Galway - St. John's Newest Development

[IronMan]

Hopefully Danny can attract some new retailers to the city as opposed to duplicating what we already have. He seems to have a way of getting what he wants.

[goodgrowth]

Updated: Costco confirms it. It's official.

http://vocm.com/news/costco-employee...ing-to-galway/

"A spokesperson for Costco, Ron Damiani has confirmed the move, but could not give specifics on when it will take place. That said, some employees who spoke with VOCM said they were told the new store will open before Christmas of this year.

Damiani could not confirm how big the new store will be, but did say that Costco has "outgrown" its current location and that it would be logical that the new store will be bigger.

There is no word on what Costco plans to do with the old building after the move."

[Tocchet22]

VOCM News contacted Williams , but he is not commenting at the moment.

A spokesperson for Costco, Ron Damiani has confirmed the move, but could not give specifics on when it will take place. That said, some employees who spoke with VOCM said they were told the new store will open before Christmas of this year.

Damiani could not confirm how big the new store will be, but did say that Costco has "outgrown" its current location and that it would be logical that the new store will be bigger.

[colinpeddle]

Originally Posted by J_Murphy

I wonder if we will start to see other retailers pick up and move along with them?

I suspect there are multiple retailers that won't survive without the traffic brought to Stav as a result of Costco's presence. Who knows what other merchants may move to Galway along with Costco and you have a snowball effect that equals an end result for Stavanger Drive that isn't good.

Multiple retailers there are already ghost towns (rona as example) and still more development occurring across Torbay Road with a major fixture (the cinema) having already canceled their plans.

I guess the only long shot bold prediction is that this move by Costco was simply a pivot to block someone else such as Wal-Mart Supercentre from eating up the land and market share. You're foolish if you don't think Danny was shopping this land to other major retailers. Potentially Costco moves to Galway, gets cemented quickly with an existing staff and existing stock already in place (thereby avoiding potential pitfalls that Target saw, albeit on a grander scale). As already mentioned in this thread, Costco was approved for a second NL location. Once Galway is in place and their customer base cemented, maybe then they'll build behind Rona at Aberdeen, as has been rumored. Hey, where there's smoke there's fire and as I said, this is a bold, bold, bollllddd prediction.

He seems to have a way of getting what he wants.

This is not a good thing. The ONLY people who benefit in Costco's moving is Costco corporate and Danny. Do not be fooled, this is a zero sum gain for residents of the Avalon region.

For as many people who will be satisfied by this move, there are just as many who will be greatly inconvenienced.

[IronMan]

Are you saying that Costco has approval to build by Rona? I missed this. I don't see this happening any time soon after today's announcement.

[colinpeddle]

Sorry, I'll edit and re-phrase.

[goodgrowth]

Well on the brightside...Stavanger still has the only Best Buy and with Costco going it should cut down a some of the traffic in that area.

[Gravelley]

everyone is talking like we live in huge city. The store moved 15 minutes away, from a place that was never developed properly, with insane traffic issues. Plus this store is going to be a lot bigger with 3x as much parking. Id hate to see if people live it Toronto where a 20 Minute drive somewhere is a pleasure.

[goodgrowth]

Originally Posted by Gravelley

everyone is talking like we live in huge city. The store moved 15 minutes away, from a place that was never developed properly, with insane traffic issues. Plus this store is going to be a lot bigger with 3x as much parking. Id hate to see if people live it Toronto where a 20 Minute drive somewhere is a pleasure.

Yeah honestly once your on the highway it's not going to be that long...probably 10 mins tops from far east end to galway area along ORR and even less so along pitts memorial route...

[goodgrowth]

Found what seems to be updated map of "Shoppes at Galway":

http://www.galwaynl.ca/wp-content/up...ppes-Map-1.jpg

I'm going to guess Costco is Building A1.1...?

Also I sort of hope Danny Drive is four lanes.

[Arrakis]

I think that's the current retail map of the Shoppes At Galway that does not reflect Costco's store being included yet. I would imagine the entire map of that area will have to be redrawn now with Costco going there. None of the buildings currently shown on the are near the size of what Costco will be.

Originally Posted by goodgrowth

Found what seems to be updated map of "Shoppes at Galway":

http://www.galwaynl.ca/wp-content/up...ppes-Map-1.jpg

I'm going to guess Costco is Building A1.1...?

