Retail and real estate analysts believe that large retailers such as Walmart or Target could start pushing for the construction of a new shopping mall on either of two downtown Vancouver blocks that are ripe for redevelopment.
Canada Post's sale in January of its longtime Vancouver headquarters to BC Investment Management Corp. (BCIMC) has opened up the block bounded by Georgia, Homer, Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets.
Two blocks east is Larwill Park, which is owned by the City of Vancouver and bounded by Georgia, Cambie, Dunsmuir and Beatty streets.
The Vancouver Art Gallery is hoping to convince the city that it should be given the site - which some estimate to be worth $200 million - in order to build a new $300 million gallery.
"Either one of those sites could anchor a downtown shopping complex and support all the traffic and financing that's needed to create an effective centre," James Smerdon, vice-president and director of retail consulting at Colliers International, told Business in Vancouver.
Smerdon expects Target to open 49 Canadian stores this spring, mostly in Western Canada and southwestern Ontario.
The chain will then open an additional 17 stores in the summer and another 48 in the fall, mostly in Quebec and Ontario.
"They're looking at sites for new construction, but the ones they're opening this year are entirely former Zellers locations," he said.
"They've taken those stores down to the studs. They're brand-new stores."
Neither Target nor Wal-Mart has a presence in downtown Vancouver.
Bob Nicholson, retail asset manager for Morguard Investments Ltd., agrees that the downtown core can support more retail projects. But, he added, it could be a challenge to get large U.S. retailers to pay the high cost of locating downtown.
– Glen Korstrom/BIV
from Western Investor April 2013
