Maybe a full-blown study/concept proposal is in the works. It could include:
1. opening street level up to 102nd Avenue (south) and 103rd Street (west)
2. redeveloping the former Bay space
3. studying the effectiveness of adding residential towers above a revamped mall
4. working with the CoE to "pedestrianize" 102 Avenue and 103rd Street
5. creating street-level Retail/Hospitality for the Parkade facing 103rd Street and 103rd Avenue.
 
ECC West is the most logical portion of the overall complex to bulldoze. The high vacancy in it could be part of a plan to redevelop, although the longer it drags on the costs to keep the heat and lights on, not to mention hefty property taxes, in that mall quickly add up.

There is no need in the market for all that retail space in ECC West. None.
 
Quality mall retail space is essentially full throughout the city in the big 3 malls.

Any money wasted on demolition could be spent on development of 1-3 residential towers on ECC property.

We've gone over how the old Bay space has dummy piles on the roof. The northwest corner parking lot by itself could support two substantial towers.

Demolishing the mall would just be lighting money on fire, as any newly available land would probably be equal to the cost of demolition.
 
Gronk! said:
But the crowds are still big enough to warrant opening more shops and services, right?
I for one am getting a bit tired of walking past all of these empty stores in the mall.
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I feel they are, but it can take a long time for perceptions to catch up with reality. Someone who seldom goes downtown just said to me last week they thought it was still very dead. No that was 2021.

As someone who goes through there regularly, usually several times a week, I can see there are more people around and it is steadily increasing as more people return to work in the offices nearby.

Of course someone far away planning store locations may have no idea about this yet.
 
Barnaby said:
Quality mall retail space is essentially full throughout the city in the big 3 malls.

Any money wasted on demolition could be spent on development of 1-3 residential towers on ECC property.

We've gone over how the old Bay space has dummy piles on the roof. The northwest corner parking lot by itself could support two substantial towers.

Demolishing the mall would just be lighting money on fire, as any newly available land would probably be equal to the cost of demolition.
Click to expand...
I feel it is sort of an Edmonton thing, the passion for tearing things down just to likely leave more vacant lots downtown for years and years. It kind of explains how we got where we are.
 
Gronk! said:
I hate to say this, but there is already a Shoppers Drug Mart in ECC East so good riddance.
I have never understood the rationale for two Shoppers Drug Marts in the same mall.
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Yes, it did not seem to make sense. The east location seems to be the better one and the opportunity for that space arose after they already had the west space for some time.

So I suspect Shoppers decided at some point it would be best to just continue to the end of the lease there and not go on after that, which seems to be what is being communicated now.
 
I will say that the ECC West has the superior cosmetics section; my wife would often make a special trip there just to redeem Optimum/PC points to take advantage of their inventory. But yeah, it never made much sense to me to have two Shoppers' in the same small-ish mall. Another big blow to ECC, though, regardless, unless a they can pull a rabbit out of their hats here.
 
I just hope they improve the hours. It's frustrating as someone living nearby that Shoppers is closed so early.
 
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