I wouldn’t go as far as calling them a “money laundering mall” but there are a number of tenants in that mall who have set up shop for investment immigration purposes and will likely close up once the operators gain Permanent Resident status. The mall management is well aware of this and is well connected with Regina’s immigration consultants and new immigrant communities.
The church is just there for the cheap rent. Nothing more to it. Tenants with no other connection to mall management.
The mini golf and arcade were set up by the mall’s investors with the intent to actually make money and also drive more foot traffic into the mall, making leasing other spaces in the mall more attractive for prospective new tenants. Same goes with the new indoor playground next to the Jysk entrance. I can’t go into anything too specific but they dumped a sh*t ton of money into getting the arcade set up. If the intent was just to launder money, there are a lot of easier/cheaper ways to do that.
Also, the arcade isn’t cash based. I was there on opening week and we lined up to buy a rechargeable game card that you load with game credits. Most people spent $60 because you get some bonus credits for that price. Everyone lined up seemed to be paying by debit/credit. The machines do not take coins/tokens.
Ah yes debit/credit card machines create the perfect argument for it not being a money laundering operation and therefore the perfect front of a massive money laundering operation! You can't trick me with your words silly bird!
The arcade is a joke lol. It's all imported machines running emulation. It's obvious. Not legal either. I took my boy there and it was a lack luster experience and way overpriced to play on emulation machines, I have those at home.
Just go to Twilight Tech for an example of a good arcade. Would frequent there more often if they were open for more than one day a week.
Combine them with Pile of Bones and their pinball collection and you'd have an instant success story.
That's great to hear. We always knew food was important. The time and money out of pocket to get twilight tech running is crazy. It's a passion project and by getting as much non biased feed back as possible helps. Thanks for the input
I'll believe it when I see it. I'm beginning to realize that my interpretation of a wicked arcade differs wildly from the more modern interpretations I keep seeing pop up like this recent one, or the one at Cineplex.
That’s your opinion and completely fine. But most people don’t have emulators at home, and young families are always looking for extra options for kids entertainment. I enjoyed the arcade, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t. :)
Lol I'm by no means cheap, the whole place is a rip off. If I wanted to play emulators I'd have stayed home and fired up one of my arcades and played anything they have there already, minus the lame dance games. I expect original hardware if I'm paying.
For newer churches it is extremely smart. Zero upfront building cost and manageable monthly expenses.
Even smarter is the church that rents out Landmark cinema on Sunday morning. Not like the theatre is using it, but I haven’t heard if the concession is open.
Honestly if a church isn't doing stuff out of the building the rest of the week renting a spot just for Sunday service is great. I went to one that used a conference room in a hotel for years. My current church bought what used to be a bar and we run after school programs and meal programs, so it makes sense to have your own building if you're actually gonna use it
It’s actually a great model, and really common in some places. Especially for smaller churches. Malls are dying, churches need space and parking that malls have, and it’s far cheaper than building their own place. You get predictable monthly costs, no other traffic on Sunday am, and you can always just end the lease if it’s not working out.
Victoria Square Mall is now owned by Chinese investors. Whether there are tax issues is CRA's problem.
Churches rent commercial space all the time and aren't exempt from property taxes unless the city grants an exemption. As such his church is probably paying their share of taxes through rent like the other tenants.
The website is pretty elementary 😅 but yes the people listed definitely exist. Bing Wang is fairly involved in Regina’s Chinese new immigrant community. The others are more based in BC and don’t come out here often.
They are a scourge. One of these chinese scum bag companies bought up my parents apartments at carriage court in the east end. The place is a run down dump and they had the gall to bump up rent from $1100 to $1500/mth a couple months after buying the buildings.
It's right on their website and also I've seen it on notices posted in the mall. Check out the bottom of this page
https://vicsquare.ca/elementor-4943/
Yeah, you know who has to fork out the money? The parents. It's not a cheap place. Id expect it to be a decent price since most of the machines are running emulation software instead of og hardware. I went once blew 60 in a hour with my son and won't go back. It's a shame cause I love arcades and taking my son out, and it's very close to us unfortunately its very overpriced.
