New Horizons Mall open... and empty

[Wormius]

There is still a plethora of downtown office workers during the week, and I am not sure what the downtown residential population is currently, but whatever it is, Eau Claire Market shouldn't be as dead as it is.


I mean, they need to find a theme for it. It's in a nice location, so focus on having some good restaurants and expand on the more fitness related stores, beyond the Running Room. Get rid of the weird random stuff like clothing stores and British grocery items.

[Engine09]

I love the Eau Claire area and the market, just a shame it doesn't have more traffic. Hell, the Forks in filthy, garbage Winnipeg is so much better.

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Why don't they take all of that money and invest it into making Eau Claire Market worth going to. Upgrade the theater; get some good pubs and restaurants in there; expand that indoor kids' playground.

They're planning to completely gut out and redo Eau Claire Market aren't they? I volunteer with CIFF and during a coordination meeting a little while back there was some talk about contingency plans in the event the movie theater becomes unavailable during the makeover.

[manwiches]

Originally Posted by Engine09

I love the Eau Claire area and the market, just a shame it doesn't have more traffic. Hell, the Forks in filthy, garbage Winnipeg is so much better.

The Forks is what Eau Claire wishes it was. I love going to the Forks when I'm in Winnipeg. It's a fun area to be in. Kind of like Granville Island in Vancouver.

I think Eau Claire's problem is that the rent is too high, and it can't attract enough talent. Give some sort of tax breaks or discounts for setting up shop down there. God knows it would be better than what it is now. Get some sort of attraction down there. The Forks has plenty, but it also has the Winnipeg Children's Museum and Canadian Museum for Human Rights. We usually hit up the Childen's Museum, and when we're done, we just walk over to the shops/food after.

I was walking through Eau Claire 3 weeks back when I was in Calgary for work, and was appalled at what it has become. It used to be my hangout when I was in high school, now it's pretty much abandoned.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by 4X4

We need moar malls!!

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ng-citys-beefs

Maybe the province should just let Calgary annex a 20km buffer zone.

Originally Posted by Weitz

And lets face it people aren't taking the train or bus to a mall downtown on the weekends when they can drive to Market/Chinook/Cross iron.

Eau Claire has a problem with competition even if you just look at downtown. The Core is the dominant western mall, and for an asian mall there's Dragon City. Knock it down, turn it into condos, and hope to get some street level amenities for the new residents/park users seems like it might be the best possible outcome.

[troutman]

I wouldn't go near Chinook on the weekends. What a cluster####.

[dubc80]

Originally Posted by Wormius

There is still a plethora of downtown office workers during the week, and I am not sure what the downtown residential population is currently, but whatever it is, Eau Claire Market shouldn't be as dead as it is.


I mean, they need to find a theme for it. It's in a nice location, so focus on having some good restaurants and expand on the more fitness related stores, beyond the Running Room. Get rid of the weird random stuff like clothing stores and British grocery items.

I bet if it was connected by the +15's, they'd get way more Downtown lunchtime traffic.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by dubc80

I bet if it was connected by the +15's, they'd get way more Downtown lunchtime traffic.

I'm not so sure.

It would have to be a hell of a restaurant for me to walk all the way there... Even further via plus 15. As it stands myself and others I know will only walk down there for Joey's patio in the summer or maybe barley mill patio.

[Lubicon]

Farmers Market to open this summer. A large (er) anchor tenant also announced recently and there are now about 75 stores open. Still a long way to go but slowly improving. One thing that I would do is have all employees park in the west parking lot which is visible to the QEII and would give the impression of the mall being busier. that might in turn help bring in more traffic. It can't do any harm.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...gary-1.5094778

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Farmers Market to open this summer. A large (er) anchor tenant also announced recently and there are now about 75 stores open. Still a long way to go but slowly improving. One thing that I would do is have all employees park in the west parking lot which is visible to the QEII and would give the impression of the mall being busier. that might in turn help bring in more traffic. It can't do any harm.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...gary-1.5094778

The Farmers Market MAY (a big MAY) get some traffic over, but the anchor tenant of "The Best Shop" is just an Asian version of the Giant Tiger - yet another dressed up dollar store....

https://www.blogto.com/design/the-be...-mall-markham/

So good luck to the New Horizon Mall and the unit owners...

[Ozy_Flame]

The minute it gets a Daiso, Muji and/or Uniqlo is the moment that mall will be taken seriously.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Farmers Market to open this summer. A large (er) anchor tenant also announced recently and there are now about 75 stores open. Still a long way to go but slowly improving. One thing that I would do is have all employees park in the west parking lot which is visible to the QEII and would give the impression of the mall being busier. that might in turn help bring in more traffic. It can't do any harm.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...gary-1.5094778

If this mall is meant to focus on the Asian and SE Asian demographic where price and value is king - opening a premium priced, organic, free range, store is a prescription for CCAA.

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The Farmers Market MAY (a big MAY) get some traffic over, but the anchor tenant of "The Best Shop" is just an Asian version of the Giant Tiger - yet another dressed up dollar store....

https://www.blogto.com/design/the-be...-mall-markham/

So good luck to the New Horizon Mall and the unit owners...

I wasn't impressed with "The Best Shop" when I was at Pacific Mall last summer. It generally felt like a poorer-man's Daiso, with the dirt and grunge of Winners and Walmart

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

The minute it gets a Daiso, Muji and/or Uniqlo is the moment that mall will be taken seriously.

Can I get a box of mr. sparkle clean delivered from daiso to my prefecture?

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Can I get a box of mr. sparkle clean delivered from daiso to my prefecture?

You . . . . Like Mr. Sparkle Products?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Can I get a box of mr. sparkle clean delivered from daiso to my prefecture?

Disrespectful to Dirt!

[Poster]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

If this mall is meant to focus on the Asian and SE Asian demographic where price and value is king - opening a premium priced, organic, free range, store is a prescription for CCAA.

Shopping for Price and Shopping for value are two opposite ends of the spectrum.

So which is it?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Poster

Shopping for Price and Shopping for value are two opposite ends of the spectrum.

So which is it?

Go to Wal-Mart. Grab anything marked "Great Value". I'm sure you can take it from there...

[Minnie]

Popped in here today to see if the farmer's market was open. Nothing yet. Didn't realize that "Best Shop" was open, as we entered on the east end, only walked about half way in, still as empty as all get out. Of the units with businesses in them that we saw/walked by, almost none of them were even open for operation today. Seems counterproductive but who knows? *shrug* Guess we should have parked on the west side and wandered through that bigger store - we were just wasting 30 minutes before having to be at an appointment. May go back and check out The Best Shop at a later date, but probably not until we hear the Farmer's Market is up and running. I found myself almost angry at the waste of money building that mall seems to have been, which is odd, even to me - it doesn't affect me really, but I sure left feeling irritated.

I think they should have had the units at least 50% sold before even building, if that could even happen. All the empty units say they're for lease, which is probably why they're empty, as the lease is probably cost prohibitive per sq. ft.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Minnie

I think they should have had the units at least 50% sold before even building, if that could even happen. All the empty units say they're for lease, which is probably why they're empty, as the lease is probably cost prohibitive per sq. ft.

I may be mistaken but it wasn't that units didn't sell, I thought almost all of them did, it was that they were sold to owners who were simply looking to lease them out and there were no biters.

Edit:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...gary-1.4850804

Retail units at the New Horizon Mall were sold privately to buyers, much like selling a condo. The developer sold 99 per cent of them.