Ottawa Train Yards Shopping Centre

[ottawasportsfan2010]

Any one in the ottawa area have you been and how is it.

[jason9945]

Any one in the ottawa area have you been and how is it.

Its strange. It was nearly empty. I at first thought it was under construction or something. Went to the shoe company once looking for a pair of boots. No luck at that store.

[SAN66]

Very odd and mostly empty. I went there once, its plunked in the middle of an industrial park with no residential for a good 5-10km.

[jason9945]

Very odd and mostly empty. I went there once, its plunked in the middle of an industrial park with no residential for a good 5-10km.

Seriously? a good 5-10km?
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1875/mapor5.png

So your saying there is no residential areas in downtown ottawa. Parliament hill is 4km away from the train yards.

[SAN66]

Seriously? a good 5-10km?
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1875/mapor5.png

So your saying there is no residential areas in downtown ottawa. Parliament hill is 4km away from the train yards.

have you ever heard of something called exaggeration?

[litebrite]

i like visiting the trainyards! there's a few stores that i like to frequent

-dollarama (practically visit that place once/week since i've moved here)
-walmart

also there's an esprit where i hear there are pretty decent deals on clothing. haven't been on a clothing shopping kick lately, but if i were i think i'd check out trainyards first...

[CorSter]

It's in a weird location alrite.... but it's the closest Wal-Mart and Dollarama to me living Downtown.... much more convenient than South Keys, even with transit (I take route 8 from Laurier and walk a few blocks to the stores)

[angekfire]

Never been there. I only heard about it a few months ago when I saw an ad for it on the bus. I want to check it out, and maybe I'll try to this weekend now that busses are finally running again.

[jason9945]

have you ever heard of something called exaggeration?

Yes, I have. But you used it poorly.

[MacGyver]

The only reason it's there is because Walmart wanted a location close to Ottawa's core and its the best location for them because there aren't any NIMBY's nearby. It's not directly on any major arterial streets, hidden from view really. So it's not super convenient to get to. But, since it's not frequented that much, if Walmart has a killer deal, on say diapers, they'll probably still have stock while the other Walmarts have been cleaned out. Haven't been in any of the other stores because it's mostly just repeats of stores in the 'burbs.

[meagicano]

Definitely a much better Walmart than South Keys: much newer and considerably cleaner. I live close to downtown (but have a vehicle)... I just wish that there was a grocery store there. Or a sports store.

I find stuff is generally pretty quiet when I go by in the evenings. It's a bit busier on the weekends.

[SAN66]

Yes, I have. But you used it poorly.

Oh sorry I should have said a good 5-10k from anything, then maybe YOU would have understood the exagerated sarcasm. But for people from Ottawa they understand, the Trainyards, though probably the closest mall with big box stores to downtown, is awkward to get to by any means of transportation, not easy to get to by bus and you can't really walk there. Why are you commenting in a thread when you don't even live in the city?

Its a great place for finding sale items as not that many people go there.

Definitely a much better Walmart than South Keys: much newer and considerably cleaner. I live close to downtown (but have a vehicle)... I just wish that there was a grocery store there. Or a sports store.

That's the funny part, there's a giant Loeb warehouse across the street, but no grocery there.

[gsrce]

Oh sorry I should have said a good 5-10k from anything, then maybe YOU would have understood the exagerated sarcasm. But for people from Ottawa they understand, the Trainyards, though probably the closest mall with big box stores to downtown, is awkward to get to by any means of transportation, not easy to get to by bus and you can't really walk there. Why are you commenting in a thread when you don't even live in the city?

Its a great place for finding sale items as not that many people go there.



That's the funny part, there's a giant Loeb warehouse across the street, but no grocery there.

Who really wants to shop at Loeb anyways? =/

[mself084]

Who really wants to shop at Loeb anyways? =/

ah ah ah... it's called metro now :) or will be soon...

I've never been to train yards... the development plans look half decent, especially with residential mix AND if the ottawa train station starts to get used as a transfer location for the o-train. but i agree, i dont know how to get there, and i dont even know what's in there besides wal-mart.

EDIT: just took a look at the site plan... looks like there will be a link from the train station through to the stores/offices. id check it out if i could get off at the TRAIN transitway station.

http://www.ottawatrainyards.com/images/img_siteplan_b.jpg

[ipxxx]

It's in a weird location alrite.... but it's the closest Wal-Mart and Dollarama to me living Downtown.... much more convenient than South Keys, even with transit (I take route 8 from Laurier and walk a few blocks to the stores)

+1
I live near Elgin and whenever I want to check out Wal-Mart (haven't been any smoking deals lately though...) I just hop on the highway and I'm there in a few minutes

[SAN66]

Who really wants to shop at Loeb anyways? =/

Loeb is great for premade sandwiches and salads, etc.. especially since they often get marked down with those $1-2 off stickers because they're getting close to their best before date. Also has the best price on Bento Sushi (Other than going straight to Bento's) of any grocery store in the region. I use Loeb when I need a few items or something to make for a meal for the day, and because I can walk to it from my home. I use Loblaws for my bulk shopping.

