General Retail News

[neonjoe]

The Beer Store at 400 King St W is slated to close. This could open up some decent development opportunities with the vacant McCabe's next door.

[dtkvictim]

The Beer Store at 400 King St W is slated to close. This could open up some decent development opportunities with the vacant McCabe's next door.

https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...p?tid=1853

Which reminds me to go reply in that thread with some more info

[danbrotherston]

The Beer Store at 400 King St W is slated to close. This could open up some decent development opportunities with the vacant McCabe's next door.

That beer store is brand new!

Wait! McCabes is vacant?  Holy crap.

[ZEBuilder]

This is purely speculative but Smart Centre's appears to be gearing up to redevelop the entire Laurentian Centre.

Over the last couple of days they've drilled multiple boreholes and monitoring wells in and around the old Zellers/Target. Which is certainly the area most prime for redevelopment of some kind. In the summer they drilled a couple of monitoring wells in the Rona+ parking lot (their current lease still has another 5 or so years on it) so it certainly seems like something is brewing.

Another thing to keep in mind is Ottawa St was identified in ROPA 6 as a road intended for future BRT/LRT (along with the phase 2 route), with the province removing planning authority from the Region things change but for now the cities still have to use their own Official Plan and ROPA 6, the Region still acts as a commenting body so they can still say design for a BRT/LRT on Ottawa St even though they no longer have authority to approve anything. As new Official Plans are developed they'll incorporate ROPA 6, so it wouldn't be surprising if Kitchener 2051 includes the same wording surrounding Ottawa St so high density is certainly a possibility.

[creative]

When the pedestrian bridge over the highway was first proposed, I suspected that this redevelopment was already in the works.

[ac3r]

Random...but how is there still NOT have an Ikea in Waterloo Region?!? Including the student population, isn't there something like 650'000 to 700'000 people here? That has to be enough to support an Ikea location at this point.

[neonjoe]

They require 1M within the catchment area. We are not quite there yet.
I wish we would have one, meatballs all day every day lol.

[Rainrider22]

Add Guelph, Stratford, Wellington county, Owen Sound and Grey County... more than enough..

[KevinL]

I've heard rumours that Laurentian Centre (at Ottawa and Strasburg) may be redeveloping its northern portion (everything except Zehrs, Montana's, and Rona). Is that a big enough footprint for an Ikea?

[ZEBuilder]

I've heard rumours that Laurentian Centre (at Ottawa and Strasburg) may be redeveloping its northern portion (everything except Zehrs, Montana's, and Rona). Is that a big enough footprint for an Ikea?

It is the intent of Smart Centres to redevelop it, however it is still a while away and is almost guaranteed to be mixed use in nature. They've done geotech work throughout the site this past year. They did a borehole and monitoring well in the Rona parking lot, they've done one in the middle of the Zellers parking lot, then they've done boreholes and monitoring wells along the Strasburg side of the older Zellers. However geotech/hydrogeological work is often done years ahead of any site plan.

One thing to keep in mind is the Region's long term intent is to have the plaza redeveloped into a mixed use development through ROPA 6 so a use such as Ikea would not conform to that and likely be rendered as illegal without a ZBA/OPA. The policies relevant to this particular can all be found in Section 2.D.3 of ROPA 6, I'll highlight some important statements from it and text I add will be in brackets.

2.D.3.3
Area municipalities, in consultation with the Region, will establish minimum density targets for all Regional Intensification Corridors that:
(a) are measured in people and jobs per hectare; 
(b) support transit-supportive development with a more compact built form; 
© reflect opportunities for the intensification and support the transition of any surrounding neighbourhoods into 15-minute neighbourhoods;
(d) recognize the diversity of uses along the corridor and reflects the local context; and 
(e) will be implemented through official plan policies and designations, and zoning by-laws (Such as the current Kitchener OP update)

