Filling The Gap.

Since the Walmart location in Confederation Mall closed earlier this year there has been a lot of speculation of what might replace it, especially since it was reported soon after that negotiations were underway with a major retailer to fill the space.  We now know that the retailer in question is Canadian Tire.  The obvious question is why.  Canadian Tire already has a large store located just across the street from the mall, one which in its current form isn't that old.  What advantage is there to spending a large amount of money moving the store a short distance, other than gaining more room?  Reportedly the new Canadian Tire will be the largest in the country when it opens in 2011.  According to a CKOM report  negotiations have been in the works for a year, and the move has prompted other unnamed national retailers to consider setting up outlets there as well.  I would guess mall owners ICR made Canadian Tire a very generous leasing offer.  Perhaps they have a potential client for the current Canadian Tire property waiting in the wings as well, as that store will close when the new one opens.

Brother, Can You Spare 1.25 Billion Dimes?

It was announced this week that the widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling is selling the Spelling mansion. Asking price, 125 million bucks. So I'm asking for your help. All it will take is each visitor here to donate 10 cents, one slim dime, and it won't be long before I have the capital to buy it. I'm not sure what you do with a 123 room mansion, other than spend a lot of money on staff and property taxes, but I'm sure I'll find some cool use for it. I'll even let you stay in a room once in a while.

Mrs. Spelling wants to downsize. Her new penthouse apartment will be a mere 16 thousand square feet and cost 47 million dollars. I'm sure she'll be able to cope with such hardships.

The Price Is Wrong?

A fire early Sunday destroyed a minor Saskatoon landmark. A restaurant has been operating under the Commodore name on Saskatoon's Second Avenue since the 1940s. In recent years it had been operated as Chau's Commodore, a Chinese restaurant. Also destroyed was a coffee bar, Gotta Hava Java, located next door. And smoke and minor water damage have put a number of other businesses temporarily out of action, including the neighbouring Olympia Restaurant and the McDonalds Express. Yep, there were four restaurants side by side. The preliminary damage estimate is one million dollars.

But a peculiar fact came up in today's Saskatoon Star Phoenix article on the fire. Realtor Bob Adam said that he put Chau's on the market in September for $55,000, and that a previous attempt by another realtor had had an asking price of $125,000. Frankly 55 grand strikes me as low in the current Saskatoon market. Like other property commercial real estate prices have gone up in the past year or so. This includes in the city centre. The increase was enough to prompt one local business owner to finally close her Second Avenue gift shop after decades and sell the property, whereas she had considered previous offers insufficient. Chau's was only half a block from the condo development in the old Bay store, which looks like it's finally getting close to completion, and the recently started transformation of the KG Hotel into yet more condos, so you'd think you could get a better price for the restaurant than $55,000. One would assume that more people living in the area will result in increased restaurant traffic, and hence make existing restaurant properties more valuable, but perhaps some other factors were involved.

The Future of Saskatoon Rentals?

(click on the pic for a better look)

With the way things are going this scene might actually happen here in Saskatoon. Large numbers of condo applications are currently under consideration on top of all the conversions of apartment buildings to condos currently going on. Apparently there are no new rental spaces currently planned. You'd think that at some point there would be an oversupply of condos, but even though the Saskatoon real estate market is cooling down slightly apparently there is still lots of demand.

This scene comes from issue 30 of DC Comics Nightwing. The lovely young lady is Bridget Clancy, who was Dick Grayson's landlady at the time. Clancy was born in Hong Kong but adopted by an Irish couple as a baby, hence her "lookin' like Kowloon and talkin' like Londonderry" as she told Dick when he first got a look at her actual face.