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Victoria retail thread: retailer news, comings and goings


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#2441 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 09:27 AM

Ground floor commercial.

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#2442 dasmo

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 09:40 AM

More residential is key but you have to look at it wholisticly. As it stands you might see mor landowners demolish their buildings and lease the space to Robbins for surface parking. This creates a less desirable downtown to live in... I say build some Student housing downtown. Lift the height cap around the Hudson and encourage these brownstones at the edges of old town. Plus make Gov street a pedestrian zone!!! Do this with actual zoning not a BS comunity plan...

#2443 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 09:54 AM

Yes, we might, but if there are no tenants to lease the space then there are no tenants. Meanwhile City Hall could care less and keeps taxing the property, charging utilities, etc.

Unless you've got skin in the game and lease downtown space you really have no idea of the costs involved in operating a business in this city. Our office lease has increased 20% starting this September. 20%.

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#2444 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 09:56 AM

Unless you've got skin in the game and lease downtown space you really have no idea of the costs involved in operating a business in this city. Our office lease has increased 20% starting this September. 20%.

 

Why has it increased 20%?    Taxes have not gone up that much.  My downtown office rent has not changed in 2 years.  In fact it's locked in until December 31st.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2445 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 09:58 AM

Operating costs. Junkies, taxes, municipal costs, vandalism, maintenance. It all takes its toll. And my lease is gross, not NNN.

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#2446 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:03 AM

Operating costs. Junkies, taxes, municipal costs, vandalism, maintenance. It all takes its toll. And my lease is gross, not NNN.

 

So is mine.  And then you agreed to the 20% increase in private negotiations with your landlord.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2447 dasmo

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:11 AM

Do you lease your own office space in the downtown core?

I do. And here are a few more shots on my stroll back from easily parking my car never having to touch Government street with it. 

NmRAyKe.jpgKNkSSQD.jpgNmRAyKe.jpg



#2448 dasmo

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:15 AM

I've leased my office space in the heart of downtown for ten years... I have also lived in Victoria city for over 20 years. I am well versed in the cycles of downtown. I've lived here since 79. I remember when prostitutes strolled Government street. We should bring them back. IT would improve the situation....


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#2449 Bingo

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:29 AM

Three residential towers will be starting construction downtown this year

 

We have increased density dramatically in the last 5 years in Victoria, but that hasn't seemed to have helped businesses to stay downtown.

I don't think closing Government Street on a limited basis will help that. During the bridge debates the City said that business would suffer if the bridge was closed for a year to refurbish it, but that didn't happen as the bridge has remained open during replacement, and now we have businesses leaving anyways. I think it is the shape of the overall economy that is responsible, so even though developers are building even more towers, I wonder if this cycle can continue in it's present form? 



#2450 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:42 AM

I've lived here since 79. I remember when prostitutes strolled Government street. We should bring them back. IT would improve the situation....

 

Oh, now I'm looking forward to the type of ads that will pop up in this thread.


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<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2451 sebberry

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 10:45 AM

I do. And here are a few more shots on my stroll back from easily parking my car never having to touch Government street with it. 

KNkSSQD.jpg

 

 

FYI, Prices moved out to Glanford: http://goo.gl/maps/KNJ8B

 

Looks like a nice big upgrade.


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#2452 Nparker

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:08 AM

We have increased density dramatically in the last 5 years in Victoria...

Has it really been all that dramatic? In hard numbers how many more people live downtown now than lived there in 2010?


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#2453 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:13 AM

Has it really been all that dramatic? In hard numbers how many more people live downtown now than lived there in 2010?

 

Union.  Hudson rentals.  Sovereign.  So maybe 300-400?


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2454 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:17 AM

And The 834, Mondrian, 601 Landmark, and multiple smaller projects (Churchill Lofts, Old England Hotel, Lefevre's restorations on Yates, etc.).


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#2455 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:18 AM

So is mine.  And then you agreed to the 20% increase in private negotiations with your landlord.

 

And the other option would be...?

 

Your situation is unlike 99.9% of situations in the downtown core. You know that.


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#2456 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:24 AM

And the other option would be...?

 

 

 

The other option would be to hold your own, tell the landlord you cannot afford a 20% increase, that no business can.  See if he balks.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2457 aastra

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:25 AM

 

We have increased density dramatically in the last 5 years in Victoria, but that hasn't seemed to have helped businesses to stay downtown.

 

It hasn't been nearly enough for a downtown this size. Note that the city proper's population (not just downtown) has only increased by 5,000 or so since the 2006 census.



#2458 Bingo

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:34 AM

I see other areas besides Victoria that has rental space available, so don't think it is a symptom related to just the downtown business core.

As a comparison here is a 1 km section of Oak Bay Avenue from Bank Street to Hampshire that has rental space available as of today.

 

1831 Oak Bay Ave

IMG_6540.jpg

 

1925 Oak Bay Ave

 

IMG_6536.jpg

 

1950 Oak Bay Ave

IMG_6534-1.jpg

 

1969 Oak Bay Ave

 

IMG_6519.jpg

 

 

IMG_6523-1.jpg

 

Previously the Gracepoint set at 2005 Oak Bay Ave.

 

IMG_6518-1.jpg

 

This space looks like it might be leased. It was Ted Harrison's Gallery a few years ago.

 

IMG_6526.jpg

 

2200 Block of Oak Bay Ave.

IMG_6533.jpg



#2459 Mike K.

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 11:35 AM

The other option would be to hold your own, tell the landlord you cannot afford a 20% increase, that no business can.  See if he balks.

 

Do you honestly think we'd have as many for lease signs around the downtown core of landlords just balked?


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#2460 aastra

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Posted 29 January 2015 - 01:05 PM

 

I see other areas besides Victoria that has rental space available, so don't think it is a symptom related to just the downtown business core.

 

I'm not going to disagree that the situation is poor all over. It is. And most likely it's going to get worse all over before it gets better (it might even get much, much worse before it gets better). There are quite a few vacancies in Vancouver, too, and I'm having difficulty blaming them on Langford's big box stores.

 

But if we can put the rigged/bungled world economy and the eternal march toward another world war aside for the moment, I really think Victoria's fortunes are all about one area being hot or not at any particular moment. There hasn't been much sheer growth for several decades. Instead, things shift around.

 

Remember back to the 1980s and early 1990s and the uproar re: Mayfair and Hillside expanding at downtown's expense? A food court at Mayfair! A new wing at Hillside! (It seems funny now, after all of the changes that have happened at both malls since then.) Downtown wilted a bit, for sure, and I honestly wonder if the Eaton's Centre might not have happened otherwise. But downtown came back again in the 1990s. Glowing articles in the TC about how well Government Street was doing.

 

In the 2000s we've seen the good times shift to the west comms (way more commercial development out there than the local population could ever support) and we've seen this massive expansion of Town & Country/Uptown. In downtown itself we've seen Chard and the Atrium work wonders around Yates & Blanshard, but that previously lame area had actually been pretty good in the not too distant past, back when the movie theatres were all running and Romeo's was on the corner and Peacock Billiards was busy, etc.

 

I think downtown Victoria needs to drive its own revival. Make some gains at the expense of another part of the city. Nobody weeps for downtown when it runs into trouble and nobody should weep for [insert area here] when it goes through a bad phase.


Edited by aastra, 29 January 2015 - 01:06 PM.

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