Brentwood Entertainment Plaza at night

 

October 13, 2020: Brentwood Entertainment Plaza

 

First post in 10 months

 My last post was in January of this strangest of years.  Instead of talking about the opening of The Amazing Brentwood in the Fall of 2020, we will likely see it's full opening sometime in 2021.  It's been very nice to see people hanging out in the Entertainment Plaza during summers days and evenings.  I hope to resume posting regularly as we move towards winter.

Sporting Life open at Amazing Brentwood

Amid various delays at the Amazing Brentwood, Sporting Life quietly opened for business yesterday.  I took the opportunity to go check it out yesterday evening and to walk around the opened portion of the Entertainment Plaza connecting to the station.  Starbucks will open soon as we await other openings over the next few months.  As for Sporting Life, it's a pleasant arrival to a mall that has been lacking the presence of a big time retailer for a long while.

Retail tenants revealed for Brentwood

It has been about 2 months since my last post.  During that time, the Willingdon Linear Park has won an award while cycling advocates complain about not having a dedicated bike path along the length of the park.  If we are having discussions and debates about separating pedestrian from bicycle paths, it's a good thing as we move towards designing our city to be more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly

As the pedestrian areas in and around Brentwood's Entertainment Plaza begin to take shape with nicely lit steps, benches and beautiful greenery in the form of trees and shrubs, it appears that a full opening of Phase 1 of the Brentwood development has been delayed.  However some retail names have been revealed for the development as it inches closer to a gradual opening that will unfold between this fall and 2020.  According to the Daily Hive article below, the Cactus Club and McDonald's, will join Starbucks in the Entertainment Plaza.  H&M, Wilfred, Nike and Adidas have joined Sporting Life among the retailers announced.  More retail names should be revealed beginning this fall.

First look inside: The Amazing Brentwood shopping mall will live up to its name (PHOTOS)

Kenneth Chan

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Jul 26 2019, 9:59 am

It is safe to say The Amazing Brentwood (TAB) will live up to its name.

The first phase of the expansive redevelopment of what was previously known as Brentwood Town Centre shopping mall is now racing towards completion, with project team crews now well into the process of incrementally handing over completed shell commercial spaces to the construction contractors hired by the many retailers.

Darren Kwiatkowski, the executive vice-president of acquisitions and development for Shape Properties, provided Daily Hive this week with an exclusive first glimpse of the project nearing its final stage.

“We’re really excited that after many years of planning, design, and construction, we are close to being finished,” said Kwiatkowski.

“This place is coming alive… We think the public will be very excited and really embrace the project, and we’re looking forward to many years of success here.”

To say the least, it is certainly a highly impressive application and scale of a mixed-use, transit-oriented redevelopment concept; much attention to detail has been provided to this $1.5-billion phase of the new indoor and outdoor shopping mall with a wide range of retail and dining, residential and office spaces, and an immersive public realm.

The new shopping mall’s selection of retail, restaurants, and entertainment, with a greater-than-normal emphasis on the latter two, is intended to bring people to TAB. It speaks to how the next generation of malls in the rising retail age of e-commerce are increasingly focusing on creating experiential activations that supplement traditional retail.

To achieve an optimal mix of global luxury, mid-market, and local-serving retail, the developer partnered with global firm L Catterton Real Estate to turn TAB into a mall with high-calibre architecture, public art, and world-renowned and luxury retail brands.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS

Starbucks increasing presence at Brentwood

The first corporate logo has appeared at the station entrance level of the Entertainment Plaza of the Amazing Brentwood development.  With the retail portion of Brentwood scheduled to open in 2019, we can expect more revelations regarding store and restaurant locations.  The Starbucks logo can now be seen from the street.  Starbucks already has a location at the rear of the mall near London Drugs.  Other locations in the area include Solo District and across the street from there on  Lougheed Hwy, along with one on the corner of Dawson and Gilmore.

 

While we wait for for new retailers to reveal themselves at Brentwood, two pizza shops have quietly arrived in the area along with a Poke shop..  A Domino's pizza has opened on Dawson St and Willingdon Ave.  A Pizza Pizza and Pacific Poke have opened in the old plaza which already houses Starbucks, FatBurger and Buffalo's World Famous Wings.

 

More commercial/retail tenants confirmed for Solo District

With Whole Foods, Shoppers Drug Mart and a liquor store already confirmed to move into the Solo District site, Uncle Fatih's Pizza will take up residence there as well.  There is word that Ricky's Restaurant and BCAA will also move in along with a Starbucks coffee shop.

It's nice to see another restaurant come into the area.  I wonder if Milestones will make a comeback.