New Horizon Mall — Local services in Alberta

WOW ! Soooo Empty after 7 years....... How do you Keep Staff, Keep your Doors Open without having to Lock Up and find a Bathroom; and/or have Repeat Customers without Washrooms??? * Where are any of the Required Public/Staff Washrooms on the Massive Main Floor???? Washrooms and Handicapped Accessible Washrooms were REQUIRED by Health and Safety Regulations under "the Alberta Building Code", when it was built. Where are the Alberta Public Health Officials? ..... How was this allowed to be built under the Alberta Building Code? Why were Code Requirements over looked? It looks like the Main floor was not required to have Public Washrooms. Unlike other Malls. How were the Narrow Public Corridors , in general, and Stores with stay OPEN accordian doors allowed? The Public Corridors appear to be narrower than other Malls and the reason for this is???? Again , There appears to be NO "Public Washrooms" on the MAIN FLOOR . It appears to have been Designed and Built Without Any of the REQUIRED Mandatory minimium number of Washrooms on the Main Floor To meet Building Code. Half Empty is "As Busy As it's ever going to get" at this moment in time. Architectually Designed "WITHOUT WASHROOMS" on the Expansive Main Floor. It looks like that the Building Design Never met Building Code when it was "Permitted" to be Built. Without Washrooms in their "Main Floor Store" or nearby. It is going to be Impossible to Open for the Main Floor "Small Cubical Condo Unit Owners". Units that are "Still Empty" after 7 years; if they still "Own" them. The "Required Washrooms" to meet Building Code should have been at least "Roughed In" and Identified as such on the Main Floor. And it was 90 % SOLD before it was Permitted without any space identified as "Future Washrooms". This MALL is 7 years old and the Main Floor remains with empty Glass Stalls/ Unoccupied Stores. When Permits were issued. How did this meet Alberta Health, Barrier Free Access and Building Codes? There appears to be NO Washrooms on the Expansive Main Floor or Future plans to install them.This is a Very Large MALL and it appears that there are currently just 2 specified Washroom areas in the MALL. Washrooms for the PUBLIC /STAFF are located in just 2 places. 1 at the Lower Level and 1 at the Upper Level. It looks like there are NO plans for Future Washrooms anywhere. Do Staff just lock up shop, leaving customers to wait, and head to one of those washrooms? AND How far is it to a Washroom? What if you are "differently abled"? So I am still wondering .....Why there are not bathrooms throughout the Mall like other Malls and why do the corridors appear to be narrower than in other Malls? AND "How was...

A generous 4 stars, because I don't want to discourage people from checking this mall out (read on, it is worth visiting). Beautiful building worth seeing, cool concept, some niche shops or unique products, etc. Almost every shop is like a booth at a trade show or farmers market...they have a small reserved space to showcase their goods, and services, etc. The upper level also has a small food court which includes a (limited space seating) balcony with a view that might include the mountains or some horses grazing on a good day but otherwise vast albeit underwhelming on another day). There are plenty of friendly and deserving vendors dedicated to making this work BUT there are also ALOT of empty spaces AND not all vendors will be open when you might expect them to be. If you have small children, the amusement place on the upper level (escalators near the middle) looks amazing (small arcade, huge (understatement) climbing structure with ball pit, etc. and a second section that seems to be a large play town -- great consideration for a birthday party?)...but my boys are older so I have never used the amusement place. There is a "big box" store on the lower level (West side) that is full of a variety of things (felt a little like what Giant Tiger might be like in China to give it a little more context...to me anyway)...I have not been to that store in a while but I recall it being interesting to check out and the prices weren't bad. The store map/directory is available online so you can see what shops are there before going and use it to navigate from one store to the next, making it much easier to find a specific vendor than just wandering (although that can be fun sometimes too). A sidebar (speculative) regarding the cool concept of this mall that is struggling to succeed...too many vultures (money to spare but no interest in actually running a shop there) jumped on the model that enabled shop owners to own their space within a mall (not rent or lease) with a hope that they could simply rent or lease the space to prospective shop owners that might not want to buy (or afford to, etc.). Without them (so maybe vultures are not a fair term for all of them) perhaps the mall would not have been able to open its doors BUT so many empty spaces AND closed shops or unpredictable hours deter people from attending with any regulatory...PLEASE check it out to support those that are trying and see if there is something you like (at least once, if not more) and hopefully this mall will become more and more popular (driving further opportunity, etc.) and encouraging local entrepreneurs,...

Came here back in June, 2018. It was empty then....At the time I offered one particular landlord a chance to have his unit leased to me for my small business idea (3 year contract)..I would of signed then and there, but he rejected my offer for the single unit rental, saying the mall was going to be the next big thing and I should be ashamed to low ball him. He told me that the Mall Administrators (the people inside the leasing office) basically told him the same thing when he asked for advice and to "ignore this joker" (me). For a week, the landlord basically strung me along and ignored my calls. Mall administrators seemed clueless as well, unable to answer questions about timing/leasing process - this was back in June.

Fast forward months and the mall still sits empty, now I'm seeing on Kijiji rent prices going for 15 to 20% less than my initial offer to the guy even offering 3 months free rent, with no bites. It looks like the mall developer earned money, and investors are stuck with mall units that are vastly overvalued. Some of these unit owners took out loans from either family or w/e the sizes of their home mortgages (200-800k) to finance these units and have been delayed by the developer/mall/mall administration while they're not getting any cash flows from rent whatsoever. I'm not surprised if some unit owners are going to have bank foreclosures incoming.

Hope to see the mall materialize to something great, and give a boost Calgary's economy but nothing as of yet. Looks like Grand Opening is getting pushed back and no longer on Oct the 27.

Morale of the story: when someone gives you a deal, go with your gut feeling and accept it as an investor. Hesitation is going to cost you. And never take advice from mall staffers with no real knowledge about real estate. They are there to manage the property not...