Edmonton Retail Thread

[Slide]

I would have thought that at least ice district would have more retail to offer by now; the fact that it's only competition is a dying mall and still downtown can't seem to attract some retail 'basics' is unfortunate. Not sure what more it will take to turn the corner. A complete street concentrated with retail and restaurants to really create an anchor would certainly help.
Robson in Vancouver, Stephen ave in Calgary, hell even Scarth street in Regina gives any downtown Edmonton street a run for its money.

It's tough because all those mentioned tend to be complete streets, with smaller scale old stock buildings. Closest thing i can think of is 104st between jasper and 102nd, but even that has 3 surface lots, and is kinda sad.

Rice howard way would need some major street level interventions to create a continuous stretch of retail along all directions; but probably has the best 'bones' for creating some kind of anchor.

[Rocket252]

It's bad downtown and disappointing because I remember when it was really busy.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

It's bad downtown and disappointing because I remember when it was really busy.

How long ago was that though?

[Rocket252]

Longer that I am willing to admit

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

Longer that I am willing to admit

I'm 31 so only have a good memory of Downtown from the early 2000s onwards for the most part and I never remember it being overly busy unless there was a festival or farmers market going on. I would have loved to see what it was like in the 70s or even 80s.

[Coldrsx]

So now what.

How to get some destination or even neighbourhood level retail back to the core.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

So now what.

How to get some destination or even neighbourhood level retail back to the core.

Get some of that retail into Westrich's vacant CRUs in Ultima and Encore

[Rocket252]

Originally Posted by Harrison

I'm 31 so only have a good memory of Downtown from the early 2000s onwards for the most part and I never remember it being overly busy unless there was a festival or farmers market going on. I would have loved to see what it was like in the 70s or even 80s.

I am old enough to remember my parents taking us to Edmonton in the late 60s when the Tegler building was around as well as the old Eaton’s store where we had lunch in the cafeteria.

When I moved to Edmonton for University/NAIT in the late 70s and 80s there was a lot of activity downtown. Restaurants, shopping bars etc but personally the opening of WEM and the building of City Center Mall killed downtown.

As for trying to bring back downtown, security and safety are number 1. That allows businesses to bring in good shopping and the people will follow.

I never felt fear walking around downtown in the old days.

[ciudad_del_norte]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

I am old enough to remember my parents taking us to Edmonton in the late 60s when the Tegler building was around as well as the old Eaton’s store where we had lunch in the cafeteria.

When I moved to Edmonton for University/NAIT in the late 70s and 80s there was a lot of activity downtown. Restaurants, shopping bars etc but personally the opening of WEM and the building of City Center Mall killed downtown.

As for trying to bring back downtown, security and safety are number 1. That allows businesses to bring in good shopping and the people will follow.

I never felt fear walking around downtown in the old days.

Unfortunately I think we're in a place where the perception of this matters more than reality. I think advocacy groups are genuinely trying to address concerns, it also creates a bias in the discussion that I don't think is helping. If every time a lot of people hear about downtown it's reporting about how *insert whatever group* is asking for money because people are too scared to come downtown, it continues to reinforce the idea that downtown is scary.

Not denying there are challenges, but I actually found it significaly better over this last summer, having passed through downtown many times in the late evening. There are a few areas that are generally have a decent amount of activity - at least substantially more than I think most people would expect based on what you hear on the news. I think is this also exacerbated because unfortunately a "scary" downtown (and transit) is politically advantageous for some.

[s211]

Originally Posted by ciudad_del_norte

Unfortunately I think we're in a place where the perception of this matters more than reality. I think advocacy groups are genuinely trying to address concerns, it also creates a bias in the discussion that I don't think is helping. If every time a lot of people hear about downtown it's reporting about how *insert whatever group* is asking for money because people are too scared to come downtown, it continues to reinforce the idea that downtown is scary.

Not denying there are challenges, but I actually found it significaly better over this last summer, having passed through downtown many times in the late evening. There are a few areas that are generally have a decent amount of activity - at least substantially more than I think most people would expect based on what you hear on the news. I think is this also exacerbated because unfortunately a "scary" downtown (and transit) is politically advantageous for some.

