[Moncton] Retail Thread

[stephan.richard]

WEll the Tagner Outlet mall in Ottawa(Kanata) Openned this week to huge fanfare and traffic problems on the 417 and I am putting up hoped that they will set up here in the province baut I am hopeful it will be here in Monctom to make this the retail hub of the maritimes.

[MonctonRad]

I am now less and less hopeful that there will be a Tanger Outlet Centre in Moncton (or possibly indeed the Maritimes).

So far, there are four Tanger Centres open in Canada - three in the greater Montreal/Ottawa region alone. There were talks of 12-16 centres nation wide, but I wonder if they won't concentrate their efforts around the major population centres in the country, maybe another 4-5 outlets in southern Ontario and then the rest in the west.

As long as Bass Pro Shops was on the table, then a Moncton Tanger Centre might have been viable, but since Bass Pro has announced for Champlain Place instead, then there is now no anchor retailer available around which an outlet mall might have been built.

Moncton and Halifax remain the most likely locations for a Tanger Centre in the east, and it might still happen, but when you look at the stores that are typical tenants in a Tanger Centre, we already have most of them in the metro area anyway. A Tanger Centre therefore might accomplish nothing more than parasitizing business from the existing retail base in Moncton. The only way to avoid this would be to have a destination retailer like Bass Pro to bring retail tourists to the shopping centre. With Bass Pro off the table, the only other option as a destination retailer would be IKEA, and we all know that's not going to happen.........

[MonctonRad]

Mapleton Crossing - current status:


Cabela's & Princess Auto as seen from Cabela's Court


Princess Auto as seen from the store's main driveway


Cabela's - they are beginning to apply some of the exterior accents

In contradistinction to my current pessimism about a possible Tanger Outlet Centre in Moncton, I must admit that I am becoming really excited about Mapleton Crossing. The two existing tenants under construction are both destination retailers and the development itself is being built to the highest quality. I am very confident that Mapleton Crossing will fill up rapidly with high quality retailers and services. The location (at the corner of Mapleton and the TCH) is ideal, and will attract a lot of business right off the highway. The restaurant pad in the development should be particularly attractive. I can see a coffee shop doing very well here too - possibly a Starbucks or Second Cup. There are three other retail buildings proposed. Cabela's in particular should be able to attract co-tenants of the highest calibre.

[Stirsnack]

There has been many rumors around my neighbourhood that they are building another Tim Hortons in the front portion Spenser's Rest Home on Salisbury Rd.
There is a Robins Coffee in the Petro Canada already, so i guess there is a demand.
Any info on this ?

[bigrivernb]

GUACAMOLE
MEXICAN STREET FOOD
is opening in Champlain place food court according to the building permit. set to replace the former ed's sub that has already closed and boxed up.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by bigrivernb

GUACAMOLE
MEXICAN STREET FOOD
is opening in Champlain place food court according to the building permit. set to replace the former ed's sub that has already closed and boxed up.

Excellent!!

Guacamole is the new Mexican place that opened in the old Ed's Sub location at Mountain & Universite earlier this year. It's gotten good reviews (although I've never tried it). This will be their second location.

This is an excellent addition to the food court at Champlain. I don't think Ed's Sub will be missed too much. I could never understand why there was both an Ed's Sub and a Subway in the same food court anyway. Guacamole will definitely add to the food selection available at Champlain......

[micks5477]

Originally Posted by bigrivernb

GUACAMOLE
MEXICAN STREET FOOD
is opening in Champlain place food court according to the building permit. set to replace the former ed's sub that has already closed and boxed up.

Yes, the owner told me they are definitely going into Champlain Mall.

[micks5477]

Picture from the T&T this morning about Sleep Comfort coming to Moncton. Foundation is in for Sleep Comfort.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Does anyone know what's being built across from NBCC? Looks like they renovated s building and they have parking lot curb work done now too.

[micks5477]

This can not be good news for the Sears Canada stores still open. A report out today said in the Chicago Tribune where Sears world wide headquarters is located in suburban Hoffman Estates, Illinois that Sears is closing 30 Sears stores, 31 Sears Auto Centers and 46 Kmart locations, which gathered liquidation notices sent to local publications. Most to be closed before Christmas.

[MonctonRad]

If anyone is interested, Milestones Grill & Bar have "immediate" opportunities available for franchisees in Halifax, Moncton and Winnipeg.

http://www.carafranchising.com/milestones/home.html

All you need is $1-1.2M unencumbered cash for investment.

