North Town transformed
Power-centre design, new tenants featured in complete makeover of aging property
Bill Mah
The Edmonton Journal
Friday, May 15, 2009
North Town Mall's transformation into North Town Centre is nearly complete -- and shoppers will notice more than just a rebranding.
What had been a dowdy 1970s-style enclosed shopping centre at the corner of 137th Avenue and 97th Street mall is being redeveloped from the inside out.
In fact, the interior mall where shoppers once flocked to bygone stores like Consumers Distributing and K-Mart is gone entirely, replaced by a more contemporary power centre-like setup where retailers open onto a common front or occupy pads in the parking lot. The old common areas have been reconfigured into tenant space.
The centre also got a facelift when the original facade of dark siding and bare concrete was replaced by more contemporary cultured stone columns and Hardyboard finishes.
Add major draws like U.S.-based Bed Bath and Beyond expected to open in June and Asian grocer T & T Supermarket and Indigo Books both opening in July, and North Town Centre will bear little resemblance to its former self.
"The mall was in some serious need of some TLC," said Rob Blackwell, vice-president of development at Anthem Properties, which bought the mall in 2006, when it was run down and 78 per cent of its 230,000 square feet sat empty.
"It had been there since 1975 and had gone through many different iterations of tenants, and just over the years hadn't kept up with changes in the retail environment in terms of what was going on in the industry from a tenant and esthetic perspective. It hadn't been updated."
Redevelopment work is 85 to 90 per cent done, he said.
"We actually wound up taking part of the building down to create more parking on the site and to reduce the depth of the space, because it was very deep and difficult to lease."
The front of the old Save-On-Foods store -- current site of Bed Bath and Beyond -- was cut back about 12 metres, for example.
Some tenants who had been based inside the mall relocated to the pads in the lot. Longtime tenant London Drugs reopened a bigger, new-look store in the mall last spring.
Of North Town Centre's 270,000 square feet, about 33,000 remains to be leased. Anthem is in negotiations with fashion retailers for the space, Blackwell said.
The mall's second floor remains home to about 24,000 square feet for doctors, dentists and other professional offices.
North Town Centre is two malls in one when it comes to its market, Blackwell said. It provides day-to-day services and conveniences for the neighbourhood such as DVD rentals, banking and groceries. Then, there's the fashion and homestyle elements.
North Town is a mall worth the expense of buying -- the price wasn't disclosed -- and redeveloping, Blackwell said. "It's got great fundamentals. It's on two great streets and it has a great neighbourhood around it. It's been known as a commercial node for many years."
About 107,000 bus riders use the onsite transit station. North Town will also benefit from the ongoing development of a nearby former military housing site at Griesbach into a residential community with up to 13,000 people. "With neighbourhoods being created, they will need amenities."
The mall's Bed Bath and Beyond will be -- along with another opening this summer at West Edmonton Mall -- the city's first.
It's the largest North American retailer of home furnishings and decor, kitchen accessories and bathroom items.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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