plans were for this development some 9 or so years ago when it was first conceived, and whatever marketing they may have advertised and used to sell it a couple of years after that after construction had began, as did presales, they are clearly right now marketing and selling a vastly different project that's reflective of the realities that both they and other prospective tenants are facing today and of which any prospective buyers would (or should) be atttuned to.
And I'm not even talking about the impact of the COVID/Pandemic hit on retail and businesses last year that virtually and in some cases literally wiped out some brands completely out of the market altogether (and indeed right out of Canada) - which is a whole other story and chapter all on its own.
Also, the notion that a developer - regardless of how well-regarded they may be in the industry - might sell their development with promises of the highest of high-end amenities and dreams of living as the gods on Mount Olympus remade here on Earth - but ending up delivering less than - should be no surprise to anyone buying into a development like this. Outside of Downtown Vancouver, the unspoken mantra for developers is always promise high but deliver "adequate". Even in Downtown itself, just have a chat with buyers into Westbank developments and the likes and see if they feel they got what was fully promised.
I mean, right next door you have Concord Pacific who are building Concord Brentwood, and if I remember correctly wasn't their marketing tagline for that something along the lines of a "Yaletown for the suburbs" (or some such)? Does anyone buying into that project truly believe they'll be getting Yaletown standards and level of living from that locale? But the fantasay and the sales pitch is nice.
And that's what the lie that we allow ourselves to be told (and which eventually convinces us to buy) is all about.
Compare what the prospective tenant and retail list they had lined up for this project was when it was first proposed to what they have opened and available today and now, as well as what is promised as yet to come, just to see what I mean.
And no one can really blame them for the most part.
You can't really predict where the market or the Economy is going to be in 7 or 9 years time to defintively hold someone down to the notion that
"We were promised La Crocodile and Gotham Steakhouse but now we only have McDonald's and Freshii's!!! Let's burn the whole place down!!!"
Fact of the matter is that even though this is in fact and indeed a high-end development, it's still a
Suburban development being built in a Suburb - with all that that entails - and with the sort of market (and foot-traffic) that will likely support the kinds of retail they hope to have there.
That's why you normally have disclaimers in those contracts regarding those promises on what's to come.
Sure you could sue them for selling you on a false promise, but I'm guessing you'll probably have better luck selling on your unit and moving on if it bothers you so much.
I think as a developer or owner they best you can hope for is to get a good mix of retail and tenant brands from both high and mid-range end, because you're going to have to cater to all kinds to foot traffic and even High-end folks have to eat (McDonald's) burgers sometimes and drink (Starbucks) coffee occasionally every now and then.
Which isn't to say that a Walmart is definitively what's going to end up there. But a Walmart in the basement there isn't going to ruin or destroy whatever image anyone thinks Shape is aspiring for over there.
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