Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
After more than 10 years of discussion, it's official: A factory outlet mall will be built in the business park.
A project was first proposed in 1993, and in 2003 Toronto-based development company, Parallax Investment Corp., began discussions with the District of Squamish to purchase and develop 10 acres of land on Hwy. 99 into a factory outlet strip of retail stores. On Tuesday (Feb. 28), Parallax announced it had secured the 10-acres of highway commercial land for the proposed 100,000 square-foot retail centre.
"This general commercial proposal will be a phased, mixed-tenant development with construction expected to begin in the spring of 2007," stated the news release.
Parallax bought the property at a cost of $2,036,343. The deal also includes a $1 million contribution toward the installation of roads and services in the business park.
"They're paying money towards different roads and part of what's being built is a new access onto the highway that will be basically between the Wal-Mart site and their site," said Mayor Ian Sutherland.
In 2003, following the initial proposal, some downtown store owners expressed concern over the competition, saying the big box stores will draw people away from the town centre. Part of the negotiations between Parallax and the district included an agreement for the mall to include educational components about the rest of Squamish.
Sutherland said he believes the increased shopping opportunities will make housing developments currently underway in the downtown even more attractive to potential residents, and more residents means a more vibrant town centre.
"There's going to be lots of folk living in the downtown core to support a vibrant downtown," he said. "And at the end of the day the job is to offer more shopping options to people in the community. It's going to add another dimension to the community and the intent is to add more shopping dollars to the community and keep more shopping dollars in Squamish and also attract shopping dollars from both Whistler and Pemberton."
In 2003, the district expected that the retail development would offer shoppers outdoor apparel, footwear, kids clothing, maternity wear, cosmetics, accessories, luggage and house wares. The retailers who typically lease space in malls like the one proposed includes names like Roots, Nike, Eddie Bauer, Gap, Bass Shoes, Jones New York and Tommy Hilfiger. But those details are still up in the air and will be decided upon by council and district staff as applications come forward, said Sutherland.
In June 2004 a sign on Hwy. 99 erected to draw the attention of delegates on their way to the International Council of Shopping Centres conference in Whistler had the desired effect. Local Parallax joint venture partner Sean Languedoc received a flurry of calls from interested retailers.
"Parallax will be carefully considering the retail mix of the development as well as the form and character of the design in order to put forward a development that both Council and the community can proudly support," said Languedoc.
According to the Parallax news release, the development is already attracting the attention of private joint venture partners such as Blake Hutcheson, President of CB Richard Ellis Limited, one of North America's leading commercial real estate brokerage firms.
