[Moncton] Retail Thread

[josh_cat_eyes]

Is there an up to day list of stores closing in CF Champlain? Off the top of my head I can think of:
Ardene
Ali n Tayjay
Jack & Jones
Addition Elle
Victoria’s Secret/Pink
Potentially in trouble:
Peoples
The Children’s Place
David’s Tea
Bootlegger
Cleo
Ricki’s

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

For what it's worth, we had 2 Victoria Secret stores here in London, and the CF mall was the one that stayed. The Bentall mall at the other end of town lost their VS store, which was only 4 years old. Although CF Masonville Place did lose it's Le Chateau and the other mall kept theirs. CF also has plans before the city for an extensive residential development on 2 sides of the mall. I think they are talking 4 or 5 towers of 18-25 floors each. I would imagine CF is looking at the parking lots of many of it's malls as it looks for a way to grow in other ways.

So is the model that these residential towers are directly connected to the mall, or are they a separate building in the parking lot?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Is there an up to day list of stores closing in CF Champlain? Off the top of my head I can think of:
Ardene
Ali n Tayjay
Jack & Jones
Addition Elle
Victoria’s Secret/Pink

Potentially in trouble:
Peoples
The Children’s Place
David’s Tea
Bootlegger
Cleo
Ricki’s

Apparently The Children's Place is safe. Most store closures are going to be in the US. There is one Children's Place store in Truro NS the is apparently going to close however. This info is from store employees.

I'm pretty sure David's Tea is a lost cause.

Another store that is questionable is RW&Co. Apparently they have stopped work on the renovations at their relocated location.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

So is the model that these residential towers are directly connected to the mall, or are they a separate building in the parking lot?

In our case, the first proposed tower will be totally separate, off in the far reaches of the parking lot that doesn't get used most of the year except weekends around Christmas. The other buildings are going to front the main road the mall sits on and I'm not sure if the intent is to join them to the mall through a parking garage or if they will be separate. I imagine the various malls CF might look at adding residential, it will depend on the layout of the land each has.

Not sure how well apartments would fit at Champlain though. If I overlaid CF Masonville on CF Champlain's property, the first building would be where Bass Pro is and the others would front on Paul, where there already are buildings. Is there anything in that parking lot between the Mr Lube and the old Sears? That could be a spot for one building.

[Taeolas]

Eyeballing Google Maps, the old Sears garage building spot on the northwest corner of the mall parking lot would probably be one of the better spots for a standalone residential complex on the CP grounds.

I doubt they own it, but if they could buy that minimall with Sleep Country in it and merge the lots, that would also be a great residential tower spot. (with great views of the river and park)

It would probably be too tight, but with the right design you could probably fit something in the South east corner, near the traffic circle (below and to the right of Linen Chest).

Probably the better plan would be to build on the mall itself; over Sobeys ideally I think. If the mall structure and foundation could handle it; that would have the advantages of the Sleep Country minimall location and gives residents direct access to Sobeys. And while Sobeys probably wouldn't like it, the fact that they have another store across the road would make closing this one (temporarily for a year or so) to do the build an easier pill to swallow.

[MonctonRad]

CF does own the Sleep Country/Rossano's plaza. They bought it 4-5 years ago. The intent at that time was to build a hotel on this property at some point in the future.

In any event, the only reason CF bought this plaza was for redevelopment purposes, so yes, I could see an apartment building going up here.

[jonny golden]

When the TD Bank center was being constructed, they built a huge parking lot just to the east. They needed parking because there were to be about 1000 employees working on site. I always thought that it was foolish to waste so much land on surface parking instead of a parking structure. I just chalked it up to cost. My wife works at a large call center in Moncton, and they're almost all working from home now. Most of them prefer it, and won't be returning to the center. I imagine it's a similar situation with the TD center employees. Maybe a residential tower in this location that would include a multi level parking structure would work. If CF is making residential a part of the business plan for their malls, one would think that Champlain Place residential is on their radar.

[benvui]

Originally Posted by benvui

My daughter works for Cineplex here in Moncton, she got a call from her manager last week to be prepared to come back to work. They will have training and procedural changes they need to do, but I would expect the theaters to open sooner than you might think.