[jason9945]

Oh sorry I should have said a good 5-10k from anything, then maybe YOU would have understood the exagerated sarcasm. But for people from Ottawa they understand, the Trainyards, though probably the closest mall with big box stores to downtown, is awkward to get to by any means of transportation, not easy to get to by bus and you can't really walk there. Why are you commenting in a thread when you don't even live in the city?


How do you know where I live? Do you know where I am right now? :lol:

I dont think your from Ottawa. If you have not noticed everything is awkward to get to by any means of transportation. Ottawa is one piss poorly laid out city. I mean who the hell puts a trucking route through downtown on surface streets? Ottawa! Thats who! Who else moves their train station out of the downtown core and rips out all the rail lines? Surely not the capital of a country that owes its existence to the railroad.

You cant really walk to anything in Ottawa, and OC Transpo service sucks.

[SAN66]

How do you know where I live? Do you know where I am right now? :lol:

I dont think your from Ottawa. If you have not noticed everything is awkward to get to by any means of transportation. Ottawa is one piss poorly laid out city. I mean who the hell puts a trucking route through downtown on surface streets? Ottawa! Thats who! Who else moves their train station out of the downtown core and rips out all the rail lines? Surely not the capital of a country that owes its existence to the railroad.

You cant really walk to anything in Ottawa, and OC Transpo service sucks.

Your location says Toronto! ?

Ottawa is truly, horribly laid out, the trainyards just adds to the cake, even when they have room to plan in the suburbs they mess it up. The Kanata centrum, yup lets put the parking lot in the middle and all the stores on the outside, that horrible mall off Hazeldean, yup lets plop in a goodlife and a bank to take up most of the parking lot... Ikea... 'nuf said. South keys at least has some semblance of structure as they just built it in a straight line.

They have done a pretty good job with the walk in malls at least, Bayshore, Rideau, St Laurent, Carlingwood, even Billings.

Then there's the Paladium/Corel/Scotiabank center.... really? Put it in Kanata?? Instead of where the War Museum now is? Which would have been perfectly accessible to the core and by transit.

[hankscorpio]

Then there's the Paladium/Corel/Scotiabank center.... really? Put it in Kanata?? Instead of where the War Museum now is? Which would have been perfectly accessible to the core and by transit.
For all the bad planning in this city, this is the worst. It's the silliest thing ever. I don't even bother looking at what concerts or events are there anymore, because it's such a pain in the ass to get to and from that it's not worth the bother.

[MacGyver]

The NCC and NIMBY's in the former City of Ottawa didn't want the new arena. But the former City of Kanata didn't have a problem with it - mainly because it was built so far away from anything meaningful, and that's saying something even in Kanata.

That's why it got built in the middle of nowhere.

[jason9945]

Your location says Toronto! ?

Ottawa is truly, horribly laid out, the trainyards just adds to the cake, even when they have room to plan in the suburbs they mess it up. The Kanata centrum, yup lets put the parking lot in the middle and all the stores on the outside, that horrible mall off Hazeldean, yup lets plop in a goodlife and a bank to take up most of the parking lot... Ikea... 'nuf said. South keys at least has some semblance of structure as they just built it in a straight line.

They have done a pretty good job with the walk in malls at least, Bayshore, Rideau, St Laurent, Carlingwood, even Billings.

Then there's the Paladium/Corel/Scotiabank center.... really? Put it in Kanata?? Instead of where the War Museum now is? Which would have been perfectly accessible to the core and by transit.

Dont get me started on that mall off hazeldean! Worst thing ever. Who puts that much **** in such a small area AND the bank and starbucks have drive throughs.

Have you ever tried to drive to the rideau centre? Its horrible, the only place to park is in that horridly expensive garage. The street parking sucks, they dont allow on street parking on nicholas infront of arts court/old jail even through the god damn parking area doesnt block a lane. This city sucks.

But what is wrong with ikea?

[SAN66]

But what is wrong with ikea?

Just don't go there on a Saturday/Sunday. There's arrows (which no one pays attention to) to direct traffic for a reason. You either end up having to park out at the sears home store or across the street. I'm not entirely sure what they plan to do with the parking if/when they put in the supersized ikea. They're also the only place I know with family parking. I'm fine with handicap and pregnant women parking, but family parking, wtf?

For downtown parking I find the best place is near city hall, right next to Fridays, a quick walk to rideau or the market, fairly inexpensive during normal hours and free on weekends, at least last time I parked there.

