Quote:
Originally Posted by JHikka
Given the retail improvements on most Uptown streets (Germain, Princess, Water, and soon-to-be Union) i'd say this is already happening.
I think Brunswick Square should be less of an entertainment destination for the region and more of a daily destination for nearby residents. It's clear that Uptown residents will eventually need better retail servicing, especially with grocery as has been discussed here ad nauseum over the years, and that will eventually come to pass once critical mass in the Uptown is reached. Building out Waterloo Village will simply add to this pressure and need for a centralized retail location that services the Uptown Core.
McAllister already has movie theatres and things of that nature. People who want those things can get them fairly easily if they want to.
I still maintain that BS has been left vacant on purpose so that a large retailer can come in and fill a lot of the smaller individual spaces. If BS were desperate for tenants then rather than stores sitting empty for years it would be a revolving door of small mom-and-pops stores trying to make a swing of things paying next to nothing for a storefront. This is what happens in a lot of small-town malls before they eventually die (think, like, tiny thrift stores, or stores so niche they're bound to exist only in the short-term). That isn't happening, so i'm left to assume BS is leaving space empty in a concerted effort to rent it out all in one go to a large retailer.
It doesn't explain a lot of the food court and other small corner areas emptying out, which I assume had a lot to do with COVID and WFH. It may also mean that Uptown residents prefer Top's or Julius to Pizza Hut, as they should.
|
I go to the website, see 23 stores/services that I've seen in every dead mall. Brunswick Square never worked great, and it's showing it's age. A grocery store would not do well there either. A grocery store either needs dense population(not there yet) or street level access with parking right at the door - or at least somewhere you can push a shopping cart to your car without risk of actually stealing the cart. If people are just buying what they can fit in their arms, you need a convenience store, nothing bigger.
The BS building from the outside looks more like a hospital or perhaps office space than either a hotel or (lastly) retail shopping. Hospitality and retail need a more inviting public face and longer hours than 9:30AM to 6 PM, closed on Sundays. The customers at this point are the 9-5ers that create a big sucking sound at 5:01 PM. Those people, if they're like other cities, empty out to the easy access malls and grocery stores to pick up milk and bread on the way home. They generally don't want to spend time looking and paying for parking when it's way easier outside the core for that.
The population is going to have to come before the retail at BS. Retail can't survive waiting for the peninsula to fill up with people.
Be prepared to displace the south end population in order to make the south end trendy and prosperous. Updating the existing housing stock is not going to be enough to change the demographics/economics to support a downtown enclosed mall that really never was big enough physically to draw customers. Where space is available you need to build vertical to increase the population density. It's the only change that could make a grocery store viable - and it has to stay open way past 6PM. My local Walmart is open from 7AM to 11PM. There are other grocery stores as well but if you want to avoid the crowds, you can shop locally at other than prime time.
The biggest, most prominent sign on the King St. side is Scotiabank. I wouldn't blame anybody for thinking they might be the major tenant. Unfortunately, they might actually be.
I went to the "leasing opportunities" page and counted 31 vacancies. Off the top of my head, it's almost 60% empty right now. The biggest bargains there should be square footage. Nobody wants to go looking at "leasing opportunities" when they're looking for inspiration to spend their hard earned bucks.
It looks like little has changed from 1977 (or whenever it opened). The place needs a complete rethink inside and out. Included in that should be considered a change of use and leave the retail to street level vendors that I would bet are getting way more foot traffic than BS.
Prev
Linear Mode
