Cambridge running out of room for retail development: report

TheRecord.com
Dec. 1, 2014
Chris Herhalt

The City of Cambridge will struggle to find room for all of the new retail stores it is expected to need by 2031, a consultant's report suggests.

Research by planners Malone Given Parsons Limited says the city will need more than 100 hectares to accommodate new retail space in the next 16 years, but only 21 hectares of developable land is left inside the city's boundaries.

"There really isn't enough (land) to support all of this (retail) space," said Mimi Ward, a planner with Malone Given Parsons who helped prepare the report told council Nov. 24.

But planner Craig Hunter of Hunter and Associates hinted that Ward's company's analysis might be overlooking the rise of Internet retailing.

"Ward's assumptions are equivalent to about one Tri City Centre per year rolling out," Hunter said, referring to the shopping centre in Hespeler now home to a SAIL outlet. "We thought that sounded pretty ambitious."

He said online retailing now accounts for about four per cent of all sales in Canada.

But Ward responded that "there will still be a need for bricks and mortar" well into the future, as e-commerce is relatively new in Canada not rising as quickly here as it is in the United States and Europe.

In the United States, e-retailing amounted to eight per cent of all sales in 2013, and is expected to grow to 11 per cent of all retail sales by 2018.

While Ward said her firm's research found that Cambridge residents are largely attached to shopping in their city's own stores, they spend close to $200 million outside of the city in areas perceived to offer a better variety of goods.

"For some it's Fairview Mall, it can be Ikea in Burlington, it's even Vaughan Mills," Ward said.

Unsurprisingly, nearly 50 per cent of all active retail space in the entire city sits somewhere alongside Hespeler Road. Malone Given Parsons projects that Cambridge will have 178,000 residents by 2031.

Ward's report recommended the city better distinguish commercial developments based on who they're meant to serve — residents of the entire region, just the city or an individual neighbourhood.

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig deferred voting to receive the consultant's report until the next regular meeting of council, scheduled for Dec. 15.

"I want to give people more time to digest it," Craig said.