[Moncton] Retail Thread

[drewber]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Here's an article detailing the Lush (UK) takeover of it's Canadian affiliate:

https://beautymatter.com/articles/lu...erican-partner

Of note is that Lush is pivoting it's business model to maximize sales, especially utilizing "new platforms" (like online). They plan on only nine new store openings worldwide in 2022. Nine!!!!

That's not many new stores for the entire world. I think Moncton is so far off the radar now as to be completely non existent..........

I mean it makes sense. Retail isn't dead but it's definitely moved more online especially since covid and I don't see it ever rebounding to the way it was prior. A loss for Moncton but we have plenty of other retailers looking our way

[MonctonRad]

Still no confirmation of the sale of the old Costco at Wheeler Park.

The conditional sale previously reported was at least five months ago. If the sale has not been finalized yet, that isn't really a good sign.

I wonder if the retaining wall collapse at the Mapleton Centre next door has given the potential buyer some pause.........

[OUIR@random]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Still no confirmation of the sale of the old Costco at Wheeler Park.

The conditional sale previously reported was at least five months ago. If the sale has not been finalized yet, that isn't really a good sign.

I wonder if the retaining wall collapse at the Mapleton Centre next door has given the potential buyer some pause.........

I haven't heard of the retaining wall collapse @Mapleton!?
Hum....

Well the old Costco is just a big white elephant and there's another new one right next door...
Sprawl and waste at its best!

On another note I would love to see this building turn into a new Cineplex multiplex! Wishful thinking but whatever! The Cineplex at Trinity is T-I-R-E-D.

[MonctonRad]

The next new tenant for the Granite Centre has been announced - Harvest Clean Eats.

This is the same Harvest that had formerly been planning on moving into the Higgins Block downtown. Presumably that plan is no longer on the table.

I imagine the after effects of the pandemic, with fewer office workers downtown, decreased street traffic, and ongoing problems with vagrants and aggressive panhandlers continue to take a toll on the viability of downtown commercial businesses.

To my eye, it seems like commercial activity downtown is only hanging on by it's toenails, and now we have looming inflation and an impending recession to worry about. They just can't catch a break.........

At present, it appears the only thing that will save the downtown core is to build up the residential base, and to also intensively gentrify the area.

[SevenSquared]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I imagine the after effects of the pandemic, with fewer office workers downtown, decreased street traffic, and ongoing problems with vagrants and aggressive panhandlers continue to take a toll on the viability of downtown commercial businesses.

To my eye, it seems like commercial activity downtown is only hanging on by it's toenails, and now we have looming inflation and an impending recession to worry about. They just can't catch a break.........

At present, it appears the only thing that will save the downtown core is to build up the residential base, and to also intensively gentrify the area.

A long-overdue anglophone university, located in the core, would fix many of the issues that currently plague our downtown (lack of workers/residents/nightlife/vibrancy/young people).

The fact that this isn't publicly talked about as a major issue in this city, especially given the current population growth numbers relative to the rest of NB, is absolutely baffling.

[MonctonRad]

It has always baffled me that there is no UNB-Moncton campus. UNBSJ and UNBF exist, why not UNBM???

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

It has always baffled me that there is no UNB-Moncton campus. UNBSJ and UNBF exist, why not UNBM???

UNBSJ has long been treated as the ugly step child of the Fredericton campus, I'm not sure you want to be another satellite of UNB haha

[Taeolas]

I think the universities have (un)officially estabilished their English and French boundaries long ago. Moncton is UdeM territory and only for French students, while UNB can have Freddy and SJ; and the rest of the Universities (STU aside; STU was grandfathered in) must stay outside. The closest you'll get to an English university in Moncton is Mount A.

Maybe if the province grows enough, maybe Mount A may eventually look to establish a satellite campus in Moncton; but I doubt that would ever happen. The other option might be to look a bit outside the province and try to lure a satellite campus of a medical university into Moncton, and maybe seek to synergize the bilingual aspect of Moncton. (Joint French/English medical courses or something maybe)

[MonctonRad]

UdeM already has a medical campus (in association with the Universite de Sherbrooke).

2/3rds of Moncton's population is anglophone, therefore a Francais seulement university like UdeM serving as our "city" university is discriminatory and unacceptable.

MTA could be the de facto Moncton anglophone university, but, Sackville is 50 km away, which is a long way on dodgy winter highways. If MTA is to serve the anglophones of Moncton, then at least a junior college campus (first two years) in Moncton, and, enhanced public transit between Moncton and Sackville would have to be mandatory to make it happen.

