8289 replies to this topic

[Dexter]

Long term plans for mall sites like these must be for mixed use residential redevelopment. Add 400 units of residential to any mall location and I bet the retailers would do much better.

[Victoria Watcher]

that’s not nearly enough to make any difference.

We have 200,000 residences here. 500 shopping malls worth by your count. yet we only have a dozen malls. each mall actually relies on tens of thousands of residences.

tillicum mall might even be hurt by the McKenzie interchange time savings.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 July 2020 - 06:50 AM.

[Mike K.]

Tillicum was hurt by Uptown. West Shore Town Centre leaves a lot to be desired, too.

The truth of the matter is there are three successful malls here, and the rest face some degree of tenant issues. The Bay Centre had a notoriously tough time leasing its fourth floor.

[Mike K.]

that’s not nearly enough to make any difference.

We have 200,000 residences here. 500 shopping malls worth by your count. yet we only have a dozen malls. each mall actually relies on tens of thousands of residences.

That’s why downtown is suffering. Despite several thousand new residents living there, that’s not nearly enough to make a dent in the needs of the business community.

[Victoria Watcher]

shelbourne plaza is successful. can’t remember a vacancy.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 July 2020 - 07:03 AM.

[Rob Randall]

Upper Shelbourne in general is very successful. Lots of students without cars.

 

Except University Heights. There are so many Asian-themed retail outlets in that area, a last ditch effort might have been to collect them at UH and turn it into a cool Japanese-themed mall. It's plausible--there's even an Asian fitness place just south of McKenzie.

[spanky123]

The 'mall' has been dying for the last decade. Once a mall loses its anchor (K-Mart, Sears, Zellers, etc) it is over. Home Depot, Walmart, Canadian Tire, etc are not anchors, they are destinations that people visit and then leave.  I would bet that 95% of Home Depot customers at UH cannot name a single tenant in the mall. 

[aastra]

 

My guess is some tenets from university heights will move there

 

Thus becoming central tenets of Victoria's commercial scene? It's the principle of the thing.

[Mike K.]

Mediocre/underwhelming malls* of the CRD:

 

West Shore Town Centre

Tillicum Centre

University Heights

Hillside Centre

 

There really are only three that have done relatively well, those being Bay, Mayfair and Uptown.

 

 

*traditional malls, like the Bay Centre, Tillicum Centre, etc, and not plazas or strip malls.

[spanky123]

Mediocre/underwhelming malls* of the CRD:

 

West Shore Town Centre

Tillicum Centre

University Heights

Hillside Centre

 

There really are only three that have done relatively well, those being Bay, Mayfair and Uptown.

 

 

*traditional malls, like the Bay Centre, Tillicum Centre, etc, and not plazas or strip malls.

 

Half of "main street" at Uptown has been vacated. Bay has an anchor and Mayfair did until recently.

[Victoria Watcher]

what did Mayfair lose?

hillside lost the anchor. it’s still an ok mall. although I have not been in for 5 years.

since “toys and wheels” closed.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 July 2020 - 08:27 AM.

[RFS]

I really don't know if I'd put Bay above Hillside.  Hillside definitely has a better food court 

[Mike K.]

Bay finally got its legs when the feds opened the passport office and the gym opened up. Prior to that it had an empty fourth floor outside of the food court for two-plus decades. Nothing lasted up there.

[gstc84]

Hillside's food court is its biggest strength for sure. Hopefully once Walmart opens there the rest of the mall will fill out again (or for the first time, as much of the new expansion five years ago still sits empty...)

 

The Bay Centre just needs to fix its @#%!$ escalators. Is the hold-up COVID related and they can't ship the necessary parts in? I don't understand how this has dragged on as long as it has.

 

Mayfair is all-around the best in the city. Uptown has ebbs and flows but isn't really a traditional mall anyway. Every other mall in the CRD pretty much sucks.

[Victoria Watcher]

Fairfield plaza is successful.

[kxl]

There really are only three that have done relatively well, those being Bay, Mayfair and Uptown.

And the BC Transit Santa Bus shopping shuttle only serves these very three malls! All on one street.

[spanky123]

what did Mayfair lose?

hillside lost the anchor. it’s still an ok mall. although I have not been in for 5 years.

since “toys and wheels” closed.

 

I mixed them up. My bad. Mayfair has an anchor which is why they are still viable.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Hillside Mall has had multiple strokes of bad luck:  it expanded its facility a while back but never really filled it, it lost an anchor (Sears), and now several of its tenants are part of chains that are in bankruptcy or restructuring.  

These troubled tenants include Rikki's, Ronsons, Additional Elle, GNC, and David's Tea, some of which have already shuttered their Hillside Mall operations.

 

It would be interesting to know which local mall is most impacted (as a percentage of leased space) by retailer closings/bankruptcies in 2020 ... I suspect that Hillside is particularly hard hit but I can't definitively state that they are the most impacted (they lack Aldo and La Senza, for example, which are also in restructuring)...

[grantpalin]

I feel Hillside is actually pretty decent. As already pointed out it has a good food fair. Despite losing Sears, it still has Shoppers, Bolens, Canadian Tire, and Thrifty Foods (and will presumably be gaining Walmart). I can do a lot of shopping there in a single outing. If they could just manage to fill some of those empty spaces in the new wing, with hopefully some more variety in stores and services.

[Mike K.]

I should add that West Shore also includes SuperStore, the Canadian Tire, The Brick, BC Liquor Stores and many more exterior accessible retailers. They’re very, very busy. The interior of the mall not so much.