Winnipeg Retail

[DancingDuck]

St Vital was looking not so hot even before Christmas...can only imagine that it's gotten worse since. If the Bay location there is not long for this world as some have suggested, I wonder if there has been thought to trying to move the tenants in that wing to empty spaces elsewhere. Or how hard would it be to convince Old Navy, Mark's, or some of the stores in the strip malls on Meadowood, Dakota or St Mary's to move into the mall proper. Either way they're going to have a rough time unless things turn around in a big way soon.

Maybe time for St Vital centre to look at adding a couple residential buildings, like that new proposal in Tuxedo? Close to amenities and services, quite a few bus routes, and it's a short drive/bus ride to the U of M.

[Jeff]

Not far away around the curve of Kenaston Blvd, other than the huge gap left from the departure of Forever 21, the outlet mall looked as full as I've ever seen it when I visited last week with line ups to the usual suspects of Nike, Hilfiger, etc. There's still life left in the retail scene, but it's definitely just moving around and playing hopscotch with what's left.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by DancingDuck

St Vital was looking not so hot even before Christmas...can only imagine that it's gotten worse since. If the Bay location there is not long for this world as some have suggested, I wonder if there has been thought to trying to move the tenants in that wing to empty spaces elsewhere. Or how hard would it be to convince Old Navy, Mark's, or some of the stores in the strip malls on Meadowood, Dakota or St Mary's to move into the mall proper. Either way they're going to have a rough time unless things turn around in a big way soon.

Maybe time for St Vital centre to look at adding a couple residential buildings, like that new proposal in Tuxedo? Close to amenities and services, quite a few bus routes, and it's a short drive/bus ride to the U of M.

I think that the addition of residential would be huge for that mall. People would go for it too, especially students. Heck, it would be a great location to live. Not far from downtown, close to all the retail and grocery you could possibly want, transit connections are good in the area.

Despite the direness of the situation now, it never seemed too bad prior to the pandemic. The mall always seemed to be able to fill all their storefronts and nothing ever seemed to be vacant for too long. I could easily see it having a decent recovery as long as they survive the pandemic. Sprinkle in some new rentals and condos for good measure and they would be just peachy.

[Jeff]

and nothing shows the shifting trends of retail in this city like the conversion of the former Pier 1 across from St. Vital to a Dollarama recently....

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Jeff

and nothing shows the shifting trends of retail in this city like the conversion of the former Pier 1 across from St. Vital to a Dollarama recently....

Oof. Surprised it didn't become a Spirit of Halloween

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

Oof. Surprised it didn't become a Spirit of Halloween

They (Spirit Halloween) have a stalking horse lease on the Hudson Bay space in the mall. Heck maybe they could even open the world's largest Spencer's at that site.

[pegcity]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Not far away around the curve of Kenaston Blvd, other than the huge gap left from the departure of Forever 21, the outlet mall looked as full as I've ever seen it when I visited last week with line ups to the usual suspects of Nike, Hilfiger, etc. There's still life left in the retail scene, but it's definitely just moving around and playing hopscotch with what's left.

H&M will be taking over the former Forever 21/F21 space at the Outlet mall

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by pegcity

H&M will be taking over the former Forever 21/F21 space at the Outlet mall

Ohhh that's a nice catch for that mall! I wonder if that'll seal out St. Vital from ever getting them... I can't see Winnipeg needing any more H&M's unless they're taking a cue from Marshalls/Winners/Homesense's business plan.

[Brizzy82]

I was at St Vital this evening and it is definitely a sad sight.

Even American Eagle has closed down (unless they relocated, but there was no sign indicating that).

The lights were off in The Bay and it was 5:45 Pm.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

I had to go to London Drugs today so I took a spin around St. Vital mall for the first time since sometime in the summer or early fall... it is downright grim in there. More stores are closed, you can't access Chapters and The Bay from the mall itself and they are attempting to fill vacancies with flea market calibre vendors.

I haven't been to any other malls lately, but St. Vital is pretty well in a nosedive.

probably a casualty of the outlet thing. Which I still haven't figured out why its different than a normal mall.

[Biff]

^^^Come on, you are college educated.

It says right in the name "Outlet". That's what makes it different than Polo Park "Mall" <---see no "outlet"

[CoryB]

Actually retail, especially small to medium sized retail chains, were often struggling for years before the pandemic came along. Some would have gone out of business this year regardless, others likely next year but pulled the pin early and a few were saved, at least in the short term, by Reddit traders (EB Games is a GameStop company).