[Monctoncore]

Moncton has always been a city about sprawl. 90% of the schools in and around downtown have all been moved farther away. New developments all like to build on the outskirts of the city. Instead of trying to create incentives to attract all the call centres to use existing downtown buildings they build locations in the industrial parks, or in TD’s case the Mall. The city has improved in the past 6 years, but its always been a problem. UdeM, Crandall, Oultons, all built on the outskirts of the city or downtown. I know this is not the page for this conversation, but that’s my rant.

[adamuptownsj]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

UNBSJ has long been treated as the ugly step child of the Fredericton campus, I'm not sure you want to be another satellite of UNB haha

Yeah, they won't even let UNBSJ offer full engineering programs in fields Fredericton doesn't. The lack of any presence in Moncton other than Nursing IIRC is still strange, you'd think you could easily spin up a ~2,000 student urban campus just to get a presence in the city.

[SevenSquared]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

2/3rds of Moncton's population is anglophone, therefore a Francais seulement university like UdeM serving as our "city" university is discriminatory and unacceptable.

MTA could be the de facto Moncton anglophone university, but, Sackville is 50 km away, which is a long way on dodgy winter highways. If MTA is to serve the anglophones of Moncton, then at least a junior college campus (first two years) in Moncton, and, enhanced public transit between Moncton and Sackville would have to be mandatory to make it happen.

I remember in the CoR party days, a lot of people were hellbent on having U de M abandon its entire raison d'être to become a primarily anglophone "bilingual" university. Luckily 30 years later both linguistic communities have a much better understanding of each other's cultural issues and nobody goes near that particular hornet's nest.

Thankfully, today's Moncton has more than enough population to sustain 2 separate universities. Even Fredericton can manage that, and Halifax have 5. Mount Allison having a second campus in the downtown would be an ideal scenario. I'm sure UNB/Fredericton would fight tooth and nail against it as they rely so heavily on southeastern NB high school grads, but at some point Moncton will need to stand up for itself and demand a university.

It would be a total game-changer for downtown businesses to have thousands of young people around the area 24/7.

[Clarky17]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The next new tenant for the Granite Centre has been announced - Harvest Clean Eats.

This is the same Harvest that had formerly been planning on moving into the Higgins Block downtown. Presumably that plan is no longer on the table.

I imagine the after effects of the pandemic, with fewer office workers downtown, decreased street traffic, and ongoing problems with vagrants and aggressive panhandlers continue to take a toll on the viability of downtown commercial businesses.

To my eye, it seems like commercial activity downtown is only hanging on by it's toenails, and now we have looming inflation and an impending recession to worry about. They just can't catch a break.........

At present, it appears the only thing that will save the downtown core is to build up the residential base, and to also intensively gentrify the area.

According to their website it looks like its going to be a second location.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Clarky17

According to their website it looks like its going to be a second location.

Really! Well, that's gratifying. I honestly think a food concept like this would work better downtown than in a suburban shopping plaza anyway.

The Higgins Block location is high profile (next to city hall plaza). Hopefully the downtown location will open soon (by this fall anyway).

I just checked the website - you're correct, the Granite Centre will be Harvest's second Moncton location.

https://www.orderharvest.ca/

[Mapleton_Roadie]

I had heard that U-Haul had purchased the Costco and would be constructing more indoor storage units.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Still no confirmation of the sale of the old Costco at Wheeler Park.

The conditional sale previously reported was at least five months ago. If the sale has not been finalized yet, that isn't really a good sign.

I wonder if the retaining wall collapse at the Mapleton Centre next door has given the potential buyer some pause.........

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Mapleton_Roadie

I had heard that U-Haul had purchased the Costco and would be constructing more indoor storage units.

That was the original rumour, but the sale was conditional. Nothing has been heard since.

Is this a recent confirmation????

[jenike]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

UdeM already has a medical campus (in association with the Universite de Sherbrooke).

2/3rds of Moncton's population is anglophone, therefore a Francais seulement university like UdeM serving as our "city" university is discriminatory and unacceptable.

MTA could be the de facto Moncton anglophone university, but, Sackville is 50 km away, which is a long way on dodgy winter highways. If MTA is to serve the anglophones of Moncton, then at least a junior college campus (first two years) in Moncton, and, enhanced public transit between Moncton and Sackville would have to be mandatory to make it happen.

