Council confounded on how to save Westmount Mall while protecting downtown London

When it comes to deciding the future of Westmount Mall, London city council is facing a tricky balancing act, one with massive implications for whether or not the downtown core will wither or thrive in the years to come.

A number of city policies limit how much office space can be built outside the downtown core. The current cap for each business is 2,000 square metres. There are exceptions, but the general idea is to constrain as much office space as possible in the city core where it will create the kind of economic spin-offs that allow a downtown commercial sector to thrive. 

In the past, most big companies wanted to be downtown.

But what happens when so many office workers aren't in an office anymore but doing their work from home? And retail spaces struggle to compete with online shopping following pandemic shutdowns?

It's these economic factors that stand to shape the proposed remaking of Westmount Mall. 

Built in the 1980s as a community mall surrounded by single-family homes, these days Westmount Mall is two thirds empty. The owners have been able to exceed the 2,000 square metre limit on office spaces through past council decisions. As it stands now, about 14,000 square metres of office spaced is housed in the mall. 

On Monday night, the city's planning committee considered an application by the mall's owners to build up to seven residential towers on top of the existing two-storey mall. The tallest tower would be up 18 storeys tall. 

Staff recommended to reject the application, mainly because the plan for 900 units of residential towers included adding 30,000 square meters of office space. That's well above the 2,000 square metre limit in place to protect London's downtown. 

"Allowing this type of office space in a suburban area could be precedent-setting, and it does undermine the role of the downtown," Sonia Wise, a senior planner with the city, told the committee. 

Farhi weighs in

Others aren't happy about the application either. 

Shmuel Farhi, who owns much of the commercial real estate in London's core including 60 per cent of the vacant buildings, wrote to council asking them to reject the application. 

"The downtown of any city should be the driver of the community and as such, the core should maintain its status as the home of premium office space," Farhi wrote. "The core is already facing numerous issues that council needs to prioritise." 

However, a representative of the mall's owners told the committee that caps on suburban office space are outdated.

Casey Kulchycki is a senior planner with Zelinka Priamo Ltd., a consultant representing the mall's owners, 785 Wonderland Road Inc.

He said while retail demand in the mall is low, the owners receive daily calls from companies wanting to rent office space. Many of the clients are call centres.

"An office space is wherever you can get an Internet signal these days," said Kulchycki. "We've had numerous inquiries from people outside of London looking to move offices to a more cost-effective market but we've unfortunately had to turn those people away. They don't hang up the phone with us and call the downtown. They call Strathroy or Stratford or Woodstock." 

Councillors on the city's planning committee voted 4 to 1 in favour of a staff recommendation to allow a scaled down version of the residential towers while maintaining the limit on office space. 

That decision next goes to full council for a vote. The thing is, it won't be council that gets the final say on what really happens at Westmount Mall. 

That's because in April the owners filed an appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal, arguing that council took too long to make a decision about an earlier iteration of their application. 

City staff said council's vote will be considered by the Land Tribunal but it's the tribunal that has the final say. 

Ward councillor wants compromise

The mall is located in Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen's ward. Though not on the planning committee, he said there needs to be a compromise that will allow the mall to regenerate because not every new business wants to set up shop downtown.  

"Instead of losing them to another jurisdiction, doesn't it make sense to at least keep them in London proper?" he asked. 

Meanwhile residents already dealing with increased traffic on Wonderland Road are worried about having to endure a mall makeover the developer admits could take 20 years or more. 

"Our concern is with health and safety in the area," said Troy Frederick, whose backyard on Village Green Avenue stands to be shadowed by the towers. "That's the backyard space where my kids are outside when it's warm."