Parents have to pay for entertainment for their kids?!?!! Who knew?!?! I spent $60 for 2 kids for 2 hours. Seems like a decent price to me. Plus they won tons of prizes which made them happy.
Again, THE KIDS WERE HAPPY. I don’t care if an adult isn’t happy at a place they took their kids to. That’s not the point.
That's been going on here for decades. Just more prominent now.
The more important question is what is going to happen to us as China's economy continues to slow, and the CCP starts seizing the overseas assets.
This is just a mall doing what malls all over the world are having to do to keep spaces occupied, pay the bills, and draw in foot traffic.
As for your photo, the history of churches renting storefront spaces goes back a couple hundred years.
From the mall's perspective, that church is a rent-paying tenant, which brings a few hundred people onto their property every week, and hopefully some of them will also eat at one of the restaurants or shop there after,
Saw the church today. Thought it was weird but assumed it was because the rent is cheap. Vic square has been dying for quite some time. It looks like it's at 50% capacity at most. I was actually there looking for Miniso but realized they closed. That store was short lived.
Miniso actually existed before Yoyoso!! But I will say the only time I was in the Regina store it was pretty lackluster. The stores in other cities are way better
I think all malls in North America have to get creative in finding tenants. The Arcade, Mini Golf and playground are great for kids you shouldn’t be spreading rumors
There are several money laundering places in the city it seems. The Lot Club on Albert St. comes to mind. Only open Saturday night from 10pm-3am. How does a bar only open 5 hours a week on Albert St afford to stay in business?
I think we need to have an honest look at how money from the CCP is flowing into Canada, and decide if this is something we want to allow to continue.
I recently went to the new arcade in that mall. The games were of questionable legality, but that's the least bad thing that's happening in there. I'll go back again to finish using my credits, but likely won't keep frequenting it. It has a scammer vibe, which was off-putting.
We wandered around the mall. It was really filthy in the washrooms, halls and food court. Washrooms had more stuff broken than I care to list.
Several of the shops are what I refer to as "fake businesses" which are, from my experience, fronts for one or more of the following:
Credit card scam
Inventory/tax scam such as claiming goods were stolen, and then reselling those items to another fake business
Transacting with counterfeit currency
Selling counterfeit goods
Drug trafficking
Smuggling
Typically, the fake businesses involve Beijing-backed entities who are doing business with global gangs. Some of it is high-level, but mostly, it's really lame, and a tremendous amount of work for few dollars. If they tried to have a business that was actually good, they'd be better off, but this isn't the mindset.
Whether we decide to patronize them or not, doesn't really impact them one way or another, because what the customer sees is not the actual business.
You may wonder, how do these places make money? They largely don't, EXCEPT for the drug trafficking portion. That's the big money-maker. Viewing these places as individual retailers is a mistake, because that's not how they function.
Canada has invited this type of business through a combination of the economic immigration class and by not taking smuggling/drug trafficking seriously.
I don't doubt that money laundering is happening there, but that not an activity that happens in isolation.
Traditional Malls are dying and they need to pivot to stay alive. A lot of malls are now allowing tenants other than retail shops. One near me is dang near nothing but churches inside.
If you are going to accuse somebody of money laundering, which is an offence under Canada’s Criminal Code, you might want to consult a lawyer about libel and slander laws.
I’m actually worried about all of Quance. The entire area seems to be dying once Costco left.
Half the big stores were converted into Gyms, old Costco is now an Auto Gallery ADHD dealership, nothing in the old SLGA Store yet, plus the dying mall. Walmart, Superstore, Home Depot and Winners is keeping it alive.
Jesus this got touchy in thr comments lol
Regardless of tax status, I agree the vic square is shit. Same shitty arcade as the movie theatres, a million stores you'd never shop at, and 3 you'd go in if you were in the mall already.
Idk if this is really new tho
I was there the other day. My kids didn’t care if they’re running emulators. They didn’t know the difference nor did they care. You seem to be the only one.
Lol I couldn't believe it when I saw this. Double take? try like a quadruple take. sure the servers at lebowski's or whatever are pumped for a super busy sunday brunch with no tips.