MTA already has a large contingency of Moncton area students. With all the work they have done on their residences over the past few years, and now a refurb of their gymnasium underway this summer, there would be little appetite to create a satellite office in Moncton IMO. I don't think it would have much of an impact on enrollment numbers and I also think it would just reduce the number of people in residence and negatively impact the Sackville economy.

[MonctonRad]

This is off topic for the retail thread, so this will be my last post on the matter.

Moncton anglophone students end up going to many different universities, but only a handful go to either UdeM or Crandall. Most immersion students in Moncton abandon the high school immersion program in grade 11 & 12 so that they can take their science courses in English in preparation for university. They know that most graduates of the immersion program in English schools are only borderline bilingual and would struggle at UdeM, so why bother.

As for Crandall, well, it is little more than a religious high school not even recognized, or a member of the MPHEC. Crandall has only limited course offerings, and not many of their courses have any recognition by other universities. Again, why bother.

So, Moncton anglophone students are forced to leave home to go to university, most commonly UNB or MTA, but also StFX, Acadia or Dalhousie. These are all fine universities, but being forced to leave home to go to university is a big step that some students are not yet prepared for, and also, leaving home means residence living, which effectively doubles the cost of a university education. This is a grossly unfair economic disadvantage that Moncton anglophone students have to endure. This may add as much as $40,000 to the cost of a four year university degree. Is this fair? Is this not a burden which may make some Moncton high school graduates consider immediate entry into the workforce or perhaps consider vocational training at NBCC instead? Is this not creating a two tier educational environment with Moncton anglophone students missing out?

Moncton has a CMA population of over 160,000. The population of greater Moncton is about 65% English. This means there are about 105,000 anglophones in greater Moncton. There are not many urban agglomerations of over 100,000 people in this entire country without a local city university. In fact, I am not sure I can even think of one.

Anglophone Monctonians are probably the most educationally disadvantaged community in the entire country. Moncton needs and deserves a proper publicly funded comprehensive anglophone university. This could either be a campus of UNB, or a satellite campus of MTA, but this file needs to be acted upon. Crandall just does not cut it as an acceptable alternative. Moncton needs a proper anglophone university.


And now back to your regular scheduled programming.

[MonctonRad]

There is a new (cartoonish) leasing map up on the Granite Centre website:



Observations:

- The new (fully leased) plaza that will start construction in a couple of months will not be "Plaza Six" as anticipated, but a new plaza located on the very east end of Granite Drive, immediately adjacent to and bordering Elmwood Drive.
- As previously deduced, the tenants of this new plaza will be Subway, Harvest and Blaze Pizza. You can also see Taco Boyz and Boustan on the leasing map as well.
- The initial plans for this portion of the Granite Centre was to locate a sit down restaurant here (something like Jack Astors). With this new plan, does this mean that any consideration for a chain roadhouse restaurant in the Granite Centre have gone out the window, or, does the option still exist for the little turquoise building immediately adjacent to Blaze Pizza.
- Also note there is now a plan for a largish building immediately across the street from Costco labelled "future development". I don't recall ever seeing a plan for a building in that particular location. Is this something new? Does the Granite Centre have plans for another big box here, or is this where Elmwood Home Hardware will go when it finally relocates.

Lots of questions here..............

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There is a new (cartoonish) leasing map up on the Granite Centre website:



Observations:

- The new (fully leased) plaza that will start construction in a couple of months will not be "Plaza Six" as anticipated, but a new plaza located on the very east end of Granite Drive, immediately adjacent to and bordering Elmwood Drive.
- As previously deduced, the tenants of this new plaza will be Subway, Harvest and Blaze Pizza. You can also see Taco Boyz and Boustan on the leasing map as well.
- The initial plans for this portion of the Granite Centre was to locate a sit down restaurant here (something like Jack Astors). With this new plan, does this mean that any consideration for a chain roadhouse restaurant in the Granite Centre have gone out the window, or, does the option still exist for the little turquoise building immediately adjacent to Blaze Pizza.
- Also note there is now a plan for a largish building immediately across the street from Costco labelled "future development". I don't recall ever seeing a plan for a building in that particular location. I this something new? Does the Granite Centre have plans for another big box here, or is this where Elmwood Home Hardware will go when it finally relocates.

Lots of questions here..............

Yeah the whole north side of the road has that brook on it, so unless they move it along side the NB ROW similar to what Thrive did when they built the Cabellas building, that would be the only way to get a building in that location.