Yellow Fever
December 26th, 2008, 05:44 AM
Maple Ridge News
You want a mall in Albion
By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News
Published: December 25, 2008 6:00 PM
“Hurry up and build this mall,” says one.
“Would love to see a Wal-Mart!” adds another.
“Maple Ridge is so under serviced anything would be welcome at this point,” chimes one.
The comments come from Smart!Centres’ website (www.albionshopping.com) and are sampling of more than 800 replies to the question: “Want a new shopping centre in Maple Ridge?”
While some comments speak out against a mall in the 105th Avenue area near Lougheed Highway, most of those who responded between Nov. 7 and Dec. 10 can’t wait to start digging into the farmland.
An Albion area plan, which will set out the main uses for the area, is one of the main tasks of Maple Ridge’s newly elected council.
Bob Jones, who’s on the board of the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association, says it was a mistake rejecting the shopping mall in 2005. Smart!Centres instead bought land on the north side of Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows with the result that Maple Ridge lost the revenues a new mall would bring.
“For me, I think it was a tragedy, that thing not going ahead. It’s not like it won’t happen. It won’t happen in Maple Ridge where you collect the taxes.”
And regardless of whether the district finds room for a mall there, it could take years. The decade-long real estate cycle has just hit a low-point so Jones doubts a project will start soon.
“Depending on how much commitment is made in Pitt Meadows … I would think 10 years – if the district was in favour of it – and they’re not, so where does that go?
“I just think not building a tax base is unbelievably short-sighted.”
Jones, who owns four buildings in the downtown, says a big-box shopping mall wouldn’t hurt downtown because most businesses in the central area are service related, such as lawyers or barber shops, rather than retail. Haney Place Mall, with its emphasis on small stores, wouldn’t compete with the big stores in the power shopping centres.
“Downtown Maple Ridge is a business park, not a retail park,” Jones said.
He conceded, though, Zeller’s would suffer if a Wal-Mart opened.
Smart!Centres, however, doesn’t intend on stalling its plans because of the worldwide recession.
“Despite the current economy we are not delaying our development projects,” corporate VP Sandra Kaiser said in an e-mail.
Kaiser explained that the company set up the website and posted the feedback so neighbours could read each others’ comments.
According to Smart!Centres, the comments are posted as they appear, in the order in which they were sent and were only changed for taste or legal reasons.
However, there’s still no time frame for when it would start its Pitt Meadows properties, in the 19400-block on Lougheed Highway.
The company currently only has a soil deposit permit for that property and hasn’t yet applied to Pitt Meadows for a development permit. However, the company already has objected to the city’s guidelines for the north Lougheed commercial area. Those guidelines call for high levels of landscaping and esthetic design, which means reduced parking.
Meanwhile, Pitt Meadows is pushing the North Lougheed connector, the road that will run from 128th Avenue to Lougheed Highway, just west of Harris Road, which could serve as a northern access for commercial development. The city has applied to the Agricultural Land Reserve to remove farmland for that route.
Asked if such a road is needed for its plans, Kaiser said any of its development would consider “the available transportation infrastructure.”
Smart!Centres has no plans for anything in Maple Ridge’s downtown.
There’s not enough land, Kaiser said. “We believe the best way to support Maple Ridge’s downtown core is to ensure that residents have access to shopping in their community, which keeps them in their community to shop.
“This sentiment was repeated often in the comments, that people regret having to leave Maple Ridge to visit the stores in which they want to shop.”
• Of the comments opposed to a mall in Albion, two wrote:
“Every time a new Maple Ridge mall opens, another one slowly empties only to be left with vacant shops and dollar stores.
do not support the Albion Shopping Centre and I do not think more shopping is needed especially in the Albion flats.
“We already have all of those stores in the Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows area. How many malls do we need? Why not develop something positive – more recreationally services, an educational farm for the youth to learn from, mini golf, a stadium, an outdoor pool? A shopping centre filled with products manufactured in countries other than Canada and shipped in from afar is not good for global warming.
• “Sorry you’ve been pushing developing this land for a Wal-Mart, etc for a long time. The majority don’t want it here. Please leave us alone.”