Malls across the country lost a lot of retailers early on and few that are left behind are looking to pickup spaces. I haven't specifically checked Polo Park but most that closed had locations at both Polo Park and St Vital.

When Asper pitched The Elms development he had some first to market retailers sign of in principal before the development was killed, including the first Simons outside Quebec. Since then Simons has gone to other markets but not come to Winnipeg. It was thought with their close relationship with CF they would move into Polo Park at some point. When Sears started winding down their business CF bought the lease for Polo Park out early and it was thought surely this meant Simons was coming. Then Sears start dark over the next holiday period, and that seemed to support it would be Simons coming as they self-fund their expansions. This dragged on for some time and eventually Sears became a call centre and EQ3 moving into the mall from a parking lot. If there is one thing worse for a mall that a empty anchor it is having a furniture store as an anchor as it tells everyone that is the best the mall could attract with a prime space.

It has also long been clear that St Vital was trying to step into the role of the markets leading mall taking over the spot for Polo Park. Clearly Polo Park won that race but it is shaping up to be a race for who closes the lights last.

[esquire]

^ It will be interesting to see what happens with the malls post-covid. Portage Place was already planning to formally exit the mall retail game...will some of the lesser malls like Grant Park and Garden City continue to hang on?

I'd expect Polo Park to remain in one form or another given its role as the main super-regional shopping mall here, but where does that leave the outlet mall, St. Vital and Kildonan Place? If those other two are anything like St. Vital these days, then it isn't looking that promising...

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Actually retail, especially small to medium sized retail chains, were often struggling for years before the pandemic came along. Some would have gone out of business this year regardless, others likely next year but pulled the pin early and a few were saved, at least in the short term, by Reddit traders (EB Games is a GameStop company).

Reddit traders and the price of gamestop stock didn't save anything. It's completely independent of the financial well being of the company. The company doesn't benefit from inflated stock prices. The only affect it would have would be if Gamestop raised capital by issuing more shares, which they did not.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ It will be interesting to see what happens with the malls post-covid. Portage Place was already planning to formally exit the mall retail game...will some of the lesser malls like Grant Park and Garden City continue to hang on?

I'd expect Polo Park to remain in one form or another given its role as the main super-regional shopping mall here, but where does that leave the outlet mall, St. Vital and Kildonan Place? If those other two are anything like St. Vital these days, then it isn't looking that promising...

Somewhat creative and aggressive owners, smaller size and locations may keep of Grant Park, Garden City and Kildonan Place relevant in the grand scheme of retail nodes in this town. The under 100-space, established malls seem to be in a sweet spot.

[cheswick]

From CBC:
Oomomo opens Saturday on St James.

EQ3 opens in the Sears space in Polo Park mid August (expanding from their 11,000 sq ft location to 44,000 sq ft). Anyone know if this is the main floor or second floor? I haven't been to that mall in a while.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Reddit traders and the price of gamestop stock didn't save anything. It's completely independent of the financial well being of the company. The company doesn't benefit from inflated stock prices. The only affect it would have would be if Gamestop raised capital by issuing more shares, which they did not.

Well true on GameStop, AMC cashed in shared to profit $600 million and pay off debt.

GameStop has actually been fine but trending in shark infested waters for a few years now. When you are running quarter after quarter in the +5% to -5% net revenue it isn't a good place to be as you are effectively running a break-even business. It is why they are working to actively restructure and shed parts that are pulling them down. If they can shed leases and other store costs but hold on to most of the customers/sales/revenue the net should start trending back up.

Originally Posted by cheswick

EQ3 opens in the Sears space in Polo Park mid August (expanding from their 11,000 sq ft location to 44,000 sq ft). Anyone know if this is the main floor or second floor? I haven't been to that mall in a while.

EQ3 will be on the main floor in Polo Park with a second In Touch 24/7 Call Centre taking up space on the second floor. In Touch of course took over about a third of the space in the former Target building a little further north on St James.

[esquire]

^ With their pattern of leasing up surplus retail space, it sounds like 24/7 InTouch is the call centre version of Spirit Halloween.

[trueviking]

^ good one.

Was at the bay at St Vital today. Has a decidedly downtown bay vibe these days.

Honestly if the bay goes down, all of my clothes shopping will have to be done in other cities, instead of just most of it.

[trueviking]

24/7 takes such weird places. You’d think they’d buy a big warehouse somewhere.