St. Laurent Shopping Centre

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Couple reasons:

- St-Laurent is closer than Blair;
- St-Laurent the mall is better integrated with the O-Train station with a direct connection;
- At Blair, one has to go up one level, cross a pedestrian bridge and go down one level (with a single elevator that may or may not work) before walking outside;

Anytime you minimize walking outside or taking stairs, even for a short distance, its a win. St-Laurent has a history of having grocery stores, even with one where the Foord Basics and Adonis are now. If they are struggling to keep tenants, a grocery store could be a good option.

Fair points, and I certainly agree the Blair station is badly designed, but there are just as many level changes and St Laurent, so it is a pretty minor difference in net convenience to get enough market share.

To me St Laurent should focus on moving LRT-friendly stores (Shoppers, LCBO, etc) closer to the station and getting a better convenience store. With 2 Loblaws, 2 Farm Boys, 2 Walmarts, plus Adonis, Food Basics, Freshco and an Independent within 2.5 km adding another grocery store at St Laurent is probably a longer term project.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Fair points, and I certainly agree the Blair station is badly designed, but there are just as many level changes and St Laurent, so it is a pretty minor difference in net convenience to get enough market share.

To me St Laurent should focus on moving LRT-friendly stores (Shoppers, LCBO, etc) closer to the station and getting a better convenience store. With 2 Loblaws, 2 Farm Boys, 2 Walmarts, plus Adonis, Food Basics, Freshco and an Independent within 2.5 km adding another grocery store at St Laurent is probably a longer term project.

I agree they should move the transit friendly retailers closer to the train, on the lower level. Other than maybe Dollarama, the current tenants in that lower level area are not conducive to transit riders.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Harley613

In my arbitrary ranking of Ottawa malls Bayshore is certainly up there with Rideau. It's a grade A+ suburban mall these days and will only get better with the food court move bringing the third floor back to life. This is my ranking:

Rideau Centre 10/10
Bayshore 9/10
Les Promenades 8/10
St. Laurent 6.5/10
Place d'Orleans 6/10
Carlingwood 5.5/10
Billings Bridge 5.5/10
Gloucester Centre 4.5/10

What's your criteria for this ranking? Billings Bridge ranks low here, and I get that it's not a high-fashion destination, but I think it's a great community mall for day-to-day needs with the grocery store, LCBO, Walmart, etc. Plus it is directly connected to the Transitway.

[J.OT13]

Sorry if I got your hopes up, but this is NOT a newly released plan to re-develop the St-Laurent Shopping Centre.

This is Polo Park, a suburban mall in Winnipeg, near the James Armstrong-Richardson International Airport. The mall is owned by Cadillac Fariview.

Similarly to St-Laurent, it is a regional mall surrounded by mid-century suburbs.

Originally Posted by esquire

CJOB/Global has posted a couple renderings of what CF/Shindico are pitching for Polo Park:





https://globalnews.ca/news/6619357/r...ans-polo-park/

Man, this could be fantastic. St. James could go from total eyesore to something resembling an urban street that you could actually walk down. And there is nothing revolutionary about the building heights shown... they are all in line with existing maximums in the area.

It isn't downtown, but it's still a very good infill urban development that is transit friendly and makes good use of existing infrastructure. There is no way that the City should say no to that. The property tax revenue will probably pay for all the parks and fire stations that are conspicuously absent from new subdivisions on the edge of town.

Morguard could do something similar with St-Laurent, redeveloping the south-west corner of the parking lot, replacing the parking garages around Sears and the Cinema, possibly Sears itself. If they could somehow build an additional entrance to St-Laurent Station at the west end, which would improve passenger flow significantly.

A next phase could be over the station and around HBC, replacing the parking garage on that side and providing a new active street front along St-Laurent Boulevard. This phase would also see the demolition of the Labelle Street overpass.

[daud]

I have no idea why they are sitting on it. They have a prime opportunity with a large mall, existing office space, Underground LRT station. Its probably one of the best current areas outside of downtown ripe for this type of transit oriented development right now-and phase 2 will bring some competing developments.

There's tons of employment in the area just south, and even La Cite college very close by. IMHO they should be doing something now..

[lrt's friend]

St. Laurent is not that well situated compared to the past. Trainyards is only a few minutes away and provides enormous competition. The shopping centre sits in an island that is pretty well isolated from the surrounding neighbourhoods. Its only asset is LRT but until that is running reliably, it is a mixed blessing. Even neighbouring commercial properties have been abandoned. Until we see some redevelopment in the general area, I don't see St. Laurent rebounding. With Gloucester Centre being the major terminus for LRT (for the next 5 years) and most east end bus routes, Gloucester Centre has more potential at the moment.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

St. Laurent is not that well situated compared to the past. Trainyards is only a few minutes away and provides enormous competition. The shopping centre sits in an island that is pretty well isolated from the surrounding neighbourhoods. Its only asset is LRT but until that is running reliably, it is a mixed blessing. Even neighbouring commercial properties have been abandoned. Until we see some redevelopment in the general area, I don't see St. Laurent rebounding. With Gloucester Centre being the major terminus for LRT (for the next 5 years) and most east end bus routes, Gloucester Centre has more potential at the moment.