You want a mall in Albion
By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News
Published: December 25, 2008 6:00 PM
“Hurry up and build this mall,” says one.
“Would love to see a Wal-Mart!” adds another.
“Maple Ridge is so under serviced anything would be welcome at this point,” chimes one.
The comments come from Smart!Centres’ website (www.albionshopping.com) and are sampling of more than 800 replies to the question: “Want a new shopping centre in Maple Ridge?”
While some comments speak out against a mall in the 105th Avenue area near Lougheed Highway, most of those who responded between Nov. 7 and Dec. 10 can’t wait to start digging into the farmland.
An Albion area plan, which will set out the main uses for the area, is one of the main tasks of Maple Ridge’s newly elected council.
Bob Jones, who’s on the board of the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association, says it was a mistake rejecting the shopping mall in 2005. Smart!Centres instead bought land on the north side of Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows with the result that Maple Ridge lost the revenues a new mall would bring.
“For me, I think it was a tragedy, that thing not going ahead. It’s not like it won’t happen. It won’t happen in Maple Ridge where you collect the taxes.”
And regardless of whether the district finds room for a mall there, it could take years. The decade-long real estate cycle has just hit a low-point so Jones doubts a project will start soon.
“Depending on how much commitment is made in Pitt Meadows … I would think 10 years – if the district was in favour of it – and they’re not, so where does that go?
“I just think not building a tax base is unbelievably short-sighted.”
Jones, who owns four buildings in the downtown, says a big-box shopping mall wouldn’t hurt downtown because most businesses in the central area are service related, such as lawyers or barber shops, rather than retail. Haney Place Mall, with its emphasis on small stores, wouldn’t compete with the big stores in the power shopping centres.
“Downtown Maple Ridge is a business park, not a retail park,” Jones said.
He conceded, though, Zeller’s would suffer if a Wal-Mart opened.
Smart!Centres, however, doesn’t intend on stalling its plans because of the worldwide recession.
“Despite the current economy we are not delaying our development projects,” corporate VP Sandra Kaiser said in an e-mail.
Kaiser explained that the company set up the website and posted the feedback so neighbours could read each others’ comments.
According to Smart!Centres, the comments are posted as they appear, in the order in which they were sent and were only changed for taste or legal reasons.
However, there’s still no time frame for when it would start its Pitt Meadows properties, in the 19400-block on Lougheed Highway.
The company currently only has a soil deposit permit for that property and hasn’t yet applied to Pitt Meadows for a development permit. However, the company already has objected to the city’s guidelines for the north Lougheed commercial area. Those guidelines call for high levels of landscaping and esthetic design, which means reduced parking.
Meanwhile, Pitt Meadows is pushing the North Lougheed connector, the road that will run from 128th Avenue to Lougheed Highway, just west of Harris Road, which could serve as a northern access for commercial development. The city has applied to the Agricultural Land Reserve to remove farmland for that route.
Asked if such a road is needed for its plans, Kaiser said any of its development would consider “the available transportation infrastructure.”
Smart!Centres has no plans for anything in Maple Ridge’s downtown.
There’s not enough land, Kaiser said. “We believe the best way to support Maple Ridge’s downtown core is to ensure that residents have access to shopping in their community, which keeps them in their community to shop.
“This sentiment was repeated often in the comments, that people regret having to leave Maple Ridge to visit the stores in which they want to shop.”
• Of the comments opposed to a mall in Albion, two wrote:
“Every time a new Maple Ridge mall opens, another one slowly empties only to be left with vacant shops and dollar stores.
do not support the Albion Shopping Centre and I do not think more shopping is needed especially in the Albion flats.
“We already have all of those stores in the Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows area. How many malls do we need? Why not develop something positive – more recreationally services, an educational farm for the youth to learn from, mini golf, a stadium, an outdoor pool? A shopping centre filled with products manufactured in countries other than Canada and shipped in from afar is not good for global warming.
• “Sorry you’ve been pushing developing this land for a Wal-Mart, etc for a long time. The majority don’t want it here. Please leave us alone.”