Well the area's not ready yet, and did they get approval for a theatre yet from council?

Oh, OK - approvals & the like. I read the original comment as meaning that the theatre/Harvard was considering pulling the plug.

I don't have any specific evidence for it specifically, but it's highly likely the contract is conditional on getting approval. Ie not complete.

Makes sense. Thanks.

Dream Centers has updated layouts for their two location in Regina.

I'm fairly sure based on the layout of on the Elmbridge and Save-On's goal of 5 stores in the city I would be on one going there. Can't quite be sure what the conditional building is in the harbour landing one. I would also assume a grocery retailer of some sort.

Elmbridge (in Coopertown)

Harbour Landing

I'd heard the grocery store on Parliament in HL will be a Sobeys. I can't see Save-on going there after spending a lot to renovate the old Canadian Tire on South Albert. Seems too close together as well.

Didn't Sobeys just renovate on Albert South? Plus Sobeys have Safeway down the road on Gordon. What about Co-op?

Ever since Save-On opened Sobey's looks desolate. (In comparison to how busy it used to be, anyways) I wouldn't be surprised if they left looking for greener pastures.

The Co-op has cheap rent in that old building and a large collection of condos next door full of senior citizens who don't like driving. I think they're going to be OK where they are, unless the new Superstore drives them out of business.

The Co-op brand also tends to have a really high level of loyalty with that demographic, so they have that going for them too.

A new Sobey's would be closer to its sister store on Albert south more than Save-On would be to its sister.

Could building 'C' in Elmbridge be yet another Shoppers Drug Mart? If you look at the site plan, you will see that there is a semi-circular dashed line above what I would assume is the entrance. Most Shoppers stores have a small semi-circular canopy over the entrance, of a similar size/radius to what is shown on the site plan. (Google images for Shopper Drug Mart and you will see what I mean). If this is true, maybe they are planning to close the Normanview store. I can't see them having three stores in close proximity. What do you think?

Yup, good eye on the circular dashed lines. It would actually make it 4 in quite a close area: Superstore Parking lot, Sherwood Mall, and Normanview; and those 3 have all be open for a while now.

Shoppers really does seem to be reaching max saturation levels in Regina though. The only "missing spots" on the map seem to be right by the University and Harbour Landing.

It seems crazy but the population continues to age and require more medications, in addition to the general over-prescribing that has been getting worse in the past decade. A little off topic, but I recently worked for a large Canadian corporation developing pharmacy management software and their funding model is based on a per-prescription basis. Ya, that can't be good.

Coopertown is planned to have 30,000 people by build out in 2035. Could certainly support another Shoppers

I thought I read somewhere that big box developments like this with giant parking lots were going out of style? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

They are...just not in Regina. We are about 10-20 years behind the times on pretty much every city-design front.

Where are they out of style and what's replacing them?

Cities are focusing on urban infill rather than suburbia. Have been for years.

Which cities are those? Where do the big box stores go? Big box stores are not going away anytime soon.

Where do you propose this to happen in Regina?

I think Homer is talking about minimum parking requirements. Regina has minimum requirements well above many progressive cities - and it's obvious. Other than peak days, most of these big box lots are 1/2 at best.

Of course, many of the cities we might compare against, have better transportation infrastructure (a transit system that is actually used by a reasonable portion of the population; ride-sharing; readily-available taxis & ride-sharing), and some walkable neighbourhoods with big boxes integrated into residential developments (think of the Costco & Home Depot in downtown Vancouver). So, at this point, we're comparing apples to oranges.