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Prominent Western Centres Amalgamate to Create The Core; Leasing Underway
Major redevelopment plans in central Calgary are underway, which will see three Calgarian retail landmarks amalgamate in an effort to create the city’s premiere downtown shopping destination.
Located at 8 Ave. and 3 St. S.W., TD Square, the Calgary Eaton Centre and the former Sears will be rebranded as The Core.
Work has begun and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2010. The design is intended to create an urban streetscape enclosed by an expansive skylight linking three city blocks in the heart of the city central business district.
Highlights of the project include the addition of world-class retailers, integration of the 2.5 acre Devonian Gardens downtown urban park, which will be closing for renovations shortly, and an expanded, next generation food facility including seating for 900 patrons. The food court will feature different themes such as a diner, cafés, and sit-down restaurant ambiance.
The highly anticipated opening of luxury retailer Holt Renfrew’s flagship store is confirmed for August 2009.
20 Vic Management leasing director Stan Boniferro says there’s currently in excess of 75,000 sq. ft. in leasing opportunities available for a range of operators from home and personal goods, to giftware and fashion, among others.
The Core is focused on attracting better quality retailers, luxury brand retailers and western Canadian or Canadian flagship stores.
The ownership group for this development includes SITQ, a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and Alberta Investment Management Corporation. 20 Vic Management Inc. is responsible for the redevelopment, leasing and management of the project.
Construction Commences at Rutherford Market Place in Vaughan; Leasing Underway
Construction is slated to begin this fall on First Capital Realty’s new 280,000 sq. ft. convenience lifestyle centre dubbed Rutherford Market Place.
Situated on the northwest corner of Bathurst St. and Rutherford Rd. this centre will offer a combination of lifestyle and convenience shopping and will be anchored by a 50,000 sq. ft. Longos food store and a 17,000 sq. ft. Shoppers Drug Mart.
Located in a vibrant, rapidly growing community, the population within a 3-mile radius grew 18.9 % from 2001 to 2006. The household income at $116,125 is well above the Canadian average of $69,000. The overall population within a 3-mile radius is over 120,000. Over 80,000 cars pass this intersection on a daily basis and Bathurst St. will soon be expanding to seven lanes to accommodate the growing traffic.
Units ranging from 1,200 sq. ft. - 30,000 sq. ft. are currently available and are ideal for restaurant, fitness, financial institutions, books, electronics, medical, dental services and other retail services.
Rutherford Market Place will be built according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.
New,
Renovating And ExpandingCentres
First Capital Realty Inc. recently announced that construction will commence shortly on Hunt Club Place, an approximately 145,000 sq. ft. centre located at Ottawa’s third busiest intersection, Hunt Club and Riverside Dr.
Hunt Club Place is poised to capitalize on the growth of this affluent market. In the 0-1 km radius the average household income is $117,958 according to the new 2005 Stats Canada report. The household growth from 2001 to 2006 was over 19%.
Daytime population in the 0-5km area is over 110,000 and approximately 68,000 cars pass by the site daily.
The centre will be anchored by a 51,000 sq. ft. T & T Supermarket. T&T will be an excellent regional draw to the area and will be complimented by restaurants, service, local and national tenants as well as a financial institution.
Units ranging from 1,000 sq. ft. - 20,000 sq. ft. are available and would be perfect for fast food, wireless, audio/video and fitness retailers. Medical/Heath offices are also an ideal fit.
Hunt Club Place is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2009 and will be built according to LEED Certification Standards in the company’s commitment to green development on all future projects.
Leasing opportunities are available at Swift Current Mall located at the busy junction of Hwys. 1 and 4 in southwest Saskatchewan.
Anchored by Wal-Mart, Safeway and Staples, Swift Current Mall is considered the premier shopping destination in this region.
Opportunities from 1,400 sq. ft. - 3,000 sq. ft along with pad sites are available for national retailers as well as independents.
Mega Centre Notre Dame, a power centre located at Hwy. 13 and Notre-Dame St. in the Ste Dorothee district of Laval, Que., currently has a 6,025 sq. ft. space available for lease. Fashion or service uses are welcomed.
Anchors include: Zellers, Super C, Winners/Homesense and Pharmaprix. There are over 75 national and regional retailers in Notre Dame and the site enjoys high visibility to Hwy. 13.
Centre de la Concorde, a strip shopping centre located on Hwy. 25 and boul. de la concorde in Laval, Que., has two leasing opportunities including 6,111 sq. ft. and 9,678 sq. ft. units.
Anchored by a Super C grocery store, the site has ample parking and convenient access to and from the highway.
Over a million people reside within a 20-minute drive to the centre.
Pre-leasing is underway at Plaza Hawkesbury located at 460 County Rd. 17 in Hawkesbury, Ont.
