The Shops | ?m | 3fl | Complete

[Viewfromthe42]

But if it's not really a "shop", it's just an office that doesn't need valuable UpTown frontage, why would it be good to have something like Shopify downtown?  Wouldn't it be better for that kind of business to be in some office tower somewhere, not using up all those valuable frontage spaces?

I would agree with you on the streetfront level concerns. The LCBO-to-Scotiabank stretch in Uptown is not especially pleasant, and in Kitchener you have Manulife, the Igloo building, Scotiabank-to-THEMUSEUM, Pinpoint, and absences elsewhere. I believe Kitchener is trying to prevent this but I don't know that they have much ability to do so. But just like how every homeowner saying they don't want people to live near them, which prevents people from changing development patterns everywhere, these companies enjoy the downtown vibe and think that it's no big deal that just they take up a storefront, but when Pinpoint, Netsuite, Vidyard (albeit sidestreet and accommodating J&P) and others start doing it, eventually there's not much street vibrancy left, which is what I hear of places in San Francisco.