2.D.3.4
Area Municipalities will establish policies in their official plans with implementing zoning by-laws to ensure that Regional Intensification Corridors (ION Stage 1/2 and Ottawa from Sunrise Centre to Fountain St) are planned in a matter that: 
(a) accommodates intensification and higher-density mixed uses in a more compact built form;
(b) prioritizes walking, cycling, and rolling, and taking transit over automobile trips;
© provides for an appropriate range of main street uses, such as retail, cultural, institutional, residential, personal services, offices and other uses;
(d) prohibits reverse lotting and positions new buildings as close as possible to address the street edge while ensuring adequate space for sidewalks and a street planting zone; (Likely impossible with the way Ikea's are generally designed)
(e) requires new buildings to be a minimum of two storeys;
(f) locates the highest densities and encourages a greater mix of uses close to transit stops within Major Transit Station Areas; 
(g) provides an appropriate transition of use, intensity and scale from higher-density development to any surrounding low density areas; 
(h) prohibits land uses and built form that would adversely affect the achievement of the minimum density targets set out in Policy 2.D.3.3; and, 
(i) is consistent with the relevant transit-supportive development policies of Section 2.D.6.

2.D.3.5
As part of the next update to the Region’s Transportation Master Plan, the Region, in collaboration with the area municipalities, will examine the potential for establishing a new ION rapid transit route along the east-west Regional Intensification Corridor (Ottawa St) shown on Map 2 that would: 
(i) provide a direct link from the Region’s transit system to the Region of Waterloo International Airport; and
(ii) serve as a key transit corridor connecting the west side of the City of Kitchener to the East Side Lands Employment Area in the Township of Woolwich, and City of Cambridge via the Fountain Street corridor.

The Region of Waterloo was stripped of planning powers with Bill 23 however one of the purposes of the new Kitchener OP is to incorporate those ROPA 6 changes, eventually the only OP that will be relevant is Kitchener's but for now everyone is still operating with both ROPA 6 and each cities own OP until ROPA 6 is incorporated into each cities own OP or the Province says to stop using it. Kitchener could decide to ignore everything about Ottawa St but that seems highly unlikely given the policies around the MTSAs.

[KevinL]

Denser development would definitely be more welcome than even an Ikea. Thanks for the breakdown.

[Acitta]

I've heard rumours that Laurentian Centre (at Ottawa and Strasburg) may be redeveloping its northern portion (everything except Zehrs, Montana's, and Rona). Is that a big enough footprint for an Ikea?

There are three large department store locations in the region that are about to become available. Maybe Ikea will be interested in one of them.

[KevinL]

There are three large department store locations in the region that are about to become available. Maybe Ikea will be interested in one of them.

By which I presume you mean the Hudson's Bay locations. Those are all in shopping malls, which Ikea does not generally go for.

That said, a large tenant could move from what is currently an isolated property into one of those vacant mall units, which could allow Ikea to take their old space, hermit crab-style.

[ijmorlan]

There are three large department store locations in the region that are about to become available. Maybe Ikea will be interested in one of them.

By which I presume you mean the Hudson's Bay locations. Those are all in shopping malls, which Ikea does not generally go for.

That said, a large tenant could move from what is currently an isolated property into one of those vacant mall units, which could allow Ikea to take their old space, hermit crab-style.

Ikea stores are in the range of about 320,000 square feet. All of Fairview Park is around 750,000 square feet. So I don’t know how much floor space Hudson’s Bay is, but I don’t think it’s half of a typical mall that it would be in.

Ikea is a big store.

[Acitta]

By which I presume you mean the Hudson's Bay locations. Those are all in shopping malls, which Ikea does not generally go for.

That said, a large tenant could move from what is currently an isolated property into one of those vacant mall units, which could allow Ikea to take their old space, hermit crab-style.

Ikea stores are in the range of about 320,000 square feet. All of Fairview Park is around 750,000 square feet. So I don’t know how much floor space Hudson’s Bay is, but I don’t think it’s half of a typical mall that it would be in.

Ikea is a big store.

I haven't been to an Ikea since the 1990s, when I still lived in the GTA, so I don't remember how they compare in size. Anyhow, I don't see why they can't sell a lot of their stuff in a smaller store.