Gronk! said:
Maybe not in downtown proper but within the vicinity:
  • McDonalds is on 104 Ave just west of 116 St
  • Mary Browns is in Unity Square east of the Safeway.
  • Wendys is on 104 Ave/110 St
  • Dairy Queen is on Jasper Ave/112 St
  • Popeyes is near Jasper Ave/109 St
  • Tokyo Express is between 116 St and Safeway
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116 Street is a bit of a hike from the downtown core especially if you don't want to drive. I think the big international chains will eventually figure out things are recovering and open more central locations here, but they are generally aren't the fastest to act or figure these things out.

A location near ICE District may make sense for some of these, but there are a number of spaces available now in the downtown core or in the mall. Of course those that are faster will probably get the better locations.
 
MacLac said:
Paul, if you've been to any city on the West Coast from Seattle, Portland, SF to LA - there are ZERO.ZERO fast food joints in their CBD's. So it's not just us. If Subway has to hire security guards to keep out the dredge of society - there not enough foot longs in the world that they can sell to make up the difference.
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So a mall location with existing security may make more sense for some of these. I just went to TO and didn't see a lot of stand alone fast food places in the CBD, but the food court in Eaton Centre was sure busy and I was there after lunch time.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
Yeah, it makes me wonder. It's sorta surprising that some other multinational chains aren't throughout the downtown. McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's, Taco Bell, Jolibee, Mary Browns, Carl's Jr., Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Popeyes, Tokyo Express, etc...
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Eh. Their absence creates a zone of opportunity for smaller players.
 
Coprolite said:
Eh. Their absence creates a zone of opportunity for smaller players.
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As much as I agree to see more local smaller players, it's not like they've been squeezed out of the market. Thinking of food courts there is as we know an entirely empty food court in the Stantec tower.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
As much as I agree to see more local smaller players, it's not like they've been squeezed out of the market. Thinking of food courts there is as we know an entirely empty food court in the Stantec tower.
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Yes, that's true lots of spaces there for the taking now and have been for a while. But probably just as many local smaller ones have closed over the last several years as the big chains.

The Standard Life Food Court which closed was all local, Enterprise Square One also and of course there was a well known long time local one in the former Scotia Place Food Court which closed too.

And I know of one small local franchise (not of a big international one) that was looking at opening another location in Stantec a few years ago, but of course that turned to crud. I suppose there is still a window of opportunity for some new more nimble small local ones to come in, but I feel the bigger ones will eventually figure out things have improved.
 
Many cities do have malls in their city centres but I would would like to see this mall turned inside out as some previous plans have shown.

Edmonton has many popular malls and I think for dt to provide a different experience we need to go back to providing more of a main street experience on more of our city blocks.

If people want to go to a mall, they've got lots of great choices for that.

Went to a movie on the weekend and even if there were more stores, this mall looks dated and tired as is anyway.

Of if we're keeping the place, let's find different uses to serve the community in a beneficial way with different experiences.
 
TAS said:
Many cities do have malls in their city centres but I would would like to see this mall turned inside out as some previous plans have shown.

Edmonton has many popular malls and I think for dt to provide a different experience we need to go back to providing more of a main street experience on more of our city blocks.

If people want to go to a mall, they've got lots of great choices for that.

Went to a movie on the weekend and even if there were more stores, this mall looks dated and tired as is anyway.

Of if we're keeping the place, let's find different uses to serve the community in a beneficial way with different experiences.
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I like the idea but might propose to keep some indoor sections.

One of the attractions of a mall in a context like Edmonton is being able to get that "main street" experience without having to deal with the cold. Downtown Edmonton already hollows out somewhat in the winter time in my experience, and losing an indoor shopping area would make this even worse.

So it could sort of be an indoor/outdoor hybrid. I also think incorporating some residential towers would be good as well.

I think The Well in Toronto would be good example to follow.
 
erudyk_29 said:
I like the idea but might propose to keep some indoor sections.

One of the attractions of a mall in a context like Edmonton is being able to get that "main street" experience without having to deal with the cold. Downtown Edmonton already hollows out somewhat in the winter time in my experience, and losing an indoor shopping area would make this even worse.

So it could sort of be an indoor/outdoor hybrid. I also think incorporating some residential towers would be good as well.

I think The Well in Toronto would be good example to follow.
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Yes and lest we forget Toronto actually has both. In addition to Well, Eaton Centre is primarily an indoor mall. I think we should aspire to a bit of both also and not be limited to just one way in our approach.
 
Gronk! said:
I still think an A&W should open in the Stantec Tower or in the Connect Centre to commemorate the A&W that was located next to the Greyhound bus terminal for a long long time.
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Yes and with a bit of luck a space very near that original location might become available in the next few years, due to recent corporate mergers.:)

I think it could make sense for them to have two locations if activity downtown continues to improve/recover - one for the office day time crowd and another for the event evening and weekend crowd.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
As much as I agree to see more local smaller players, it's not like they've been squeezed out of the market. Thinking of food courts there is as we know an entirely empty food court in the Stantec tower.
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Yet our cafe scene underwent rapid diversification once Starbucks and Second Cup thinned their locations after over a decade of very little movement that wasn't Second Cup or Starbucks. Also, food court locations in office towers have significant disadvantages over anything street facing to many operations, namely that it pretty much limits an operator to lunch or coffee break service, Monday to Friday, which is probably why we've had since that tower opened (minimally) a taco restaurant, multiple burger and fries places, countless cafes, a noodle place, a fried chicken place, and various other establishments open in street-facing spaces but not opt for the food court. Franchises coming in would certainly still compete for the lunch crowd with our diverse landscape of fast casual independent, local or limited chain restaurants that have established themselves at street level, though.
 
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I was just reading a thread on Reddit about how West Ed has their own in-house security team that shuffles or bans loiterers or "undesirables" out of the mall. They can do so on any grounds they really desire since it's their private property, including profiling individuals.

It just made me think - I sort of vaguely recall an event sometime last decade where a man in City Center Mall was racially profiled in the old food court and asked to leave, despite not having done anything. Ever since, I feel like there was a swift reaction for security to basically never do anything remotely media worthy, which I think has made mall security ineffective for fear of retribution (for better or worse).

Do you think CCM would be better off adopting a WEM style policy? I mean, allegedly WEM even has their own holding cells for problematic individuals (thefts, vandalism, etc.) where they are held until EPS deals with them. Of course, WEM pulls in far more money and is a major tourist attraction but it just seems like any mall, particularly CCM, should do better to protect its own investments and stores by properly training and paying an actual security team, and taking a little risk in liability.
 
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