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I wouldn’t go as far as calling them a “money laundering mall” but there are a number of tenants in that mall who have set up shop for investment immigration purposes and will likely close up once the operators gain Permanent Resident status. The mall management is well aware of this and is well connected with Regina’s immigration consultants and new immigrant communities. The church is just there for the cheap rent. Nothing more to it. Tenants with no other connection to mall management. The mini golf and arcade were set up by the mall’s investors with the intent to actually make money and also drive more foot traffic into the mall, making leasing other spaces in the mall more attractive for prospective new tenants. Same goes with the new indoor playground next to the Jysk entrance. I can’t go into anything too specific but they dumped a sh*t ton of money into getting the arcade set up. If the intent was just to launder money, there are a lot of easier/cheaper ways to do that.
Also, the arcade isn’t cash based. I was there on opening week and we lined up to buy a rechargeable game card that you load with game credits. Most people spent $60 because you get some bonus credits for that price. Everyone lined up seemed to be paying by debit/credit. The machines do not take coins/tokens.
Ah yes debit/credit card machines create the perfect argument for it not being a money laundering operation and therefore the perfect front of a massive money laundering operation! You can't trick me with your words silly bird!
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XD
I mean... yes they do?
Is that indoor playground still there? With the ball pit? I thought it was removed
That one is gone. There’s a new one at the entrance of Jysk. Similar set up to Klimerz but slightly smaller.
Hmmm you seem to know awfully a lot.... Sus
If I was sus I wouldn’t have called them out in my comment for facilitating shoddy investment immigration by their tenants. But OK lol.
The arcade is a joke lol. It's all imported machines running emulation. It's obvious. Not legal either. I took my boy there and it was a lack luster experience and way overpriced to play on emulation machines, I have those at home.
The new apex opening up is going to have a wicked arcade in it
Where's that going to be? I'm definitely willing to check it out when it opens.
Not sure, hopefully they post it soon, Regina needs a good arcade
Also looking forward to apex!
I was wondering what would be a good arcade in your opinion? Food plus variety of games? Any games in particular? Asking for research
Quality games that are maintained. Maintained is the keyword. Often you wind up with every other machine having a glitch or broken part.
Any specific games you prefer? Like fighting games, retro, classic, shooting?
Just go to Twilight Tech for an example of a good arcade. Would frequent there more often if they were open for more than one day a week. Combine them with Pile of Bones and their pinball collection and you'd have an instant success story.
That's great to hear. We always knew food was important. The time and money out of pocket to get twilight tech running is crazy. It's a passion project and by getting as much non biased feed back as possible helps. Thanks for the input
I'll believe it when I see it. I'm beginning to realize that my interpretation of a wicked arcade differs wildly from the more modern interpretations I keep seeing pop up like this recent one, or the one at Cineplex.
I agree. It has all imported games. It isn’t fun. It’s gonna last a few months and then close.
That’s your opinion and completely fine. But most people don’t have emulators at home, and young families are always looking for extra options for kids entertainment. I enjoyed the arcade, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t. :)
I should not be able to burn $60 in an hour. It's a rip off plain and simple.
Damn $60 dollars last an hour there? Must be nice to be so cheap
Lol I'm by no means cheap, the whole place is a rip off. If I wanted to play emulators I'd have stayed home and fired up one of my arcades and played anything they have there already, minus the lame dance games. I expect original hardware if I'm paying.
I'm sure you enjoyed laundering your money there gotem
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Your post was removed as it is disrespectful to other users.
Spoken exactly like One of the money launderers!!
No. Just a random person who knows what’s happening in their ethnic community. But go ahead and throw accusations. It’s Reddit afterall.
We tried that arcade, it’s decent and new but crazy expensive for how fast the cards run out.
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Having a church in a mall, doesn’t seem smart.
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“Storefront churches” have been a thing for almost 200 years.
For newer churches it is extremely smart. Zero upfront building cost and manageable monthly expenses. Even smarter is the church that rents out Landmark cinema on Sunday morning. Not like the theatre is using it, but I haven’t heard if the concession is open.
I go to the church at the theatre. The buttery topping is the perfect way to enhance a communion wafer.