Expect Cineplex to open first week of July. My daughter got her back to work e-mail over the weekend. Looks like she will be back to work on July 2nd, I'm not sure if that is the date the theatre will open or just the date they go back for their training but signs are looking like it will be open the first week of July for sure.

[MonctonRad]

Well, I finally got around to eating at the new Milestones restaurant this evening. I had been looking forward to it, but the restaurant was only open nine days before the COVID shutdown. It finally reopened last week.



Comments:
- like Kelseys, a lot bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside
- a really nice ambience.
- limited menu at present (because of the pandemic). I think this keeps things simple in the kitchen and makes physical distancing easier.
- food was quite good. The menu included some favourites from other Milestones I've eaten at in Ottawa and Toronto.
- traffic was light tonight, but it looked busier on the weekend when I drove by several times. I hope they do well. I think they will as we emerge from the pandemic.

[MonctonRad]

Big news on the Skyzone front:



So, Skyzone is moving out of the Champlain Plaza. This will leave a big hole in their phase 2 building, but to be honest, I think this will be good for the plaza. The Skyline location was so large that it prevented the rest of the phase 2 building from generating a critical retail mass, and as such, some businesses that moved in there failed when they might not otherwise have, just because they didn't get any spillover traffic from adjacent businesses. This might end up being a win-win situation (lower rent for Skyzone, and increased retail traffic for Champlain Plaza).

[OUIR@random]

The Milestones looks good, but again, tiny. I really don't get why they built it so small, we are a smaller market, but come on. Will go check it out at some point.

[MonctonRad]

There is a whole other section on the other side of the divider. I was in the bar section. The dining room was on the other side.

[David_99]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Big news on the Skyzone front:

Any ideas on new location? Just thinking out loud, I’m assuming that new development on Granite will be done by fall and guaranteed tenants would explain why they are building in such turbulent retail times..It would be about the right size. Just a thought.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by David_99

Any ideas on new location? Just thinking out loud, I’m assuming that new development on Granite will be done by fall and guaranteed tenants would explain why they are building in such turbulent retail times..It would be about the right size. Just a thought.

Interesting thought. The new retail plaza on Granite however appears to have a fairly low roof however, which could be problematic for a trampoline park.

There are/will be a lot of retail vacancies up at Wheeler Park, and there could be synergies there with Hop, Skip, Jump and the Cineplex. The units up there also have taller rooflines. I could see Skyzone relocating there........

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There are/will be a lot of retail vacancies up at Wheeler Park, and there could be synergies there with Hop, Skip, Jump and the Cineplex. The units up there also have taller rooflines. I could see Skyzone relocating there........

The entirety of the old Costco.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Interesting thought. The new retail plaza on Granite however appears to have a fairly low roof however, which could be problematic for a trampoline park.

There are/will be a lot of retail vacancies up at Wheeler Park, and there could be synergies there with Hop, Skip, Jump and the Cineplex. The units up there also have taller rooflines. I could see Skyzone relocating there........

I was also thinking Wheeler Park. And it's in closer proximity to all the north end sub divisions where there are a lot of young families living.

Talking about Wheeler Park, I still like the idea that was discussed here awhile ago of seeing some type of residential component added. With all the vacancies, it's really in need of rejuvenation.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

The entirety of the old Costco.

Our Skyzone is a former Sears Home store about half the size of one of the Costco's in town. It wouldn't be out of the question that they go into part of the old Costco there.

[habs33]

Another one bites the dust
GNC files for bankruptcy, plans to close up to 1,200 stores

[MonctonRad]

Makes no never mind to us since they closed their CF Champlain store about 6-8 months ago.

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Makes no never mind to us since they closed their CF Champlain store about 6-8 months ago.

Correct. They still have locations here in Saint John (McAllister Place) as well as Fredericton (Regent Mall). According to their list of stores that are closing: https://www.gncevolution.com/store-locations/ , both NB stores aren't listed so thankfully it seems they are safe (for now). The only Atlantic Canada location listed is Corner Brook, Newfoundland. And it will only be 29 Canadian locations closing while over 1,200 will be in the USA. The company is undergoing restructuring and closing under-performing stores.