Milestones is seriously one of my favourite chain restaurants. When I'm on the road in Canada, if I see a Milestones I will try to make a point of eating there. I like Moxies, but Milestones blows Moxies out of the water. Right now, Milestone's has locations in BC, AB and ON. They are opening a restaurant in St. John's too. I am truly excited to see that Moncton is one of the three top cities in the country where they are currently looking for franchisees.

If I were Cara Foods, I would seriously consider Mapleton Crossing as the preferred location for this proposed franchise. Cabela's will be a huge draw for Mapleton Crossing, and the location (right off the TCH) is ideal. Cordova has also included a high visibility restaurant pad at the entrance into Mapleton Crossing, no doubt in anticipation of a signature restaurant such as this. The fact that there is both a Hampton Inn and a Four Points by Sheraton literally within 1-2 blocks of this restaurant pad should be a strong enticement as well.

If Milestones were to come to Mapleton Crossing, then we would have four fairly high profile steakhouse type restaurants within roughly about a 1 km stretch of Mapleton Road (Milestones, Mavericks, Moxie's & Montana's). Having four such restaurants in close proximity would be an attraction in itself......

Milestones Menu:
http://www.milestonesrestaurants.com/dinner.php

Floor plan:


Typical Milestones location:

[josh_cat_eyes]

I've often thought that Milestones was missing out on opportunities in Atlantic Canada.
Another retailer that is missing out is JSK. Perhaps they could build in a Tanger outlet mall. Other potential retailers that could anchor such and outlet mall in Moncton are
IKEA
Apple
Hudson's Bay
Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue
Lowe's
Target (if they decide to build more)
Superstore (rumoured to be build on the east side)
Zara
Forever 21
Home Outfitters

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I've often thought that Milestones was missing out on opportunities in Atlantic Canada.
Another retailer that is missing out is JSK. Perhaps they could build in a Tanger outlet mall. Other potential retailers that could anchor such and outlet mall in Moncton are
IKEA
Apple
Hudson's Bay
Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue
Lowe's
Target (if they decide to build more)
Superstore (rumoured to be build on the east side)
Zara
Forever 21
Home Outfitters

Regarding your list:

- IKEA and Apple are not coming to Moncton and never will.
- Hudson's Bay will almost certainly take over the Sears space at Champlain Place once Sears finally declares bankruptcy.
- Saks Off 5th (and Nordstrom Rack) could potentially open in Moncton given the proper conditions; such as the opening of a high end outlet mall like Tanger.
- Lowe's will not be coming to Atlantic Canada as long as Kent is successful.
- Target only needs one store in Moncton, and the jury remains out whether or not Target will even survive in Canada. There are rumblings out there that Target could sell out to HBC or Loblaws with the stores then converted to (or selling licenced goods from) the British retailer Primark which is considering an aggressive North American expansion.
- Superstore is building their new store (their 4th metro store) in the new development on the NW corner of the Elmwood/TCH intersection.
- Zara and Forever 21 would be much more likely to end up in Champlain Place than anywhere else if they come to Moncton.
- Home Outfitters would (I think) be more likely to take over the Sears Home store at Wheeler Park once Sears collapses. This would make sense. Hudson's Bay takes over Sears at Champlain and Home Outfitters (an HBC subsidiary) takes over Sears Home at Wheeler Park. It's just too perfect a solution.

So, in general I don't see the conditions being right for your selection of stores in a new development in the Moncton area. Good try though....

[josh_cat_eyes]

Haha I could see Apple coming to Moncton eventually in like 10 years perhaps. Wouldn't it be ironic if HBC bought Target Canada haha.

[FarmerTom]

HBC buying Target Canada and converting them back into crappy Zellars would be even more ironic

[swish]

It was a real hard fought battle to bring Apple to Halifax as I did my part in a very small way and Atlantic Canada is very lucky we finally have that store. Apple generally only locates in larger cities if there is one Atlantic Canadian city that Apple could possibly make an exception for it would be St. John's. Obviously I think Apple should open store in smaller cities as well such as Moncton and Saint John and Charlottetown but not likely.

[MonctonRad]

Regarding a desire for a Moncton outlet centre and Mapleton Crossing, the two could be combined.

