365 replies to this topic

[AllseeingEye]

Interesting timing - somehow apropos given Victoria is a decade behind anywhere else on virtually any topic any way, so why should mall re-development be any different? - given a CBC story this week outlining the exact opposite trend in the lower mainland, focusing on Aldergrove, but noting also various other 1950-70's-era lower mainland malls all dating from the auto-centric era, primed and either now fully re-developed or in process of being re-developed:

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...pment-1.5100873

Edited by AllseeingEye, 18 April 2019 - 03:32 PM.

[Mike K.]

I think we’re doing relatively well on the mall and shopping centre front.

Uptown completely redeveloped.
Hillside expanded.
Mayfair expanded.
Belmont Market nearing completion of its first phase.
A new shopping centre at Sandown.

Not bad.

[Nparker]

I think AsE is making a reference to the trend of redeveloping older shopping centres with a residential component. So far this hasn't happened anywhere in the CRD. Even Uptown hasn't managed to get any residences built.

[Jackerbie]

^ Ehhhhhh don't give Victoria such a hard time. The mall redevelopment in Metro Vancouver can be directly linked to Skytrain. As the article says, Aldergrove is the exception, but that's an empty mall and Skytrain is on the horizon.

 

Brentwood is probably the poster child of mall redevelopment, and that only got started 2014, 12 years after the Skytrain station opened.

[Nparker]

^ Ehhhhhh don't give Victoria such a hard time...

I am long past the point of cutting Dysfunction-on-the-Sea (aka the CRD) any slack.

[AllseeingEye]

I think AsE is making a reference to the trend of redeveloping older shopping centres with a residential component. So far this hasn't happened anywhere in the CRD. Even Uptown hasn't managed to get any residences built.

Yes exactly this, thanks NP.

 

Malls here are still way too auto-centric and devote too much space to 'asphalt'. Both Hillside and Mayfair were recently developed and could have and should have IMO incorporated some component of "residential". Or at the very least in all their public marketing material given some indication their thinking on the topic has moved beyond 1958.

 

Mayfair especially was a huge disappointment IMO: $80 million for...what...exactly? Take out the public furniture put down some hardwood lanes and essentially you have a great long bowling alley....

 

I love reading the anti-Uptown comments of FB from 'old time' Victorians who pine for the old Woolco Center. Are you kidding me? That POS was a crap mall even 35-40 years ago: basically a stand alone video store with a more centrally located strip-box surrounded by literally acres of concrete. The only thing that anyone should truly miss as a result of the demise of that sad old complex was....the bowling alley.

[Mike K.]

I think AsE is making a reference to the trend of redeveloping older shopping centres with a residential component. So far this hasn't happened anywhere in the CRD. Even Uptown hasn't managed to get any residences built.

Tuscany Village, Belmont Market and Mattick’s Farm come to mind as shopping centres with residential, although none redeveloped older shopping centres.

[Victoria Watcher]

Yes exactly this, thanks NP.

 

Malls here are still way too auto-centric and devote too much space to 'asphalt'. Both Hillside and Mayfair were recently developed and could have and should have IMO incorporated some component of "residential". Or at the very least in all their public marketing material given some indication their thinking on the topic has moved beyond 1958.

 

Mayfair especially was a huge disappointment IMO: $80 million for...what...exactly? Take out the public furniture put down some hardwood lanes and essentially you have a great long bowling alley....

 

I love reading the anti-Uptown comments of FB from 'old time' Victorians who pine for the old Woolco Center. Are you kidding me? That POS was a crap mall even 35-40 years ago: basically a stand alone video store with a more centrally located strip-box surrounded by literally acres of concrete. The only thing that anyone should truly miss as a result of the demise of that sad old complex was....the bowling alley.

 

agree. but there is something about nostalgia i think.  old stuff from youth always seems like it was cooler than it probably was by today's standards.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 April 2019 - 06:42 AM.

[Nparker]

Whoda thunk it? Apparently you can't tax your way to affordable housing.

University Heights redevelopment on hold as owner crunches costs

...Facing increased development cost charges imposed by Saanich, a rich community amenity package and the desire to have some affordable housing options on site, Vancouver-based Wesbild is tweaking its project and crunching numbers to see if there’s a way to make the mixed-use development financially viable...When you keep layering on costs, when do you say ‘uncle?’ ” asked Steve Forrest, Wesbild’s senior vice-president of real estate...

https://www.timescol...osts-1.23804291

 

[tjv]

^its not just government charges, construction costs continue to rise while prices are flat or falling.  retail as well has not been doing well

[Mike K.]

The step code is making things very difficult.

[Rob Randall]

https://www.saanichn...pz4-0qvI9wtEUTo

Jen Derbyshire, Wesbild’s director of marketing and community relations, said Tuesday that the company plans to submit its revised proposal in the fall followed by what she called “extensive” community consultations.

 

The broad strokes of the project remain, mixing commercial usage with rental residential, said Derbyshire. “But it will be different.”

 

To emphasize this point, Wesbild has scrubbed its project website of previous renderings in suggesting that its new proposal will perhaps be less ambitious. The site instead features more generic imaginary. Previous renderings showed an elegant, even upscale, complex, that would dominate the area if completed.

 

 

The "generic imagery" they're referring to means stock photos of people shopping and drinking coffee, not anything architectural. Either way, I'm pessimistic we'll ever see some of the interesting architecture and finishes seen in the initial renderings.

 

http://universityheightsvictoria.com/

 

 

[Rob Randall]

If you see Saanich News reporter Wolf Depner, who posted that article at 5:10 this morning, buy him a coffee.

[RFS]

https://www.saanichn...unity-concerns/

Did Saanich News get the drop on citified with this scoop?

[Nparker]

 

[Victoria Watcher]

frankly i'd dump the university heights name.

 

and call it the something or other power centre. everyone loves a power centre.

[Nparker]

frankly i'd dump the university heights name and call it the something or other power centre. everyone loves a power centre.

Power centre is an odd moniker to give to something that will be mostly residential.

[shoeflack]

University Heights is a great name for a neighbourhood. And with residential, now this would actually be a neighbourhood. The name is actually a great fit post-development.

[Victoria Watcher]

Power centre is an odd moniker to give to something that will be mostly residential.

 

rocky's not going to show up if you just say "come over for champagne at the condo above the shopping centre" to celebrate the bounty from his single-destination waste/recycling stream.

[AllseeingEye]

I'm ok with it; its analogous to the U-district in Seattle and for the same reason, i.e. the primary campus of the region's main university is close nearby. In a sense given the increased population and level of construction in the region University Heights as a neighborhood may make more sense now than 50 years ago when they built the mall.

 

Either way I grew up right around the corner on Cedar Hill Rd - had this development been pitched back then (1964-72) it could've easily wound up being known as The Barn Yard District, the Cow Pattie District, the Partially Paved but Mostly Gravel Street District , the No Longer Greenhouse District, or even the Lots of Hot Sex Happening because there are Children literally Everywhere district....