Also I sort of hope Danny Drive is four lanes.

[goodgrowth]

Originally Posted by Arrakis

I think that's the current retail map of the Shoppes At Galway that does not reflect Costco's store being included yet. I would imagine the entire map of that area will have to be redrawn now with Costco going there. None of the buildings currently shown on the are near the size of what Costco will be.

It has 2017 in the url/filename though...?

[NewfBC]

Originally Posted by goodgrowth

Found what seems to be updated map of "Shoppes at Galway":

http://www.galwaynl.ca/wp-content/up...ppes-Map-1.jpg

I'm going to guess Costco is Building A1.1...?

Also I sort of hope Danny Drive is four lanes.

I've never seen a Costco with other stores attached to it.. unless it were a Costco Liquor store. Except for 1 weird location in Gatineau QC where there's a Costco attached to a mall (!).

Ron.

[colinpeddle]

Originally Posted by NewfBC

I've never seen a Costco with other stores attached to it.. unless it were a Costco Liquor store. Except for 1 weird location in Gatineau QC where there's a Costco attached to a mall (!).

Ron.

Costco in DC, well Virginia, but anyway... it is attached to a strip mall, with an exterior entrance. In Tampa it is attached to a larger mall, with the entrance inside the mall itself.

[Gravelley]

Originally Posted by NewfBC

I've never seen a Costco with other stores attached to it.. unless it were a Costco Liquor store. Except for 1 weird location in Gatineau QC where there's a Costco attached to a mall (!).

Ron.

From the plans I have seen it is proposed to go in the future development area by the water towers

[goodgrowth]

St. John's hopes to avoid Stavanger traffic woes in new Costco location:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...lway-1.3975364

[colinpeddle]

This city just doesn't get traffic...

The more accessible you make things, the more people will avail of those services and traffic will increase.

We learned this when New York City opened the Triborough Bridge in the 30s, meant to alleviate traffic woes it simply increased access and people began driving more increasing traffic. So they (Robert Moses) kept building freeways and bridges in maniacal attempts at alleviating traffic, the whole time just increasing traffic.

We saw the same thing here with the Outer Ring Road. We'll see it again when they finally put the bifurcation road through Mount Pearl: traffic will only increase.

Moving Costco to a more accessible location will do nothing but increase the profits of Costco but the traffic issues will remain similar to how they are now.

[Arrakis]

So it's been almost a month now and I have still yet to hear of an official comment from Danny Williams regarding the Costco Store moving to Galway nor an official statement from Costco itself stating that they are indeed moving to Galway. There is still nothing on the Shoppes At Galway website nor anything on the DewCor website regarding Costco. All I have heard is that Costco is moving to a larger store because they have outgrown the existing one. Starting to get suspicious of the validity of the whole Costco in Galway thing. Does anyone have access to a press release from Costco Canada regarding the supposed move?

[wmemeadusjr]

Originally Posted by Arrakis

So it's been almost a month now and I have still yet to hear of an official comment from Danny Williams regarding the Costco Store moving to Galway nor an official statement from Costco itself stating that they are indeed moving to Galway. There is still nothing on the Shoppes At Galway website nor anything on the DewCor website regarding Costco. All I have heard is that Costco is moving to a larger store because they have outgrown the existing one. Starting to get suspicious of the validity of the whole Costco in Galway thing. Does anyone have access to a press release from Costco Canada regarding the supposed move?

There was no official announcement from DewCor, that I know of, but Costco corporate did confirm it in a statement. It's also interesting to note that Google maps now show the Shoppes at Galway and Costco Wholesale.

[wmemeadusjr]

Originally Posted by Copes

Pleasantville also has the underground electrical you spoke of. It does look great.

That said, installation of underground electrical is very, very time consuming and expensive. It definitely shoots up development costs. St. John's already has development costs through the roof, which is one of the main contributors to our steadily rising home prices. While I like underground electrical and would like to see more of it, home-buyers will have to be willing to pay for the installation in their neighbourhoods. They're going to see the cost come back to them in the form of an extra few thousand dollars on their home price.

In the Galway Living newsletter I was reading, It did mention that one of the big features of the neighborhood was underground wiring.