[CougChaos]

Have you ever tried to drive to the rideau centre? Its horrible, the only place to park is in that horridly expensive garage. The street parking sucks, they dont allow on street parking on nicholas infront of arts court/old jail even through the god damn parking area doesnt block a lane. This city sucks.

But what is wrong with ikea?

If you shop at the bay and maybe sears you can get free parking in the building... I think you just need to spend $50. If that's still a hassle try the parking garage in the market. It's a short walk to the bay and you can even go the underground route(I think that's where it starts... lol)

If you find IKEA to be fun just wait till they rebuild it. They want to move it to the far end of the mall and put sears in the old IKEA spot. If they get it built it will be the biggest IKEA in Canada.

[jason9945]

Just don't go there on a Saturday/Sunday. There's arrows (which no one pays attention to) to direct traffic for a reason. You either end up having to park out at the sears home store or across the street. I'm not entirely sure what they plan to do with the parking if/when they put in the supersized ikea. They're also the only place I know with family parking. I'm fine with handicap and pregnant women parking, but family parking, wtf?

For downtown parking I find the best place is near city hall, right next to Fridays, a quick walk to rideau or the market, fairly inexpensive during normal hours and free on weekends, at least last time I parked there.
That could be said for any big box store on a weekend. I dont find ikea to be any worse than anywhere else.

If you shop at the bay and maybe sears you can get free parking in the building... I think you just need to spend $50. If that's still a hassle try the parking garage in the market. It's a short walk to the bay and you can even go the underground route(I think that's where it starts... lol)

If you find IKEA to be fun just wait till they rebuild it. They want to move it to the far end of the mall and put sears in the old IKEA spot. If they get it built it will be the biggest IKEA in Canada.

I cant think of the last time I spent more than $5 at the rideau center, or for that matter visted anything other than the food court while working downtown. I'd love a huge ikea however.

[exiledinottawa]

Very odd and mostly empty. I went there once, its plunked in the middle of an industrial park with no residential for a good 5-10km.

Wrong again

no residential for 5-10 kms? Have you ever heard of Vanier?

It's a typical power center located in a poorer area of town that they are trying to improve. The Wal Mart does fairly good business there as well does the Dollerama.

[exiledinottawa]

Oh sorry I should have said a good 5-10k from anything, then maybe YOU would have understood the exagerated sarcasm. But for people from Ottawa they understand, the Trainyards, though probably the closest mall with big box stores to downtown, is awkward to get to by any means of transportation, not easy to get to by bus and you can't really walk there. Why are you commenting in a thread when you don't even live in the city?

Its a great place for finding sale items as not that many people go there.



That's the funny part, there's a giant Loeb warehouse across the street, but no grocery there.

I really doubt you live in Ottawa with those comments. 1KM away is the former city of Vanier with a population of just under 100,000

Exaggeration is one thing, outright lying to get a point across is a totally different idea.

They also have a Trainyards bus that goes there directly from Herdman Station. Not to mention unless you are grossly out of shape 1 KM is not a long way to walk. Got no clue what point you are trying to make here

[SAN66]

I really doubt you live in Ottawa with those comments. 1KM away is the former city of Vanier with a population of just under 100,000

Exaggeration is one thing, outright lying to get a point across is a totally different idea.

They also have a Trainyards bus that goes there directly from Herdman Station. Not to mention unless you are grossly out of shape 1 KM is not a long way to walk. Got no clue what point you are trying to make here

Umm yeah sure... no clue what point you're trying to make either.

I used to work near the trainyards, there really isn't any walking paths to get there (unless they've changed that) and walking through industrial brownlands is somewhat dangerous. Its fairly close for people who live off Alta Vista at least. Its quite a bit easier for people from Vanier to just go to St Laurent or Rideau depending on where they live in Vanier. But there's a reason its usually a fairly quiet mall as its in a fairly unexpected location.

[canabiz]

Has anyone shopped at the Esprit factory outlet ? I saw a nice Esprit fall/winter jacket at the Bay Rideau recently and I am wondering if the price is a bit better at the Trainyard one (if they carry such item)

Have to make a trek there sometimes.

[GreyingJay]

That could be said for any big box store on a weekend. I dont find ikea to be any worse than anywhere else.


The streets seem particularly narrow, as do the parking spots, which makes it a real pain to park. Once I drove to IKEA to take advantage of a deal on a $15 office chair -- then I scraped up my car against the car next to me when I was parking. In a rather embarrassing (but potentially lucky) development, the owner of that car turned out to be a coworker! I ended up writing them a cheque to cover the repairs. Most expensive chair ever.

There's also the matter of the strange way that the parking lot rows interface with the one "channel" road that takes you back out. When you're coming in, you're supposed to enter this little one-way lane that hooks to the right, but often brings you nose-to-nose with cars circling the parking lot rows looking for spots, or cars trying to get out, not realizing that the end of the row is a one-way.

