Sault Blog

The now insolvent Station Mall Developer and his Toronto Consultant’s $60mn plan to transform the former Sears anchor store into a sports bar and restaurant “eatertainment” concept, a health club-spa, and fourteen (14) high-end retail brand stores that will redefine world-renowned luxury shopping has failed. This concept is almost as delusional as another Toronto Consultant who wants to build “swimming pools in the St. Mary’s River.” It is no wonder that Councillor Kinash intends to curtail the ridiculous amount of money spent on the Toronto Consultant at our Civic Centre.

This $60mn plan was born out of a delusional idea of what “they thought” the Station Mall needed to re-establish itself as “the center of it all,” ignoring our City’s economy and demographics. A Toronto Consultant specializing in food and beverage management did not predict the proliferation of the “take-out” restaurant concept that has exploded in our City. Franchise full-service restaurants are declining, and Station Mall has a long history of full-service restaurant failure. The Toronto Consultant recommended creating a high-end health club/spa, questioning whether a feasibility study was conducted, as our City struggles to keep the YMCA open, which required a municipal bailout. Many citizens lament and miss the Sears Department Store that catered to middle-income earners; who will purchase clothes from high-end brand stores in the Sault? Again, was a feasibility study done for this delusional idea?

Since the Station Mall’s anchor stores have left, between 25 and 30 stores have become vacant; filling in those stores should have been the number one priority, as they require the least amount of work and reverse the Mall’s decline in visual appearance.

Malls all across Ontario and Canada are going through a massive transformation away from retail to a “mixed-use urban plan.” This plan calls for removing vacant anchor stores and empty parking lots with mixed uses such as apartment buildings, condo towers, hotels, and other residential dwelling concepts, creating a “mini-city” ecosystem. For the Station Mall to survive, it must reinvent itself. There is too much retail space at the Station Mall. Amazon and Walmart are not going away, and those two Mall anchors will likely never be rented. The $60mn to redevelop the Sears anchor would be much better spent demolishing and removing the two anchors and building two apartment towers. The creation of these apartments will bring people back to the Mall.

Station Mall needs to cater to a broader demographic; cell phones and fast fashion cannot be the only stores in the Mall. The apartments will provide a captured target market, widening the demographic with seniors, empty nesters, and other rental groups. This target market will facilitate the need for a pharmacy with a walk-in clinic, and medical facilities such as Life-Labs, audiologists, optometrists, physiotherapists, etc., will fill the empty concourse vacant stores. A grocery store with take-out catering is needed for customers living in the apartments and the adjacent neighborhoods facing a downtown food desert.

The Station Mall has paid significant municipal taxes for fifty (50) years; however, our City Administration and EDC must understand that allowing large areas of the City to become municipal tax deserts and shifting the tax burden to the already overtaxed residential tax-payer is no longer acceptable. Our City Administration needs to provide leadership and a bold redevelopment plan, with funding assistance from all three levels of Government, just like they do with Southern, ON Mall redevelopments, to protect and grow the tax base of Station Mall.

Mark Menean, http://www.saultblog.com