NB "Big Mall" Status

[Taeolas]

A random observation. I just noticed in Google Maps, if you zoom in on Champlain Place or Regent Mall in Map view, it will switch to the Mall floor plan when you get in close enough.

Doesn't look like this is in place for other NB malls (McAllister or Brookside, etc...), but it is for Charlottetown Mall, MicMac Mall and Halifax Shopping Centre. Mayflower Mall in Sydney is still just a blob.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

A random observation. I just noticed in Google Maps, if you zoom in on Champlain Place or Regent Mall in Map view, it will switch to the Mall floor plan when you get in close enough.

Doesn't look like this is in place for other NB malls (McAllister or Brookside, etc...), but it is for Charlottetown Mall, MicMac Mall and Halifax Shopping Centre. Mayflower Mall in Sydney is still just a blob.

Interesting catch. I just checked several of our malls and even a couple of the big box outlets and they all went to floor plan view when I zoomed in.

[DyAm00394]

I saw over on Retail Talk & Share NB, that New York Fries has apparently permanently closed at Regent Mall (Fredericton). Apparently signage is now gone from their spot.


Edit: Regent Mall has also removed them from their tenant listing and mall map. So I think this pretty much confirms that they have closed.

[DyAm00394]

I originally posted this in the Saint John Retail Thread, but I thought I would post it here as well,

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Some unfortunate news for McAllister Place. Some more (new) closures happening apparently. (This is in addition to Le Chateau and Naturalizer).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1690...8050933094266/

• KFC has closed for good.
• Call It Spring (shoe store) will be closing.
• And there is rumors/chatter that Tim Hortons might be closing too.

Hopefully things will turn around soon. I really hope these spaces can get filled again fairly quick. It's sad to see business close up shop.

[DyAm00394]

Another update. As of January 20th, both McAllister Place and Regent Mall are going back to the 11am-7pm mall hours. I would think this is due to the low foot traffic at the malls lately.


Also, Razed Rite at Regent Mall has closed. They will be relocating to a new location. A big reason for this move is because of the low foot traffic at Regent Mall. Opening date and location of the new salon will be announced soon.

"Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. We aren’t closing up, just moving to a better location for us. The low traffic played a huge factor in this decision as well as staff is hard to find right now. (The pandemic has been hard for so many people) We are currently in the process of setting things up! We still have the same amazing staff, who will be offering their services again soon! Please call 506-999-5488 if you have any questions (or message us here) as we are in the process of transferring our phone) In the meantime stay tuned for when we open up at the new spot! We will be taking appointments again soon, thank you for your patience during this transition, we appreciate this. We will have some amazing deals coming soon!!!!"

Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...23935735690931

[DyAm00394]

An Update for Fredericton:

It appears that The Source has closed it's Regent Mall location for good.
Signs on the gate say "This store is closed" and states to visit their website to shop online or to find the nearest location, (which is in Oromocto).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid...90502684515770

[DyAm00394]

A little update on McAllister Place's current status.

*This following info is current (as of March 22nd, 2021). So info may have changed at the time you are reading this.*

If there is any info that I've missed please let me know.

Vacant spots
Unit: L007A (290sf) *empty food court spot. Former Taco Bowl.*
Unit: L002 (436sf) *empty food court spot. Former KFC.*
Unit: E027C (1,124sf) *Former Karma Spa. Was used by PYT Hair Care, (a pop-up shop), this past holiday season*
Unit: J005B (2,341sf) *empty. Next to American Eagle*
Unit: F005A (2,508sf) *empty. Next to Foot Locker and The Children's Place.*
Unit: G023 (1,059sf) *empty. Across the hall from Country Lane and Bluenotes.*
Unit: G019A (2,160sf) *Was Urban Kids, but store has merged into the Urban Planet that's located nearby.*
Unit: E013 (1,050sf) *Former Regis Salon. Most recently, former D&S Hair.*
Unit: C007B (1,797sf) *Formerly Alia N Tan Jay. Was just used by Just Cozy, now is empty.*


Soon-to-be vacant units (as of March 22nd, 2021)
Unit: B007B (4,125sf) *Currently Le Chateau. Store is closing. Chatter suggests Just Cozy is looking at this spot (possibly permanently perhaps? or at least for the upcoming late summer/fall/winter season).
Unit: E025 (1,367sf) *Currently Call It Spring. Chatter suggests they are closing. Their website lists the Saint John store as "Call It Spring Liquidation".*


New tenants that opened recently or are coming soon
Future-Tech (NOW OPEN! inside unit: K003A - formerly Peoples Jewellers).
U-Design (NOW OPEN! inside unit: G037 - formerly Things Engraved).
Cazza Petite (coming soon in April. Unit/location is unknown).
Fundy Vinyl & Supplies (coming soon. Opening date is unknown. But will be located inside unit: G029A - formerly Naturalizer).

[Taeolas]

A blast from the past, recently posted on the Retail FB group.

It's a video from some students from Saint John's (I think) filmed their visit to Regent Mall.

This was back when Village Grocer was at the Sports Check end, and they still had stores in the front half middle (in front of where Old Navy/Lawtons is now).

But the expansion in the back had been done, with the Food Court and Sears extension. I don't think the Theatres/Toys R Us would have been in then.

What surprised me a little, is that apparently Regent Mall hasn't changed their logo in 25+ years. The mall signs on stands look the same as what we have now.

I completely forgot there was a Bi-Way in there too.

