General Urban Cambridge Updates and Rumours

[DHLawrence]

Cambridge running out of room for retail development: report
http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5166...nt-report/

CAMBRIDGE — 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.

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