[canabiz]

I checked out the place earlier today, pretty good selection of shops and good prices. Easy access from the 417 as well.

It's too bad Esprit factory outlet doesn't have anything that caught my eyes. Phase II is under construction, look like this place is growing pretty big.

[DarcyC]

I've been meaning to go check out the Trainyards for a year now. Maybe, someday...
I may be wrong, but I think that a large segment of the population of Ottawa still don't know that it exists and of those that do, many still haven't been. When Phase II is completed, their marketing people are going to have to come up with a seriously splashy promotion - maybe a contest of some sort - that will get them a ton of media attention and visitors.

[chadjustine]

Its not a bad little spot if not a bit odd.

If they build around it more, it'll be pretty nice.

[chadjustine]

Have you ever tried to drive to the rideau centre? Its horrible, the only place to park is in that horridly expensive garage. The street parking sucks, they dont allow on street parking on nicholas infront of arts court/old jail even through the god damn parking area doesnt block a lane.

Uhh there are like 15 parking lots in and around the Byward Market where you can park. Sure, some of them are a few minutes walk but there are 3 that are close (the one in Rideau, the one on Clarence/Parent, and the one on the corner of York/Sussex). Exactly how many more do you need?

As for it being expensive, is that coming as a shock to you? That a parking garage in the middle of the downtown core is expensive? Most cities have expensive parking on the downtown core. Perhaps you should move to the prairies or something.

[Nanodollars]

While we are equally far from SouthKeys and Trainyards, we usually make the trip to Trainyards when we need to go to Walmart. Its usually dead in comparison to Southkeys.

There is also an EBgames, Dollarama and a bunch of designer clothing stores. I find the selection at the clothing stores lacking and my wife does not even bother to check anymore. Perhaps its because its dead half the time. Maybe they should market it more as an outlet mall to attract tourists and bargain hunters.

I agree with you all: if it had a supermarket, then it could be one stop shopping but they decided to open up another bank instead (CIBC).

[chadjustine]

I agree with you all: if it had a supermarket, then it could be one stop shopping but they decided to open up another bank instead (CIBC).


I think that is what might be coming across the street. Its really the only thing missing and there isnt a good grocery store close to there (at least, I cant think of one thats close).

[angekfire]

As for it being expensive, is that coming as a shock to you? That a parking garage in the middle of the downtown core is expensive? Most cities have expensive parking on the downtown core. Perhaps you should move to the prairies or something.

Actually, that's a good point. While I do think they over charge downtown parking here in Ottawa, it is far worse in other cities like Toronto.

However, there are a lot of side streets you can park on for free here if you don't mind walking a few minutes.

[Cas77]

I think that is what might be coming across the street. Its really the only thing missing and there isnt a good grocery store close to there (at least, I cant think of one thats close).

Well not for long...Costco's 25yr lease on Innes is expiring soon and they've acquired land to open a store there in the next 3 or so years when they close the Innes store, along with opening one in Orleans. So it should'nt be "dead" much longer around there...

[triple-u]

Actually, that's a good point. While I do think they over charge downtown parking here in Ottawa, it is far worse in other cities like Toronto.

However, there are a lot of side streets you can park on for free here if you don't mind walking a few minutes.

Unfortunately, a lot of those side streets have short time limits, most I've noticed being 1-2 hours, and on the rare occasion 3 hours. So if it's just quick shopping then it's fine, but add a lunch in the food court and you'd easily go over that time limit.

[Bookpreviews]

The only reason it's there is because Walmart wanted a location close to Ottawa's core and its the best location for them because there aren't any NIMBY's nearby. It's not directly on any major arterial streets, hidden from view really. So it's not super convenient to get to. But, since it's not frequented that much, if Walmart has a killer deal, on say diapers, they'll probably still have stock while the other Walmarts have been cleaned out. Haven't been in any of the other stores because it's mostly just repeats of stores in the 'burbs.

Walking from Altavista area down that long street is a very long walk (for me anyways).
Also if you go at night or late it is very badly lit and not too safe to walk by yourself.

The Walmart there is clean though and seems ok.
No actual refrigerated food section if i recall,so South Keys is better for than and open 24hours....

Haven't checked out anything else there,but there is a salon that has cheaper products and sales,always see their ads around.

Oh, not too sure there is a bus that goes to that area on Sundays-at least wasn't last year.
And after 6pm bus is every 30+ minutes if it remembers to show up.

[triple-u]

Does anyone know what the best bike route is to get there? I've biked there once before and I had to go on Belfast where there are no bike lanes and it's a really curvy road, then had to cut through a couple parking lots and such.

I know there was a map proposing future lanes, but just wondering if there's any reasonable route at the moment.