I do wish they were a bit better filmers; and had lifted the camera just a few more degrees so we could see the store names a bit better. But still, it's an interesting University Student tour of the mall (up until they were kicked out of course. )

[Smevo]

That brings back memories of when we took a video in the mall as part of a debating tournament we were holding. I think we hit the mall and the downtown market, would have been early in the 2000s. The video is probably still around somewhere. We didn't get kicked out, but there was a shoe salesman at Aldo who told us we couldn't film, and then proceeded to chat with us on camera...lol.

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

What surprised me a little, is that apparently Regent Mall hasn't changed their logo in 25+ years. The mall signs on stands look the same as what we have now.

I don't know what you're talking about. The logo is completely different, and all of the signs were switched out around 5 (?) years ago. The round "Regent" logo also has not been in use for years.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by Franco401

I don't know what you're talking about. The logo is completely different, and all of the signs were switched out around 5 (?) years ago. The round "Regent" logo also has not been in use for years.

I must be having a Berenstain Bears moment. I could've sworn I saw those signs with the round logo (like you can see at 1:32) a lot more recently; but I'm probably mixing memories now. The 90's still feel 10 years ago to me after all.

[Franco401]

The current Regent Mall logo (if you can even call it that) looks like this:



The entrances now have "Regent" in a very generic face over the doors, which is uninspiring but will probably age better. Street View on Regent street in 2009 (before H&M ate up a huge section, when there was West49, Payless, Hallmark and the post office, and before Sport Chek ate up Smitty's in similar manner to the expansion at the halifax Shopping Centre) reveals the same signs from the video, which I assume date to 1976.



We can also see the vaguely Deco Moderne-y entrance, which I have to think came from the 1990s expansion, even if that part of the mall was already there.

[Smevo]

The entrance in the second picture was made that way when Walmart expanded and attempted to be more separated from the main mall. I remember it happening, just not 100% sure when other than it was sometime between 2000 and 2008, pretty much smack dab in the middle if my memory serves me right.

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by Smevo

The entrance in the second picture was made that way when Walmart expanded and attempted to be more separated from the main mall. I remember it happening, just not 100% sure when other than it was sometime between 2000 and 2008, pretty much smack dab in the middle if my memory serves me right.

The Woolco originally had an entrance right into the mall, and Walmart initially kept it. I worked at that Walmart, and nobody could agree on when it changed, but 2000-2008 checks out. This is also why it has features highly unusual for a suburban Canadian Walmart and unheard of in new-build locations: the staff area in the rear of the store is totally uninsulated, the loading area is downstairs from the main store, one of the washrooms is in the rear accessible only by walking through the diaper aisle, the weird long corridor connecting it to the mall (which would actually be welcome at the Lancaster Mall in SJ), etc.

When the Regent Mall was that small, it's easy to see how the Fredericton Mall could compete: it was basically the same size, but had a food court, was across the street from the largest high school in Canada and was more easily accessible to vehicular traffic when Fredericton's population was more central than it is now. The Regent had room for expansion and the Fredericton Mall didn't, due to Prospect Street having been built too close to the then-Trans-Canada for anything that big. When Regent expanded, New Maryland was a source of traffic, Bishop Drive was built and development had pushed the distribution of the population outward, dooming the future of an indoor mall on Prospect Street.

[Pugsley]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I must be having a Berenstain Bears moment. I could've sworn I saw those signs with the round logo (like you can see at 1:32) a lot more recently; but I'm probably mixing memories now. The 90's still feel 10 years ago to me after all.

Are you referring to this shorter lived logo:

[Taeolas]

As I posted in the Freddy thread, TRU is closed as of today (Sep 20). The Primaris note says that September rent wasn't paid and they have until the end of the month to clear out.

That is surprising to have happen, especially coming into the Christmas season. TRU and Toy Stores in general are the one retail sector that supposedly was weathering COVID and the retail apocalypse well too, so this is extra surprising.

Anyone know if the other TRU's in NB (and in general?) are in danger?

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

As I posted in the Freddy thread, TRU is closed as of today (Sep 20). The Primaris note says that September rent wasn't paid and they have until the end of the month to clear out.

That is surprising to have happen, especially coming into the Christmas season. TRU and Toy Stores in general are the one retail sector that supposedly was weathering COVID and the retail apocalypse well too, so this is extra surprising.

Anyone know if the other TRU's in NB (and in general?) are in danger?

It’s surprising that they are being kicked out after missing only one month of rent. You’d think it would take several missed months for a big anchor tenant like that to be evicted.

[Taeolas]

A friend of mine on FB pointed out that it is probably a negotiation tactic. Primaris may be seeking a rent increase that TRU feels is too much. So TRU's shutting down for a day or two to try and scare Primaris into accepting a lesser increase, out of fear of having yet another huge chunk of the mall empty through Christmas. Primaris may similarly be giving the "You didn't pay, get out by the 29th" letter to try and scare TRU into accepting the proposed increase as is, so they don't miss the Christmas season in a CMA market.

And Jeff pointed out on one of the FB groups that TRU recently purchased by the Sunrise group. So it could also be a case of the store getting lost in the shuffle as the ownership changes and the reorg that comes from that.

Hopefully this gets cleared up within the next day or two. It certainly didn't feel like TRU was on the ropes up here, nor that this store was/is in any particular trouble.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

It’s surprising that they are being kicked out after missing only one month of rent. You’d think it would take several missed months for a big anchor tenant like that to be evicted.

It is surprising and shocking. I saw an article in Retail Insider where TRU was actually bullish on expansion and opening more smaller stores in Canada over the next year. I wonder what happened?

[MonctonRad]

Similar signs are up at the TRU in McAllister Place in SJ too (source - Retail Talk & Share).

Uh oh...........