Regard the following site plan:



- Buildings "A" and "B" are spoken for - Cabela's and Princess Auto
- Building "C" as envisioned includes three small CRUs, one with a drive through, which I presume is a coffee shop (?Starbucks or Second Cup). I presume the other two units would also be for food services as well.
- Building "D" is a standalone restaurant pad, which I now have high hopes of perhaps being a Milestone's Grill & Bar.
- This leaves Buildings "E", "F" and "G", which would all be multiunit retail plazas. I have no idea what stores are being courted for these buildings, but it is certainly possible that they could be intended for outlet type stores. There is no question that having a Cabela's in Mapleton Crossing would certainly be attractive for factory outlet type retailers as Cabela's is very much a destination type store that will attract people from all over the region.

I know that Cordova intended to meet with a number of prospective retailers from across Canada and the US this fall to generate interest in Mapleton Crossing. It will be very interesting to see what they come up with........

[OUIR@random]

As for Target in Moncton and elsewhere in Canada, I think that they undelivered at this point because they were too Canadian (seriously); they had higher prices and not the same selection found in US locations. Then again, no US retailers have the same selection in Canada; Home Depot, Walmart, Costco and so on. I was in a Target in Massachusetts last week and the selection found compared to here is night and day. They (Target Canada) tried to be too much Canadian, people liked Target in the US for the selection that could not be found here, but now they're in Canada with a lot of merchandise that can be found at Walmart, Superstore and Canadian Tire. They will need to bring in more exclusive merchandise from the US and stop giving us products that we can find at competitors. I'm a proud Canadian, but Target should ''Stop being so Canadian'', we want something different and they will need it to stand out. I still like Target Canada and they do have some stuff that you can't find elsewhere and we go regularly.

I think they will try to readjust in the next year or two (2015-16), but if things do not improve by 2016, they might fold. I don't see them leaving before then. I think that if Target Canada fails, we will have a very, very large amount of retail space for lease in Canada, and it will be bad for growth and will not leave a good impression for new retailers to come into Canada, from the US or internationally. HBC won't buy something that they got rid of a couple of years ago and how many Superstore can you have, really, these spaces will mostly remain vacant in the short to medium term. And then there's Sears, can you imagine the Canadian retail landscape if Target and Sears closes. This is a dire situation that I hope won't happen, but we know that Sears Canada is just a matter of time...

Until next time ...

[Taeolas]

This might be a discussion better for the Canadian retail thread; but that does make you wonder a bit.

US Expansion into Canada has slowed compared to the previous years. If Sears AND Target were to pull out of a market of 33 million people, I suspect it would make people take a close look at the Canadian Retail Landscape.

Why can't those businesses succeed here? Was it because they are misreading the market? (probably the issue with Target) or because of problems with the US Parent (Sears's issue).

Is there anything the government can do to make the market more inviting, without throwing out everything?

Frankly, from my consumer perspective; a lot of these problems seem to be self inflicted by the retailers and their suppliers. From what I've heard they're maintaining different price points for the USA and Canada for the same products coming from the same locations (often coming through the same ports, many in Canada) and not keeping those price points up to date to recognize the current economics (Loonie vs Greenback ratio and so forth). They've grown fat on those different price points, and now that the Canadian consumer is more savy about those differences, they aren't willing to let them go to their own detriment.

[MonctonRad]

I haven't given up on Target yet, I think they could make a comeback here in Canada, but a lot depends on how patient the US management is about their Canadian adventure. They have invested so much money in this that it's hard to imagine they would give up so quickly.

Most pundits are assuming that Target will wait until after the 2015 Christmas season before making their final decision about bailing out of Canada or not. Next year therefore is the make or break year for Target Canada. With new Canadian management and a new corporate strategy, it's too soon to give up on them yet. I hope they succeed, I really like Target.

Sears on the other hand is pretty much beyond redemption. Both the Canadian and American divisions are in really rough shape, with the US parent willing to throw Sears Canada to the wolves in order to try and save themselves. We have seen this type of "dispose Canadian assets" strategy before with Blockbuster, Radio Shack, Kmart etc, and it never works. It won't work here either and I expect a big Sears fire sale in 2015.

The good news for us here in Moncton is that I'm pretty sure Hudson's Bay wants into Champlain Place. The major question for us is whether or not they will bring along Home Outfitters to occupy the Sears Home store at Wheeler Park at the same time.