St. Laurent's isolation from its surroundings is mostly due to the design choices that the original builders made. It would take time, and a sensitive and competent design team, but that isolation could be remediated. Those surface parking lots aren't going to be an economically viable use of the land forever... or even for long.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

St. Laurent's isolation from its surroundings is mostly due to the design choices that the original builders made. It would take time, and a sensitive and competent design team, but that isolation could be remediated. Those surface parking lots aren't going to be an economically viable use of the land forever... or even for long.

You'd think a place like Bayshore would be facing similar challenges though.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

St. Laurent's isolation from its surroundings is mostly due to the design choices that the original builders made. It would take time, and a sensitive and competent design team, but that isolation could be remediated. Those surface parking lots aren't going to be an economically viable use of the land forever... or even for long.

I agree. The same could be said of nearly any shopping mall, including many that have planned redevelopments across Canada.

I don't think it's location on a regional level matters much if we're talking about TOD around the existing mall and stations. It could only help.

Originally Posted by Acajack

You'd think a place like Bayshore would be facing similar challenges though.

Bayshore has a few advantages:

• It's walking distance from thousands of residents (Accora Village is home to 7,000 according to Wikipedia);
• The bus station is arguably more of a hub than St-Laurent, which wasn't the case in for many decades;
• It has less competition, being the only mall of significance in the west end, other than maybe Carlingwood and Tanger. St-Laurent has to compete with Place d'Orléans, Gloucester, Rideau, Train Yards and Les Promenades.

Despite its issues, Bayshore has been able to continue evolving as a mall and attracting new major tenants (like Wal-Mart, which is part grocery store) to replace those that failed. St-Laurent hasn't evolved in the same way, replacing former large tenants with services that aren't conducive to shopping (gyms, expensive private schools, and a Halloween store one month per year).

[daud]

I also think its good to point out trainyards was infinitely more dismal before it was trainyards and it doesn't have LRT (though it may get access to Tremblay eventually)

The potential at St. Laurent is totally there-it just requires investment.

[eltodesukane]

Reposting an old post, about an expansion never done.
In particular, the never done "realigned Coventry Road".

[Harley613]

This 'expansion never done' is the second 'expansion never done' in the last couple of decades. in the early to mid 2000's they were planning to add a second floor running from the food court to Sears. They even had pictures of the expansion on a blank wall in the food court with 'coming soon' for years.

[J.OT13]

Someone, somewhere mentioned that the Ciné-Starz Cinema in the mall was closing in February (non Covid related), but turns out it's still around. Not only that, but they've replaced the old seating according to the owner's interview on CTV.

It has re-opened, along with the Ciné-Starz in Orléans, today.

[J.OT13]

And why is this thread under "Business, Politics & the Economy"? Shouldn't it be under "Downtown"? Wasn't it under "Suburbs" for a while?

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Someone, somewhere mentioned that the Ciné-Starz Cinema in the mall was closing in February (non Covid related), but turns out it's still around. Not only that, but they've replaced the old seating according to the owner's interview on CTV.

It has re-opened, along with the Ciné-Starz in Orléans, today.

Wasn’t it called Imagine? I guess Imagine closed and was bought by cinestarz

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Wasn’t it called Imagine? I guess Imagine closed and was bought by cinestarz

Oh yeah. That explains it.

https://imaginecinemas.com/cinema/st-laurent-centre/

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

And why is this thread under "Business, Politics & the Economy"? Shouldn't it be under "Downtown"? Wasn't it under "Suburbs" for a while?

It's definitely not the Suburbs, but I can move it to Downtown...

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

It's definitely not the Suburbs, but I can move it to Downtown...

Definitely belongs in Downtown & City of Ottawa

[SidetrackedSue]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Wasn’t it called Imagine? I guess Imagine closed and was bought by cinestarz

Exactly. The old staff was kept on, they dropped previews and added a showing each day.

We went on March 10. I joked this was entertainment I could do safely since social distancing wasn't a problem. There were 6 of us in the theatre, 3 couples all well spaced out.

I hope they survive this. I'm not going back any time soon, but I still believe it will be far safer than bars or indoor dining if the audiences are the same size they were before shut down.

[acottawa]

We went a few times when it was called rainbow. Certainly wasn’t a high end experience but a good way to pass a rainy (or super hot) afternoon.

I wish they would do more more older stuff. Empire Strikes Back was the number one movie in the US last weekend. I couldn’t imagine any Ottawa theatres showing it.