The plaza has 45,527 sq. ft. of leasing opportunities available and is expected to be available to tenants in January 2009.
Plaza Hawkesbury is directly situated on Hwy. 17 and is adjacent to Loblaws, Zellers, McDonalds, Home Hardware and shares a communal parking field with Canadian Tire.
Current tenants include Staples and Tim Hortons.
For leasing inquiries contact contact Marcel Blouin at the Harden Group, 324 Aimé Vincent, Vaudreuil, Montreal, QC J7V 5V5 (450) 424-1101; Fax: (450) 424-4633
Frog’s Gym is for sale and is located at 11300 Yonge St. in Richmond Hill, Ont.
This corner unit site is approximately 9,465 sq. ft. and includes a 1,000 sq. ft. mezzanine with expansion potential.
Four years remain on the lease with an option to renew for five years. Rent rates are as follows: $13,014.38 per month for 2008; $13,408.75 per month for 2009; $13,803.13 per month for 2010; and $14,197.50 per month for 2011.
Its asking price is $495,000.00 and includes all equipment, chattels and fixtures. TMI is approximately $6.75/ sq. ft.
Frog’s Gym opened October 2000 and is centrally located with high visibility and parking. There are approximately 2,000 current members.
One 1,600 sq. ft. CRU space is available for lease at Walnut Grove located at 88th and 202nd in Langley, B.C.
The site suits a variety of uses from fashion, to service, and dollar store.
Kin’s Farm Market recently opened its doors and Swiss Chalet is nearing completion.
Avoiding Surprises in the Construction of your Premises
Prepared By: Sonja K. Homenuck, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP
Often a tenant will comparison shop for just the right space in a building, only to find that the available space needs to be built out to make it work for the tenant’s intended purposes. Too often however, the lease or offer to lease negotiations surrounding the alteration of the existing premises focus only on the most obviously required installations or changes to the physical structure (such as lighting, painting, installation of demising walls, etc.) and who will pay for those alterations. However, tenants would be wise to consider and perhaps negotiate a number of related issues that will help ensure the space will look and be capable of being used as intended such as the following issues.
1. Base Building Systems – Availability and Capacity
One issue often overlooked is the existence and capacity of building systems. These items can be of critical importance to a tenant that may require them to operate its permitted use the way it intends but are missed in negotiations as they are hidden from view. A tenant who intends to operate a printing business may find out during its fixturing period that the electrical capacity of the premises is not great enough for its printing business (the space was previously used as basic office space). It could be a costly fix, especially if the electrical distribution system in the building is very old and not capable of an easy upgrade. Tenants should be mindful of what their intended use will be and determine what building systems are necessary and in what capacity (with professional assistance if necessary). In many cases (particularly where the intended use of the premises will be different from the previous use), it may be advisable for a tenant to obtain a representation and warranty from the landlord in respect of the availability of the systems required and the capacity of those systems.
2. Landlord’s Work: Inclusiveness and Specificity
It is critical for a tenant to ensure that any landlord’s work it requires is described inclusively, in detail and with specificity. If you do not include specific details or worse yet, omit a particular item of work that you want the landlord to complete, expect you won’t get it (except at your sole cost). In addition, many tenants will remember to be exhaustive in listing the landlord’s work, but will not describe a standard required for that work. If you forget to add specific standards, you may receive a low standard. If you fail to ensure that certain alterations will be in particular locations, you may not get to choose where they will go. The moral here is to ensure the landlord’s work includes everything you expect, is very detailed and includes standards where applicable. Ideally a tenant (where enough leverage exists) should be able to inspect the premises and the work performed and it should be to the tenant’s reasonable satisfaction, particularly where the tenant is essentially paying for the cost of the work amortized into the rent over the term. Many tenants provide the plans and specifications.
3. Special Requirements in Doing Tenant’s Work
There can be a number of factors that can affect Tenant’s Work and either make it more expensive and time consuming. Are there restrictions on the days or times when work can be done and the noise level? Some landlords only allow work to be done on weekends or outside “normal business hours”. You may require use of some of the parking lot for equipment and vehicles while the work is being performed. You may want to ask if there is anything unusual about the building (e.g. asbestos requires more care be taken and potentially its removal if it must be disturbed). If you spend the few minutes considering how the work will get done and asking the landlord questions about the process and the building itself, you may be able to save yourself time and/or money by negotiating those issues. Unwanted surprises and expense can be avoided by being diligent and specific in negotiating the terms and conditions surrounding construction of the premises.
| Shopping Centre Construction Update |
Each month SCN provides you with a contstruction chart update profiling new, renovating and expanding retail developments. Check out what's happening
in the following cities:
• Burnaby
• Langley
• Surrey
Click here to download the full shopping centre construction
update
| Shopping Centre Spotlight |
Customer Needs is a Leading Priority at Anthem Properties
By: Romina Sestito
Anthem Properties likes to think of itself as an energetic and entrepreneurial company that believes in a highly integrated approach to development, always putting its customer first.
