Zellers Building

[Symbonite]

Reading the newspapers and they said a bunch of things like coscto..haa lha haa

a office supply store....someone sniffing something...Staples coulnt make it here..

how a about a bowling alley? do we need one in Westbank?

[hotrocket]

I don't understand why the mayor was even discussing this with the "breakfast for business" or whatever it's called. Since when does the DWK even have a say over what to do with that land/building. Isn't it on WFN land?? Shouldn't the mayor of DWK know the city limits? Anyway back to the building...bowling alley...roller rink? What is this 1954? No way. Dumb ideas. If whoever does own that building wants to make money, why not an indoor skate/activity park or turn it into an ice rink. I'm sure you could fit 2 sheets of ice in there nicely, or one for skating and one for curling.
I'm sure the westside could use something like that. (And perhaps a new mayor who knows what going on)

[Anonymous123]

I wonder what makes an ice surface facility superior to a bowling alley or a roller rink?

[hotrocket]

I wonder what makes an ice surface facility superior to a bowling alley or a roller rink?

The money it can make for the owner of the facility. People are always looking to rent ice $$$

[Symbonite]

I do say whoever owns it should start cleaning up that area.such eye sore


But ya what can they do...its on WFN land


and the hear say heard it though the grapevine take it as you will but I over heard that the owner wants 65,000 a month for rent on that building.....can you say NUTSO!

[bazinga42]

Probably a misunderstanding of how commercial leasing works. Rates for something like this would run < $10/s.f. But that's an ANNUAL rate, not monthly. So I'd guess if there's any truth to that $65k figure, that's $65k per year.

Then again, now that I've done a bit of research, I think you're probably right about it being $65k/mo: the property's lease, according to Artis' website (the leaseholder), includes the old Extra Foods building too. So if it is $65k/mo it could be for both buildings. That is a lot of space. Its a little over 100k square feet combined. So if $65k is an annual figure, that's only $0.65/sf and that's way too low. $65k per month would work out to $7.80/s.f which is probably right on the money.

Yet another thing to consider... again from Artis' website... is that the lease is already paid by Zellers (now Target) until 2023. So there would be VERY little motivation to find another tenant. Artis would be obligated to offer it for lease to another party, but they don't have to discount it for sure. If another party steps up, then Target is off the hook, so of course Artis is going to demand top dollar. Target is a big company with very deep pockets, so they're undoubtedly paying the lease rate. They just decided that its better for the books to waste $65k/mo than it is to operate it as a store (involving renos, staff, etc in a poor location). You might think they'd sublease it but you never know, they may not be allowed to as per the terms of the lease. Extra Foods is referred to as a "shadow lease", which I have to admit is a term I'm not familiar with.

[mexi cali]

The money it can make for the owner of the facility. People are always looking to rent ice $$$

I don't know about that. The OTR on Stevens Rd. I think has had several different ownership groups since it was built years ago. It hasn't produced the demand that was hoped for so I'm not sure that having another sheet or 2 in the Zellers space would be any better.

Maybe but who knows.

I think a bowling alley/brew pub similar to Freddys on Mcurdy might be an idea.

Expensive to build but Freddys seems to do OK.

[Bsuds]

One of these would be nice.

http://www.extravaganzi.com/tropical-is ... ater-park/

[mexi cali]

My dream would be to have a scaled down version of that in the massive home I don't own.

[Symbonite]

One of these would be nice.

http://www.extravaganzi.com/tropical-is ... ater-park/

Imagine the belly aching that will go on with the price on that. I mean look and how much bitching went on with the pool in Kelowna.

[Symbonite]

Yet another thing to consider... again from Artis' website... is that the lease is already paid by Zellers (now Target) until 2023. So there would be VERY little motivation to find another tenant. .

Imagine what that place would look like without any upkeep in 10 years from now....look like that show Life after people...

[matai]

What's about just putting it down and make room for a centrally located residential skyscraper? They do that all the time in real cities.

[bazinga42]

Even better... pull it down, plant some grass... have a nice big central park. They do THAT in real cities too!

[matai]

And using the suck pond in its centre? LOL

[forumdoug]

There are no immediate plans for the old Westbank Zellers building. Artis REIT currently owns a 100% interest in this leasehold property (i.e., remainder of the 99-year "ground lease") as well as the building, interior and parking lot assets. It has a long-term contractual lease agreement with Hudson's Bay Company (presumably, through its Zellers Inc. subsidiary or another company real estate subsidiary) through 2023. I presume HBC is utilizing it merely as a storage facility for its inventory (might as well use it since you're paying rent, right?). Any decision(s) on re-use or sub-lease would need to be made by HBC (and Artis REIT, since it would need to also approve any sub-lease or assumption of rent). :)

I think Artis REIT is pretty comfortable sitting back and collecting the Net Operating Income (NOI), or commercial rents, from this property. Using a reasonable $20/sq. foot multiple on an annual basis (since that's generally how these sort of things are measured) on 105,000+ square feet, that's easily $175,000 (before things like utilities) per month HBC has got to be paying. Even a "bare minimum" price of $10/sq. foot, that's close to $100,000 per month. I think they paid barely $3 million for the property in 2009. It's capital they can use to pay down the remaining balance on the mortgage, distribute to unitholders, buy back units or retain in the business to fund its development as we approach 2023.

For now, the parking lot serves as a great overflow "campground," thanks to the sheer lack of outdoor, green-surfaced camping facilities in the Central Okanagan! Don't expect much more than that - for another 7-9 years or so. ;)

Cheers,
Doug