Are you male? I'd be hard pressed to find a female that in all honesty would say that downtown is safe in the late evening.

[Hardhatdan]

Originally Posted by s211

Are you male? I'd be hard pressed to find a female that in all honesty would say that downtown is safe in the late evening.

How many women feel safe walking alone late at night in a power center or the river Valley or...I can speak from my spouse telling me walking during the day through Millcreek off the paved trails doesn't feel safe.
Females feeling uneasy when walking alone isn't a good measure of an area, it's an commentary on the unfortunate state of our society that makes them unsafe in general

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

So now what.

How to get some destination or even neighbourhood level retail back to the core.

The key ingredient is and always will be people. Yes office workers help but permanent residents is what will really drive demand.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by ciudad_del_norte

Unfortunately I think we're in a place where the perception of this matters more than reality. I think advocacy groups are genuinely trying to address concerns, it also creates a bias in the discussion that I don't think is helping. If every time a lot of people hear about downtown it's reporting about how *insert whatever group* is asking for money because people are too scared to come downtown, it continues to reinforce the idea that downtown is scary.

Not denying there are challenges, but I actually found it significaly better over this last summer, having passed through downtown many times in the late evening. There are a few areas that are generally have a decent amount of activity - at least substantially more than I think most people would expect based on what you hear on the news. I think is this also exacerbated because unfortunately a "scary" downtown (and transit) is politically advantageous for some.

I share the same perspective.

[ciudad_del_norte]

Originally Posted by s211

Are you male? I'd be hard pressed to find a female that in all honesty would say that downtown is safe in the late evening.

I don't think I claimed that downtown would or should be considered objectively "safe" by everybody. For some populations that will never be the case for reasons beyond what we are talking about here. What I'm trying to say is that I think a lot of people would be more comfortable downtown, particularily in certain areas than they might expect when we often seem to talk about it like a war zone.

Safety and security is totally a worthwhile discussion, but while it's not 2019, it's not 2021 either. There are some things that seem to actually be going okay - if not relatively well considering what it was like a few years ago.

My personal opinion is that I think we'd actually see more improvement if we focused a bit more on building off improvement that is already happening rather than steadily pumping out reasons not to come downtown - a discussion that ultimately reinforces its premise.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Competition Bureau Probes Grocery Property Controls in Canada

https://retail-insider.com/bulletin/2024...bes-grocery-property-controls-in-canada/

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by ciudad_del_norte

What I'm trying to say is that I think a lot of people would be more comfortable downtown, particularily in certain areas than they might expect when we often seem to talk about it like a war zone.

Any time I hear someone make this type of comment reinforces that they haven't been downtown for years. Or if they did they happened to be in the middle of 'ground zero'.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by CMD UW

Any time I hear someone make this type of comment reinforces that they haven't been downtown for years. Or if they did they happened to be in the middle of 'ground zero'.

Ground Zero being the block of 101 Street, 107 Ave, 99 Street and 105 Ave due to both of Hope Mission's facilities as well as the George Spady all within the small area. It is also not Downtown, it's officially McCauley and even then on the edge of that neighbourhood.

I bike through there almost every week and yes it has the highest concentration of homeless people because our largest shelters are there, but it's no 'war zone', that's for sure.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Ground Zero being the block of 101 Street, 107 Ave, 99 Street and 105 Ave due to both of Hope Mission's facilities as well as the George Spady all within the small area. It is also not Downtown, it's officially McCauley and even then on the edge of that neighbourhood.

I bike through there almost every week and yes it has the highest concentration of homeless people because our largest shelters are there, but it's no 'war zone', that's for sure.

This is also correct.

[Coldrsx]

Popped into the re-opened Zocalo today (greenhouse to reopen in Feb/March); nice to have it back.

[Coldrsx]

A retailer that received a $212,000 grant to set up shop downtown for at least 18 months left after just six months, but the organization that provided the grant is not planning to sue to get the money back.
https://edmonton.skyrisecities.com/forum/threads/downtown.27768/page-243#post-2171875

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That's very disappointing and plain wrong in so many ways; let alone the small business owners who exist today that received nothing are not very happy.