“We try to think outside the box, and are not afraid to try new things. We study our consumers to try to understand what they want, how they shop and/or want to live. We feel it is so important to take a fluid and adaptable approach to design when catering to a populace whose needs change so quickly from year to year. Our corporate slogan really sums up our development principles,” says Alexa Ulinder, vice-president of leasing.
Its corporate mantra: “We focus on creating real estate that works,” began circa 1991, when Eric Carlson founded the Vancouver-based company.
It focused its attention on western North American markets including B.C., Alberta, Colorado, Arizona, southern California and Texas. A mere six years later, in late 1997, Anthem had acquired, assembled, financed, co-owned and managed 46 properties having a total market value of over $500-million.
Today, it has 18 established retail properties totalling 2,579,6688 sq. ft. and two office properties amounting to 537,100 sq. ft.
Developments in the pipeline account for 4,059,968 sq. ft. of residential, 598,180 sq. ft. of mixed-use (office and retail) and finally 480,000 sq. ft. of retail.
It adds value by way of effective management practices, rezoning, retenanting, adding density and redeveloping underperforming or undermanaged properties. This includes office, suburban shopping centres, multi-family and single family residential projects.
Its development focus has become increasingly integrated, particularly on the residential and retail sides. Many recent acquisitions are mixed-use developments, which are both vertical and village style formats. This trend is especially prominent in larger metropolises where density is a driver.
One prime example of a mixed-use development which combines residential and retail components is Tandem in Burnaby, B.C. The development features 408,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use combining retail and condominiums. It’s comprised of 14,000 sq. ft. of street-level commercial retail along Dawson St. and 308 residential units in two, 19-storey high-rise towers as well as a low-rise loft development.
“We believe our background in both residential and retail development has given us a competitive advantage with these types of projects. We look to the end users, the residents and retailers, and what experience they are looking for to help define and design our spaces,” says Ulinder.
Anthem co-owns a portfolio of geographically diversified, predominantly food anchored, shopping centres throughout B.C. and Alberta in a limited working partnership with Kimco Realty Corporation, North America’s largest shopping centre REIT with 800 properties comprising approximately 114 million sq.ft. of leaseable space throughout 42 states, Canada and Mexico.
Its endeavors will be in multiple asset classes, however the company’s main focus will be twofold – retail and residential high density development. This well seasoned developer continues to take on both greenfield development opprotunities as well as value-added redevelopment projects.
One of its most recent redevelopment projects is Northtown Centre, formerly known as Northtown Mall, located at 137th Ave and 97 St. in Edmonton.
Purchased in May 2006, this 231,426 sq. ft. shopping haven features Indigo Books, Starbucks, Bed, Bath & Beyond, CIBC, Wendy’s, London Drugs and T&T Supermarket.
Construction is currently underway and is scheduled for completion in spring 2009. One 20,000 sq. ft. anchor leasing opportunity, adjacent to Indigo, remains.
Northtown Centre is a classic example of a formerly tired enclosed mall undergoing a major transformation in order to suit the needs of tenants and retailers.
“We try to build shopping experiences that address specific consumer needs and this can vary by location, for example small versus large market, market demographics, the project requirements, even the local climate can dictate the project form to some extent. We have unquestionably seen a trend towards the unenclosed centers in our portfolio but still continue to work on both large and small format retail and have a strong focus on mixed use projects,” says Ulinder.
A great example of new format retail, complimenting the shopper’s experience,, is the Langley Power Centre located at 200th and the Langley Bypass in B.C.
This 223,000 sq. ft. big-box centre is plotted on 17-acres of prime commercial land. Anthem acquired it in 2000 and developed the project in 2001 and 2002. It features a compendium of traditional big box tenants including Future Shop, Michaels and Golf Town, and junior fashion tenants such as Jacob, Mexx and Smart Set. In 2003, Anthem sold the property.
Once Anthem establishes its end-user’s needs, the company looks to address design development. This can include simple yet discerning components such as creative public spaces for gathering and resting, creating synergistic co-tenancies that encourage enjoyable pedestrian experiences, or enhanced project amenities for shoppers and residents.
Its current focus is western Canada, primarily B.C. and Alberta, however as markets change and opportunities surface, Anthem will consider expanding its geographical horizons.
New developments include: Cloverdale Shopping Centre in Surrey, B.C., a 120,000 sq. ft. grocer-anchored community shopping centre; a 75,000 sq. ft. project in partnership with Open Road Canada; a 13-acre site in New Westminster, B.C.; Alto, a mixed-use development in Vancouver; and Governer’s Landing, a regional power centre in Westbank.
