The 1960s and 1970s spawned the era of urban renewal and in
Thunder Bay the result was two projects which left a legacy of costs and
expenses and mixed results – the downtown urban renewal malls. On the north side was Keskus and on the
southside it was Victoriaville. These
were the legacy projects of their day designed to reverse the retail exodus from
downtown and restore them to their former glory.
The projects were slowly strangled by demographics as middle
class residents moved to suburban areas and out of the downtown residential
area, the rise of the intercity shopping area, cross-border shopping and most
recently internet shopping. Victoriaville
in particular was also hurt by the malls locational position that blocked the
corner of Victoria and Syndicate – akin to putting a shopping mall right on the
intersection of Dundas and Yonge in Toronto or James and King in Hamilton. Many cities had downtown urban renewal mall
projects but Victoriaville was unique in how its design essentially killed
traffic flow.
The two projects were also not helped by the loss of
key anchor stores be it Eaton’s on the north side in the 1990s or Chapples on
the south side during the recession and high interest rates of the early
1980s. The north side mall eventually
made way for a casino and downtown redevelopment centred around waterfront
tourism. The south side mall lingers on,
given life support by the location of city government services and community
functions. However, its days appear to
be numbered as Thunder Bay City council will debate its future Monday evening.
A report being discussed presents four redevelopment
opportunities for the area:
Options 1A & 1B: Revitalize the existing infrastructure
through retaining the existing building and either revitalizing the retail
components or repurposing the existing space; (Cost: 1A-$34,860,000 or 1B-$15,360,000).
Option 2: Reconfigure the existing infrastructure, reopen
Victoria Avenue, and maintain a portion of the existing structure on Syndicate
Avenue south of Victoria Avenue; (Cost:$22,490,000) and,
Option 3: Remove the existing infrastructure, reopen
Victoria Avenue, and re- energize public spaces on Syndicate Avenue.(Cost:
$10,750,000).
Options 1A and 1B essentially will keep the mall on top of
the intersection, option 2 reopens Victoria but maintains Syndicate as blocked
while option 3 reopens Victoria Avenue and reopens Syndicate fully but to “reenergized
public spaces” which it appears means some type of pedestrian traffic but not
vehicles. The report does not address the
attached McKellar Mall – which is full of City offices for the most part and will continue on.
My guess is that there were be some support for 1B tomorrow
night because City Councillors know that Victoriaville has to go but they still
want to be seen as “constructive” and investing in the area’s activities and 1B
allows them to both get rid of Victoriaville and pretend they are replacing it
with another legacy. Option 2 will
probably have a bit more support from those who like option 1B because it costs
only a ‘bit more” but allows for a more innovative looking “legacy.” However, the best choice of the four is the
last one – Option 3 and not because it is the cheapest but because it is the
one that opens up the intersection the most though Syndicate is only going to
be fully open as a pedestrian space. The
intersection is much like a key artery and the blockage needs to be removed if
there is any hope of more robust activity emerging in the area.
Even with the intersection opened up, the area is so far
gone that it may likely never regain even a semblance of its former glory. Indeed, there are now too many competing
interests for retail and office activity in Thunder Bay’s dispersed urban
pattern to expect that much more will happen in the former Fort William
downtown aside from government and social services. The best option is actually not there – Option
4: fully open up the intersection by removing the Syndicate Avenue parking ramp
and making Syndicate a full street again just like that planned for the reopened Victoria.
This is an option given that the very end of the report argues that the
parking ramp can be relocated.
Given the current division of Council into fiscal realists
and legacy investors, I would day that Option 3 will get five to six backers,
while the remaining support will fracture between Option 1B and Option 2. Having four choices does not provide for a
clear voting and decision process so getting to a final choice is likely to be
messy. The only certainty is that
cleaning up this legacy project is going to cost money no matter which way you
look at it. Given that Mayor Mauro is on
the record as stating that the last couple of years have seen “reasonable” tax
increases, get ready for the 2021 “unreasonable” increase.