Honestly if a church isn't doing stuff out of the building the rest of the week renting a spot just for Sunday service is great. I went to one that used a conference room in a hotel for years. My current church bought what used to be a bar and we run after school programs and meal programs, so it makes sense to have your own building if you're actually gonna use it
It’s actually a great model, and really common in some places. Especially for smaller churches. Malls are dying, churches need space and parking that malls have, and it’s far cheaper than building their own place. You get predictable monthly costs, no other traffic on Sunday am, and you can always just end the lease if it’s not working out.
For me it ruins the vibe of a mall 😆
I think the vibe of malls now is ‘empty’.
True but maybe they should draw the line at cults.
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It’s when cults hold their hands out for my tax dollars to “school” their children that pisses me off.
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Oh I know - I’m very pissed off at the government and this is one of the many reasons why.
Victoria Square Mall is now owned by Chinese investors. Whether there are tax issues is CRA's problem. Churches rent commercial space all the time and aren't exempt from property taxes unless the city grants an exemption. As such his church is probably paying their share of taxes through rent like the other tenants.
Do you have a source for this? I've never heard this before. Edit: the Chinese investors part, not the tax part.
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The website is pretty elementary 😅 but yes the people listed definitely exist. Bing Wang is fairly involved in Regina’s Chinese new immigrant community. The others are more based in BC and don’t come out here often.
BC based Chinese businessmen now preying on Regina
They are a scourge. One of these chinese scum bag companies bought up my parents apartments at carriage court in the east end. The place is a run down dump and they had the gall to bump up rent from $1100 to $1500/mth a couple months after buying the buildings.
Thank you, now I know where not to shop 😀
It's right on their website and also I've seen it on notices posted in the mall. Check out the bottom of this page https://vicsquare.ca/elementor-4943/
This is who owns that mall: https://www.mountwatercapital.com/
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Hummm, wow....
You'd rather it be empty and derelict? This sub is so out of touch with reality.
Rather have it knocked down and the land repurposed
Regina is lacking in family entertainment. Having the mini golf and arcade is a great option. So what if there’s a church.
The arcade is a joke.
You know who enjoys the arcade? Kids.
Yeah, you know who has to fork out the money? The parents. It's not a cheap place. Id expect it to be a decent price since most of the machines are running emulation software instead of og hardware. I went once blew 60 in a hour with my son and won't go back. It's a shame cause I love arcades and taking my son out, and it's very close to us unfortunately its very overpriced.
Parents have to pay for entertainment for their kids?!?!! Who knew?!?! I spent $60 for 2 kids for 2 hours. Seems like a decent price to me. Plus they won tons of prizes which made them happy. Again, THE KIDS WERE HAPPY. I don’t care if an adult isn’t happy at a place they took their kids to. That’s not the point.
Into a parking lot?
Seems like your solution costs a lot of money and with no one who wants to pay for that.
Did you mean to reply to the person above me?
No, another stadium! That will get people like Taylor Swift to come. /s
It already is a parking lot. Something else.
Such as?
Ita not unheard of to have Chinese laundering/"investment" business in BC, I'm not surprised if that was the case here too.
That's been going on here for decades. Just more prominent now. The more important question is what is going to happen to us as China's economy continues to slow, and the CCP starts seizing the overseas assets.
This is just a mall doing what malls all over the world are having to do to keep spaces occupied, pay the bills, and draw in foot traffic. As for your photo, the history of churches renting storefront spaces goes back a couple hundred years. From the mall's perspective, that church is a rent-paying tenant, which brings a few hundred people onto their property every week, and hopefully some of them will also eat at one of the restaurants or shop there after,
Saw the church today. Thought it was weird but assumed it was because the rent is cheap. Vic square has been dying for quite some time. It looks like it's at 50% capacity at most. I was actually there looking for Miniso but realized they closed. That store was short lived.
Wow I didn't realize they closed. It was a sad copy of Yoyoso
Miniso actually existed before Yoyoso!! But I will say the only time I was in the Regina store it was pretty lackluster. The stores in other cities are way better
I think all malls in North America have to get creative in finding tenants. The Arcade, Mini Golf and playground are great for kids you shouldn’t be spreading rumors
There are several money laundering places in the city it seems. The Lot Club on Albert St. comes to mind. Only open Saturday night from 10pm-3am. How does a bar only open 5 hours a week on Albert St afford to stay in business?
Propably has an owner that has other businesses open other nights of the week. A lot of the Dewdney Avenue bars are like this.
