Royalmount plan raises important questions
$2B shopping destination plan could save city’s retail industry, or hasten its demise
As a teenager growing up in suburbia, the mall was the centre of my existence.
A lot of my social life took place there, during lunch hours, between classes and on weekends. At a time when there were few cafés and most fast-food joints had 20-minute no-loitering limits, the mall was one of few places young people could congregate that wasn’t a park or parking lot.
My tastes changed dramatically when I moved to the city. There was a time I knew all the trendy indie boutiques on the Main or St-Denis St. I’d spend entire weekends browsing the carefully curated collections between stops on terrasses to meet friends.
These days, the Montreal Gazette’s Ste-Catherine St. headquarters are within walking distance of almost every retail chain store in the city. But as a busy working mom, I’m more likely to grab a few fast fashion items at the grocery store or shop online, especially for the kids. A few clicks and a few days later, the exact thing I need arrives on my doorstep.
I don’t know if I am representative of shifting shopping habits more generally, but retail is a much tougher business than it once was. In middle America, once-thriving malls are now wastelands, documented for their eerie esthetic on photography blogs. In Montreal, construction work that devastates once-thriving strips, the lure of novel commercial developments in the 450 and competition from internet giants like Amazon are all hurting bricks-and-mortar stores.
So much is riding on the $2-billion Royalmount shopping destination Carbonleo is pitching for the busy industrial park at the junction of Highways 15 and 40. Will it end up saving Montreal retail or hasten its untimely demise?
Royalmount will be more akin to a circus than the subdued social scene of my misspent youth. It will feature concert venues, an outdoor cinema, a water park and a public market, plus restaurants, hotels, office space and, oh ya, stores. It might even be a beachhead location for new retailers Montreal doesn’t have yet.
Carbonleo argues Royalmount will keep customers in Montreal who are drawn to Carrefour Laval or the Dix30 on the South Shore, which will soon be just an electric-train ride away from the city centre. But is the goal of keeping more shoppers in the city justification enough?
Town of Mount Royal is so thrilled to have Royalmount on its turf, it has already given it a green light, despite charges of illegal lobbying laid in 2015 that resulted in a $500 fine. And Carbonleo says T.M.R.’s approval is all it needs to move forward.
The city hall opposition, Ensemble Montréal, also gives it two thumbs up. But the new Projet Montréal administration is weighing it carefully. In opposition, it vociferously opposed a development that is pretty much the antithesis of everything it stands for. Now it may be trying to mitigate the more worrisome aspects of a juggernaut it may be powerless to stop (like the impact on traffic).
The stakes are high. Montreal’s most venerable shopping street, Ste-Catherine, is torn up for crucial water-main work for the next several years. This presents both a major risk to retailers who will have to cope with the disruption and an important opportunity for renewal. The city is now revisiting the plans for the strip at the 11th hour with an eye to giving Ste-Catherine some extra oomph.
Other downtown shopping destinations are also getting a facelift. The Eaton Centre is being totally overhauled along with the adjoining Les Ailes complex with a $200-million investment from Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Carbonleo is backing a $60-million merger of Ogilvy and Holt Renfrew in a new hotel/condo tower. Plans to renovate the historic Hudson’s Bay Company flagship by incorporating a Saks Fifth Ave. seem to have hit a snag, but there is plenty of optimism amid the uncertainty that the city centre will be more than able to compete in this ferocious retail environment.
But what about other Montreal shopping centres, like Cavendish Mall, Carrefour Agrignon, Galérie D’Anjou and Rockland Centre? Montreal malls may be better off than some of their American counterparts, but they could soon be facing stiff competition from Royalmount, which intends to capitalize on the new trends of retail as an experience.
According to a report from McKinsey&Company, the future lies in combining leisure and entertainment with shopping, harnessing technology and transforming malls into mixed-use communities. Perhaps what the traditional shopping centres lack in show-stopping pizzazz they will make up for in convenience for customers who just want to run a few quick errands.
And what of neighbourhood commercial streets like St-Laurent Blvd., St-Denis St., Bernard Ave., Notre-Dame St. W., Laurier Ave., St-Viateur St. and St-Hubert Plaza? How do we nurture the mom-and-pop shops that cater to local residents who come by bike and on foot, or welcome visitors in search of an authentic Montreal experience? How does the Jane Jacobs ideal fare in the face of the mall as theme park?
If these sound like existential questions, they are. Royalmount may be one project put forward by private investors. But it has the potential to transform the entire retail landscape and influence the shape of Montreal in the future.
Montreal malls may be better off than some of their American counterparts, but they could soon be facing stiff competition from Royalmount.