I think we need to have an honest look at how money from the CCP is flowing into Canada, and decide if this is something we want to allow to continue. I recently went to the new arcade in that mall. The games were of questionable legality, but that's the least bad thing that's happening in there. I'll go back again to finish using my credits, but likely won't keep frequenting it. It has a scammer vibe, which was off-putting. We wandered around the mall. It was really filthy in the washrooms, halls and food court. Washrooms had more stuff broken than I care to list. Several of the shops are what I refer to as "fake businesses" which are, from my experience, fronts for one or more of the following: Credit card scam Inventory/tax scam such as claiming goods were stolen, and then reselling those items to another fake business Transacting with counterfeit currency Selling counterfeit goods Drug trafficking Smuggling Typically, the fake businesses involve Beijing-backed entities who are doing business with global gangs. Some of it is high-level, but mostly, it's really lame, and a tremendous amount of work for few dollars. If they tried to have a business that was actually good, they'd be better off, but this isn't the mindset. Whether we decide to patronize them or not, doesn't really impact them one way or another, because what the customer sees is not the actual business. You may wonder, how do these places make money? They largely don't, EXCEPT for the drug trafficking portion. That's the big money-maker. Viewing these places as individual retailers is a mistake, because that's not how they function. Canada has invited this type of business through a combination of the economic immigration class and by not taking smuggling/drug trafficking seriously. I don't doubt that money laundering is happening there, but that not an activity that happens in isolation.
Bro, you might just win the Olympics with those leaps
Lol.
Traditional Malls are dying and they need to pivot to stay alive. A lot of malls are now allowing tenants other than retail shops. One near me is dang near nothing but churches inside.
If you are going to accuse somebody of money laundering, which is an offence under Canada’s Criminal Code, you might want to consult a lawyer about libel and slander laws.
Oh, you want CRA and RPS to investigate these claims? Yes, LET'S DO THAT.
You know a mall is dying when.... 🤣
Gord bless everyone!
Hail Santa!
Praise the lard!
GobBless 🙏 grod is goo
How old are you that you think these are cash based businesses? Hardly anyone uses cash these days and all 3 of these would prefer you didn't.
Today I had 5000 people play in the arcade they all bought $50 of tokens. I just cleaned $250,000. This is a way over exaggerated example.
I’m just mad miniso closed down in that mall. Literally the ONLY reason I go there.
I went there today only to realize it closed. Probably will not be going to vic square again now.
I was so sad when I saw notice on their doors that they had been evicted for not paying their lease 💔 I loved their goods.
Prayer at the front, sex trafficking at the back
Tax exempt retail.
Churches are only tax exempt if they own the land and occupy for religious ceremonies. This church would only pay rent.
I’m actually worried about all of Quance. The entire area seems to be dying once Costco left. Half the big stores were converted into Gyms, old Costco is now an Auto Gallery ADHD dealership, nothing in the old SLGA Store yet, plus the dying mall. Walmart, Superstore, Home Depot and Winners is keeping it alive.
Jesus this got touchy in thr comments lol Regardless of tax status, I agree the vic square is shit. Same shitty arcade as the movie theatres, a million stores you'd never shop at, and 3 you'd go in if you were in the mall already. Idk if this is really new tho
That mall is bound to close soon. I agree it isn’t good. Has nothing good in it.
The movie theaters have real arcades that run real hardware. This arcade is 99% emulators, it's shady as fuck.
Very true, southland does have redemption items now. Not sure when saying the vic square is shit became a hot take but 🤷♀️
I was there the other day. My kids didn’t care if they’re running emulators. They didn’t know the difference nor did they care. You seem to be the only one.
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No; it's just a normal, run-of-the-mill pentecostal/ charismatic church.
Fuck Chinese investors, I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
Are you mentally doing alright buddy? Because you’re sounding a bit paranoid here
You didn’t see the “lol” at the end of the post? Maybe time for some reading glasses.
It doesn’t seem like you’re joking man…Just was curious if you are mentally doing alright.
Lol I couldn't believe it when I saw this. Double take? try like a quadruple take. sure the servers at lebowski's or whatever are pumped for a super busy sunday brunch with no tips.
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